Short term forklift hire is renting a machine for a defined, usually short period: a few days, a few weeks, or the length of one job. This page covers how it works, what it includes and what it costs. If you want the wider picture on hiring rather than buying, start at forklift hire.
How short a short hire can be
A machine can be hired for a single day. The minimum charge is one week at the weekly rate, so a one day hire and a five day hire cost the same, and it is worth knowing that before you plan around a single afternoon.
Beyond that the rate steps down as the period lengthens. Daily, weekly and monthly rates are all available, and there is no fixed contract on a short term hire: you take the machine for as long as the job needs and send it back.
A machine can be hired for a day. The minimum charge is one week at the weekly rate.
If a hire runs on and starts to look permanent, that is worth a conversation rather than a renewal. Past a certain number of months a longer contract, or buying, is usually cheaper. We will say so.
What is included
The point of hiring is that the machine is somebody else’s problem. On a short term hire from us that means:
- Full maintenance and tyres. Servicing during the hire is ours, not yours.
- A current thorough examination. Every machine goes out with one, which matters because you must not use hired-in lifting equipment without physical evidence that the last examination has been done. See thorough examinations.
- Delivery and collection on our own transport, from our own depots. See forklift transport.
- Breakdown support. If the machine stops working you get your money back and we send an engineer. Where we judge it necessary we supply a stand-in machine.
What is not included is fuel or charging, the operator, and damage caused in use. Damage is the one that surprises people, so it is worth agreeing the condition at handover.
When short term hire is the right answer
| Situation | Why hire rather than buy |
|---|---|
| A machine has broken down | Cover while yours is repaired, so the work does not stop. If it is urgent, see emergency forklift hire |
| A seasonal peak | Christmas, harvest, a promotion. Extra capacity for the weeks you need it and no idle machine in February |
| A one-off job or contract | A project with an end date does not justify a capital purchase |
| An unusual task | A longer mast, a bigger capacity or an attachment you do not own and will not need again |
| Trying before buying | Run the model you are considering on your own floor, with your own loads, before committing |
| A site with no forklift yet | New premises, before the permanent fleet is decided |
What you can hire
The hire fleet is not only counterbalance forklifts. We hire every type of machine we supply:
- Counterbalance forklifts in diesel, LPG and electric, in a range of capacities.
- Reach trucks and other warehouse equipment for racked storage.
- Powered pallet trucks, manual pallet trucks, stackers and order pickers.
- Very narrow aisle equipment.
- Access platforms, including scissor lifts and boom lifts.
- Industrial cleaning machines, sweepers and scrubber driers.
If you specifically need an electric machine for indoor or emissions-sensitive work, we have a page on electric forklift hire. Attachments can usually be supplied with the machine, so tell us what you need to lift rather than only which truck you have in mind.
Tell us what you are lifting, how high and for how long, and we can price it on the call.
What it costs, and what moves the price
Rates depend on the machine and the period rather than a single published figure. What changes the number:
- Capacity and mast. A 2.5 tonne counterbalance is not priced like a 5 tonne machine or a triplex mast.
- Power source. Electric machines need charging arrangements; diesel and LPG do not.
- Length of hire. The weekly rate falls as the period extends, and monthly is cheaper again.
- Delivery distance from the nearest of our depots.
- Attachments and any non-standard specification.
- How much notice. Planned hire is cheaper than a machine needed tomorrow.
Finance is not relevant on a short hire, but if the requirement turns out to be permanent, lease purchase, contract hire and operating lease are available on used machines as well as new through a third-party funder, and we take part exchange.
Getting a machine on site
- Tell us the job. What you are lifting, how heavy, how high, indoors or out, and for how long. That is usually enough to specify the truck.
- We confirm availability and price from the nearest depot holding the right machine.
- We deliver on our own transport, with the thorough examination certificate.
- You work. Servicing and breakdown cover are ours for the duration.
- We collect when you are done, on a date you set.
Operators are your responsibility. Anyone driving the machine needs to be trained and authorised for that type of truck, and we run RTITB accredited operator training if that is the gap, matched to the machine: counterbalance, reach truck, powered pallet truck and the rest.
Short term or long term
The honest dividing line is how long the work lasts and how certain you are about it.
Short term suits anything with an end date, anything uncertain, and anything you have not done before. You pay more per week and buy flexibility.
Long term suits settled, predictable work that will still be there in two years. You commit and the weekly cost falls. At that point it is worth comparing against buying, and against a managed fleet arrangement: see fleet management.
Most operations end up running a permanent core with short term machines around the edges. That is a sensible place to be, and it is worth reviewing rather than inheriting.
Tell us what you are lifting, how high and for how long, and we can price it on the call.
Short term hire: common questions
Eight depots across the UK
Our own engineers, out of our own depots - wherever you are, service comes from us.
Talk to us about Short Term Forklift Hire
Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm.
Additional Services
Checkout our range of other machine services below
