Hiab hire and haulage in Launceston
Launceston was the capital of Cornwall for centuries and still has the castle to prove it. For haulage, what matters is that it sits on the A30 right at the Devon border, with two substantial industrial estates on its edges.
Worth saying plainly: there is a much larger Launceston in Tasmania, and a search for haulage here will turn up a good deal about that one. This page is about the Cornish town.
Access
The estates are easy; the old town is walled
Pennygillam and Newport industrial estates sit either side of the town with direct A30 access and are among the most workable places in the county — wide, level, and built for lorries.
The historic centre is the opposite extreme. It is a walled town, and the 13th-century South Gate arch still carries traffic through a single narrow opening that has been collecting scrapes off lorries for generations. It is a squeeze rather than a barrier, but it is not somewhere to take ten tons if there is any alternative.
Anything in the old town needs planning around the arch and the one-way system, and we will usually work from outside it and reach in.
The work
Industrial estates, agriculture and the border
The two estates generate steady trade work: steel, machinery, plant and containers. Launceston has more manufacturing than a town of its size normally would.
Beyond the town it is farming country on both sides of the Tamar, and a lot of agricultural equipment moves across the border here.
- Trade deliveries across Pennygillam and Newport estates
- Machinery and fabricated steel from local manufacturers
- Agricultural equipment across the Tamar valley
- Containers onto farms and yards
- Loads routed between Cornwall and Devon on the A30
The lorry
What turns up in Launceston
One vehicle: a 30TM HMF hiab with 10 metres of reach on a cheesewedge body, carrying up to 10 tons. It brings the load and lifts it into place, so there is no second machine to arrange and nobody waiting about at either end.
Questions
Common questions about Launceston
- Can you get into the old walled town?
- Usually by working from outside the walls and reaching in, rather than by taking a loaded lorry through the South Gate arch. That covers most addresses in the centre, but it is worth checking yours specifically.
- Do you cover the Devon side of the border from here?
- Yes. Launceston is right on the Tamar and we work both sides of it as a matter of course, with no surcharge for crossing.
Nearby
We also cover
Some of these are over the county line, which makes no difference to us: we work both sides of the Tamar and there is no surcharge for crossing it. Each is labelled with the county it is actually in.
Cornwall
Bodmin
Where the A30 and the A38 separate — the most useful junction in Cornwall.
Cornwall
Bude
The far north coast — a long way from the A30, and worth planning properly.
Cornwall
Callington
Small market town under Kit Hill, in the old mining country of the Tamar valley.
Devon
Okehampton
On the A30 at the northern edge of Dartmoor — the main road between our two counties.
Devon
Tavistock
Stannary town on the western edge of Dartmoor, with the lanes to match.
Or see every town we cover in Cornwall.
Enquiry
Get a price for a job in Launceston
Tell us what is moving, roughly what it weighs, and how far it has to go from where a lorry can stand. That is usually enough for a straight answer.