Delivery and access
Delivery, and the four measurements that decide it
Almost every container delivery that goes wrong goes wrong for the same reason, and it is never the container. It is the last thirty metres. Here is exactly what the truck needs.
- Run-in
- 20m for a 20ft, 30m for a 40ft
- Width at the pinch point
- 3.5m for a 20ft, 4m for a 40ft
- Headroom
- 4.5m, and measure the branches
- Ground
- Firm enough for two tonne per corner
The four measurements
Measure these before you order
Not the container — the site. In our experience these four numbers decide the truck, the price and whether the delivery happens at all, and three of them are things people never think to check.
Run-in length
How much straight, reasonably level ground the truck has between the road and the spot. A tilt-tray needs roughly the length of the container again behind it to slide the unit off. This is the measurement people most often get wrong, because a driveway that bends halfway along is not a straight run-in.
Width at the pinch point
Not the width of the driveway — the width at its narrowest point. A gatepost, a rainwater tank, a parked car or a garden bed that pinches the entry to three metres decides the whole job, no matter how open the rest of it is.
Headroom
Power lines, verandah edges, carport beams and — most commonly — tree branches. A tilt-tray raises its bed well above container height to unload, so the clearance needed at the moment of delivery is much greater than the height of the container sitting on the ground.
Ground bearing
Four corner castings each carrying roughly two tonne, on whatever is underneath. Lawn over clay in the wet, river silt, fresh fill and sand all look perfectly firm and are not. If the truck sinks, the delivery stops and nobody wins.
Tilt-tray
The standard truck, and the cheapest
A tilt-tray tips its bed up and slides the container off the back onto the ground. It is the most common and least expensive way to deliver a container, and it is the right answer for most sites.
What it needs is length. The truck has to be able to line up straight with the spot and have room behind it to slide the unit off — roughly the length of the container again. It also has to get out afterwards, which on a long driveway with nowhere to turn means reversing the whole way back to the road.
Side loader
For sites without the length
A side loader carries its own pair of cranes and lifts the container off the trailer, placing it alongside. It handles sites where a tilt-tray simply has nowhere to slide a container off to, and it can place a unit far more precisely.
One thing catches people out and it is worth stating plainly: a side loader places the container off the right-hand — the driver's — side of the trailer. Which direction the truck can approach from therefore decides which side of your block the container can land on. Work that out before delivery day, because turning it around afterwards means another truck.
Crane truck
When it has to go over something
A crane truck lifts the container and swings it, so it can put a unit over a fence, behind a house, into a courtyard or onto a slab that no other truck can reach.
It is the most expensive option and it needs its own working room — outriggers down, a clear swing path and no power lines overhead. But it turns impossible sites into ordinary ones, and on a tight inner-suburban block it is often the only realistic answer.
Photographs
The three photos that answer nearly every access question
Send these with your enquiry and we can usually tell you the truck and the timing straight back, before anyone talks about price.
From the street, looking in
Shows us the entry width, the kerb, the gradient off the road and whether there is anything overhead at the boundary.
Down the approach
Taken standing at the entry looking towards the spot. Shows the run-in length, any bend, the surface and the branches.
The spot itself
Where the container has to end up, with something in frame for scale. Shows us the ground, the fall and what is around it.
Cost
Why there is no delivery price list on this page
Because any number we published would be wrong for a good share of addresses, and a wrong number is worse than no number.
Delivery is quoted with the container, per address. Three things move it: how far the unit has to travel, which depot it comes out of, and what the truck has to do when it gets there. That third one is the one people underestimate. Two addresses the same distance from the same depot can be a long way apart on price if one is a flat industrial entry and the other is a steep driveway with a crane job at the end of it.
So we work it out per job. Tell us the address, tell us what the entry looks like, and you will get a number with the cartage in it rather than a number with a delivery question mark after it. Every enquiry answered within one business day.
Ground preparation is worth thinking about at the same time. A container should sit level with its weight carried on the four corner castings — timber sleepers, concrete pads or compacted road base under each corner. Left sitting twisted on soft ground, a container's doors stop closing properly, and that is not a warranty problem, it is a siting one. There is a full walk-through in our site preparation guide.
Common questions
About delivery and access
What does delivery cost?
It is quoted with the container, every time. Distance is only part of it — what the truck has to do at your end usually moves the figure more. A wide flat industrial entry and a tight residential driveway the same distance from the depot are not the same job, so a published rate would be wrong for a good share of addresses. Tell us the address and send a couple of photos of the entry and you will get an exact number.
How much room does the truck need?
For a 20ft on a tilt-tray, roughly 20 metres of straight run-in, 3.5 metres of width at the tightest point and 4.5 metres of headroom. For a 40ft, closer to 30 metres of run-in and 4 metres of width. The truck also needs to get out again — a long driveway with nowhere to turn means reversing the whole way, and that changes the job.
What is the difference between a tilt-tray, a side loader and a crane truck?
A tilt-tray tips its bed and slides the container off the back, so it needs the most straight room behind it and is the cheapest option. A side loader lifts the container off with its own cranes and places it beside the trailer — it needs far less length but does need clear space alongside, and it places the container off the right-hand, driver's, side. A crane truck lifts and swings, which handles sites the other two cannot reach at all, and costs the most.
Can the container be delivered with things already in it?
Only if that was the arrangement from the start. An empty container and a loaded one are different jobs with different weights, different restraint requirements and often a different truck. Never assume a delivery quoted empty can carry a load — tell us up front and we will price it properly.
What if the truck cannot get in on the day?
That is the outcome everybody wants to avoid, because a failed delivery still costs a truck and a driver. It is also almost entirely preventable. Send three photographs with your enquiry — one from the street looking in, one down the approach and one of the spot itself — and we will tell you before anyone quotes whether the site works and which truck it needs.
Do I need to prepare the ground?
Usually, yes, at least a little. The container should sit level on firm ground with its weight on the four corner castings, not on soft soil in the middle. Timber sleepers, concrete pads or compacted road base under the corners is the normal answer. Ground that looks firm after a dry week can give way under two tonne per corner after a wet one.
Get a price
Send us the site photos
Three photographs and an address is usually all it takes. We will tell you which truck the job needs and what it costs delivered. Every enquiry answered within one business day.
Or skip the form and ring us — 0477 410 500, Mon–Fri 7:30am–5pm, Sat 8am–12pm