Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Bristol
Severnside has been one long construction site for years. The distribution sheds at Central Park and Cabot Park each needed piling rigs, rollers, dozers and a fleet of dumpers before a single rack went in, and when each shed is handed over the groundworks contractor has plant with nothing to do. Across the city the picture is smaller. A groundworks firm in Brislington with four mini diggers and a breaker, or a contractor at St Philips Marsh whose lease is up.
We sell both by online timed auction. Whether the sale runs from the compound where the plant stands or from our own premises depends on the lots, the access and the timetable, and we settle that once we have seen the yard.
The contact form is the first step. A list and a location is enough for us to come and look.
Sheds on Severnside and the plant that built them
A warehouse build on Severnside leaves a particular kind of plant behind. The heavy earthworks phase comes first, so the dozers, rollers, scrapers and articulated dumpers are stood down long before the steel goes up. Piling rigs follow them out. By the time the cladding is on, the contractor's compound holds telehandlers, a couple of generators and the welfare units, and the big machines have been parked for months.
Our advice is to sell in phases that follow the programme, so that earthworks plant is offered when the earthworks finish rather than at the end of the job when everything goes at once. A machine on finance can only be sold with the funder's agreement, and the timetable has to allow for that. Where a compound at Central Park or Avonmouth has the room and the hard standing for a viewing day, we check it at the site visit and plan around what we find.
The sale is online and open to buyers from any part of the country, and the trade at Yate, Thornbury, Keynsham and Bath is within a comfortable drive of the viewing day.
Inner city yards with tight entrances
The inner city is harder work. Yards at St Philips Marsh and Ashton Vale can be hemmed in by narrow entrances and by neighbours who need their own access, so the route out is checked before the catalogue opens: what vehicle reaches the gate, where there is room to turn and load, what the ground takes and how far a machine has to travel to reach a loading point. Where an excavator cannot be loaded at the yard, the arrangement is agreed for that site, and a move to our own premises before the catalogue is written is one of the options.
That second route suits a lease end. The yard goes back to the landlord on the day, and the sale runs on its own timetable. It also suits the machines. A mini digger photographed on clean hard standing looks like a machine someone cared for.
The trade at Weston-super-Mare, Portishead, Clevedon and Nailsea is close enough to view in person, and online bidding covers the rest of the country.
What these sales can include
- Excavators and mini diggers
- Dumpers and site dumpers
- Telehandlers
- Generators and lighting towers
- Compressors and breakers
- Rollers and compaction equipment
- Site cabins and welfare units
- Scaffolding and access equipment
- Concrete mixers and pumps
- Buckets, quick hitches and attachments
- Plant trailers
- Surveying equipment and small tools
- Fuel bowsers and tanks
How the auction works
Each machine is a lot with a full description, photographs and the hour reading. Bidding runs online for a set period, usually one to two weeks, and lots close in sequence. A bid in the last minutes extends the close for that lot.
Plant is offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding. The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately on the invoice. Payment is required before removal.
Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots within the agreed window. What that takes depends on the machine: wheeled plant with road registration can be driven away, and tracked or heavy machines go on a low loader. Nothing leaves the site until it is paid for and signed out.
The plant and construction equipment auctions page covers what buyers want to know, finance and ownership checks, where the sale runs from, reserves and the market, alternatives.
Questions about selling in Bristol
- Can we sell the earthworks plant now and the telehandlers at the end of the job?
Yes, and we would suggest it. Two sales a few months apart cost little more than one, and each machine is offered when it has stopped earning rather than when the job ends. The first sale takes the dozers, rollers, scrapers and dumpers from the compound at Severnside. The second takes the telehandlers and the welfare units once the building is handed over. Reserves are agreed for each sale on its own and the money comes in twice instead of once.
- Our yard entrance is under a railway bridge with a height limit. Does that rule out an auction?
No, but it decides how the plant leaves. A height limit rules out a step frame with a big excavator on it, so the arrangement for each machine is worked out at the first visit, whether that is a loading point beyond the bridge or a move to our own premises before the sale. The collection arrangement for every lot goes in the catalogue so buyers know before they bid, and buyers arrange and cover the cost of the removal of what they buy.
More questions about plant and construction
Related services
Guides
- How used machinery is valued
Buyers pay for what a machine will do for them, less what it costs to get it out and running. This guide explains how make, hours, tooling, demand and removal cost feed a guide price, and why that price is not book value.
- Selling a commercial vehicle fleet
Fleet sales turn on paperwork as much as on price. This guide covers the V5C, MOT and plating documents, clearing finance before listing, keys and livery, recording mileage and tachograph data, and how to defleet in batches while still trading.