Moving a shipping container: weight, ground and access
Containers look like the simplest thing a hiab moves. The lift usually is simple. What goes wrong is everything around it.
13 September 2026 · 5 min read
Guide
Container work is a good part of what we do: delivery, collection, and moving one across a site when the build has moved on and it is now in the way.
The lift is rarely the hard part. The problems are weight, ground and what happens to the doors afterwards.
Weight: empty is not light
An empty container is heavier than most people guess, and a loaded one is a completely different job. Before anybody quotes, the honest question is whether it is empty, and if not, what is in it and how it is secured.
A container with an unsecured load inside shifts as it is lifted, which changes the balance mid-air. That is the one situation where we would rather empty it first, however inconvenient.
Ground: the part that decides everything
A container placed out of level will twist very slightly, and a twisted container has doors that never close properly again. That is the commonest and most annoying way this job goes wrong, and it is entirely preventable by spending ten minutes on the base.
- Level matters more than firm, and both matter
- On soft ground it should sit on blocks, sleepers or slabs at the corners rather than directly on soil
- Corners carry the weight, so support the corners, not the middle
- Think about drainage: a container in a dip becomes a pond in February
Access: where it can and cannot go
With a crane on the lorry, a container can go over a wall, into a back garden or behind a building, provided the lorry can stand within working radius and the ground takes the outriggers.
What it cannot do is go further than the crane reaches. If the spot is fifteen metres from anywhere a lorry can stand, that is a different machine and a different price, and it is better to know that on the phone.
Repositioning on site
Moving a container twenty metres across a yard sounds trivial and is often the most awkward job of the week, because the lorry has to stand somewhere that reaches both the pick-up and the set-down.
Sometimes that means two lifts and a short shunt. Worth mentioning when you ring, because it affects the time on site rather than the distance travelled.
Questions
Common questions
- What size containers can you move?
- Standard 10ft and 20ft containers are the usual work, within our 10 ton capacity. Tell us the size and whether it is empty, because a loaded container is a different job.
- What should the container sit on?
- Something firm and level under each corner: concrete, slabs, sleepers or blocks. Supporting the corners is what keeps the frame square and the doors working.
- Can you put a container in my back garden?
- Often yes, if the lorry can get close enough to lift over whatever is in the way. Send a photograph from the road and one from the garden and we will tell you honestly.
What we do
Hiab hire and haulage across Cornwall and Devon
30TM crane, 10 metres of reach, 10 ton capacity, based near Truro. Tell us the weight, the distance from the lorry and what is in the way, and you will get a straight answer.
More reading
Other guides
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A hiab is a lorry with its own crane. Here is what that changes, and the jobs where it is the difference between one visit and three.
What 30 tonne-metre actually means
Crane ratings confuse almost everybody, and the confusion costs people money. Here is the arithmetic, and why the load chart is the only answer that counts.
Getting your site ready for a hiab delivery
Most failed deliveries are decided before the lorry leaves the yard. Ten minutes of checking saves a wasted day and a return charge.
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