Getting a container onto your block — what the truck actually needs

Nearly every delivery that goes wrong went wrong before anyone left the depot, because the access was described rather than measured. Here is what we are actually asking about when we ask about access, and what to go and look at before you ring.

Three numbers decide almost everything

Width at the tightest point, length of the straight run-in, and clearance above the placement spot. Get those three and we can pick the vehicle without leaving the office. Miss one and the truck finds it for you, at your expense.

Width. A tilt-tray wants roughly 3.5m of clear width to work comfortably, and it wants it at the tightest point, not the average. That is usually a gateway, a pair of gate posts, a cattle grid frame or the gap between a shed corner and a water tank. Take a tape to it. "It's a normal gate" is not a measurement, and normal gates in this district run anywhere from 3.0m to 4.5m.

Run-in. A tilt-tray slides the container off the back of the bed, so it needs to reverse into line and then move forward out from under the load. Around 20m of straight approach is the working figure for a 20ft. A sidelifter placing a 40ft wants roughly 30m of room and has to stand on its legs on ground that will hold them. Pace it out. Twenty metres is about twenty-five long steps.

Overhead. Look up. Power and telephone on timber poles across a driveway, a limb from an established gum, a shed awning, a rainwater downpipe. A tilt-tray bed goes well up in the air during the slide and a crane truck goes higher again. Overhead services are the single most common reason a delivery gets stopped on arrival.

The fourth thing, which is really the first

Can the ground carry it? A loaded truck plus a container is a lot of weight on not many contact points, and in this district the ground lies about its bearing capacity more than most.

Red basalt soil around Kingaroy, Coolabunia and Kumbia is superb country and terrible truck footing when it is wet. It goes greasy on top while staying firm underneath, which means a vehicle slides rather than sinks — a different problem, and worse on a grade. Give it a couple of dry days after decent rain and it is fine.

Black soil on the flats near Murgon and along the creek country behaves the other way: it holds together dry, then goes deep and soft, and a bogged sidelifter is a very expensive afternoon. Decomposed granite gravel around Nanango and the range country drains fast and is usually the best of the lot.

Freshly graded ground is a trap everywhere. It looks better than it is, because the crust that was carrying the weight has just been scraped off.

Which vehicle you will get

The cheapest delivery is always the tilt-tray, so it is worth a bit of preparation to stay in that category — move the ute, take the gate off its hinges for an hour, trim the branch.

Set it down properly

Four blocks, hardwood sleepers or concrete pavers under the corner castings. That is the correct set-down and it takes ten minutes. It keeps the frame square so the doors keep closing, it keeps the underside out of standing water and long grass, and it lets air move under the floor instead of trapping damp against the timber.

Level matters more than height. A container that is out of square in one corner will fight you every time you open it, and the twist does not come back out.

Just send photographs

Three pictures answer nearly every question above: one of the entry from the road, one down the approach towards the spot, and one of the spot itself looking back. It takes two minutes and it is worth more than a page of description. Email them with your enquiry and we will confirm the vehicle before quoting rather than after.