01708 861 414
If a machine has broken down and brought your work to a halt, call 01708 861 414. This page covers what happens next: how quickly a replacement can be on site, what we need from you to make that happen, and what to do in the meantime. For planned hire with notice, see short term forklift hire.
Ring, do not email
An emergency hire is a logistics problem with a deadline, and it is solved by someone checking which depot holds the right machine and which vehicle is free. That is a phone call, not a form.
An enquiry form sent at 4pm on a Friday is answered on Monday. A phone call is answered now.
Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Outside those hours the breakdown callout line runs 24/7, which is the number to use if the machine has failed overnight or at the weekend.
How fast a machine can be with you
The honest answer is that it depends on three things, and we will tell you on the call rather than promise first and check afterwards.
- What you need. A 2.5 tonne diesel counterbalance is the most commonly stocked machine in the country and the easiest to move quickly. A 7 tonne machine, a very narrow aisle truck or anything with an unusual mast or attachment is a different proposition.
- Where you are. We work from eight depots and run our own lorries, so the distance from the nearest depot holding the right machine is usually the deciding factor.
- What time you ring. A call first thing has options that a call at half past four does not.
Where the machine and the vehicle are both available, same day delivery is often possible, and next day is the normal expectation for a standard truck. We would rather give you a realistic time than an optimistic one, because you are making decisions about your shift based on the answer.
What to have ready when you ring
Five things turn a ten minute call into a two minute one:
- Your postcode, and whether a lorry can get in and turn.
- What you are lifting: weight, and how high it has to go.
- Indoors or outdoors, and the floor surface. This decides electric against diesel or LPG, and cushion against pneumatic tyres.
- How long you need it, even roughly. Two days and two months are different conversations.
- Whether you have a trained operator for that type of machine.
If you do not know the weight, tell us what the load actually is and we will work it out. Guessing low is the most common cause of the wrong machine arriving.
Postcode, what you are lifting and how high. That is enough to get a machine moving.
Repair it or replace it?
A hire machine is not always the right answer. Sometimes the faster and cheaper fix is an engineer.
| If | Usually the answer |
|---|---|
| The fault sounds small and the truck is otherwise sound | An engineer on an urgent breakdown callout, often same day |
| The part is a common wear item | A repair: we hold over £1 million of parts in UK stock |
| The repair will take days, or needs the machine at a depot | A hire machine to cover, with the repair running alongside |
| The truck is near the end of its life anyway | Hire now, then talk about part exchange rather than repairing it twice |
When you ring we will ask what the machine is doing before assuming you need a hire. If an engineer can have you running by lunchtime, that is a better outcome than a lorry.
What arrives, and what it comes with
An emergency hire is a normal hire delivered quickly, not a lesser one. The machine comes with full maintenance and tyres for the hire period, a current thorough examination certificate, and breakdown support.
You must not put hired-in lifting equipment to work without physical evidence that its last thorough examination has been carried out, so that certificate travels with the truck. See thorough examinations.
If the hire then runs on beyond the emergency, it converts to an ordinary short term hire at the standard rates. Nothing has to be re-arranged.
While you are waiting
Two things worth doing in the gap, because they are frequently skipped in the rush:
- Take the broken machine out of use properly. Key out, and a physical tag or note on it so nobody has a go. Where a defect is a present danger the truck stops immediately. A machine that has failed once can fail again without warning.
- Check your operators are certificated for the machine that is coming. A licence is for a category of truck, not for all trucks. If a reach truck arrives and everyone is counterbalance trained, the machine sits there. We run RTITB accredited operator training on every category we hire out, and certificates do expire.
Making the next one less urgent
Emergency hire is a symptom. The machines that break down without warning are almost always the ones with the thinnest service history, and the sites that need emergency cover repeatedly are usually running no spare capacity at all.
- Planned servicing catches the wear items before they strand a truck: forklift servicing.
- Fleet reporting shows which machine is heading for trouble, through first fix rates and repair spend per truck: fleet management.
- A standing hire arrangement is worth discussing if your operation genuinely cannot absorb a machine being down for a day.
Not every breakdown can be prevented. A good many can, and that is worth a conversation before the next one.
Postcode, what you are lifting and how high. That is enough to get a machine moving.
Emergency 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 Emergency Forklift Hire
Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm.
Additional Services
Checkout our range of other machine services below
