Getting a container onto your block — access, ground and the three trucks

Three vehicles, three sets of requirements

Tilt-tray. The standard delivery for a 10ft or 20ft. The bed tilts and the container slides off the back. It needs roughly 3.5m of width at the narrowest point and about 20m of straight run behind the drop spot, because the truck reverses and the container comes off in line with the vehicle. It cannot place a container sideways and it cannot place one over anything.

Sidelifter. The 40ft answer, and sometimes used for 20fts on awkward sites. Hydraulic cranes at each end lift the container off the trailer and set it down beside the truck. Allow about 30m of working length and enough width to have the truck alongside the final position. The legs put a lot of weight through small pads, so the ground matters more than with a tilt-tray.

Crane truck (HIAB). Picks the container up and swings it over an obstacle — a fence, a hedge, a retaining wall, a garden. It costs more per job and it solves problems nothing else solves. If your site is genuinely tight, this is not a failure, it is just the right vehicle.

The three checks that decide it

Width at the pinch point. Not the average width of the driveway — the narrowest point along the whole route, including the gateway, the gap between the house and the fence, and any corner the truck has to turn through. Measure that one spot.

Length of the run-in. Pace it out from where the container will sit, back the way the truck will come. Twenty metres is roughly 25 normal paces. A bend in that run counts against you more than a few metres of length does.

What is above the spot. Power and telephone services, tree limbs, shop awnings, the eave of a carport. A truck with its tray tilted or its crane up is much taller than a truck driving in. This is the check people skip and it is the one that most often stops a delivery on the day.

Ground, which around here is the real problem

Two surfaces dominate this district and both are deceptive.

River-flat silt. The Clarence flats hold water below the surface for a long time after the top has dried out and looks trafficable. A loaded truck breaks through that crust. This is why we sometimes ask to come in a dry week rather than the week you asked for, and why we would rather delay than bog a vehicle in your paddock.

Coastal sand. From Woolgoolga through to Sawtell and around the Yamba and Iluka blocks, sand looks firm and behaves nothing like it. It carries a car fine and gives way under a concentrated load. Sidelifter legs on unprepared sand need plates or timber under them, and sometimes the honest answer is that a 40ft cannot be placed where you want it.

The hinterland behind Bellingen and Glenreagh has a third problem: gradient. Long, unsealed, sometimes steep driveways cut into a slope. Fine in a dry week, a genuine question after rain.

Send three photographs

This is the single most useful thing you can do, and it takes two minutes. One photograph of the gateway or entrance from the road. One taken from the entrance looking down the approach towards where it will sit. One of the spot itself, taken far enough back to show what is above it.

From those three we can usually confirm the vehicle without a site visit, which means the quote you get is the price you pay rather than a number that changes when the driver arrives.

Setting it down properly

Blocks, sleepers or pavers under the four corner castings, every time. Never straight onto soil or grass — that traps moisture under the floor and rots the bearers from underneath. Never on three points, because an out-of-square container is a container whose doors stop meeting. Check it with a level before the truck leaves, because once it is off the bed, moving it 200mm is a job rather than an adjustment.

On sand, spread the load with pavers under each casting rather than a single block. On the flats, get it higher than you think you need to.

If any of this is uncertain for your place, ring (02) 5616 9099 and describe it. We would much rather sort it out on the phone than on the day.