Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Coventry
Contractors in Coventry work around the vehicle plants. Groundworks and civils firms building the sheds at Ryton and Middlemarch, the trade businesses at Binley and Bayton Road that fit out and maintain factory floors, the access and scaffold companies that serve all of them, and the plant hire yards that supply them. They own excavators, telehandlers, scissor lifts, cherry pickers, generators and site cabins, and when a business closes or a contract runs out, those machines need to be sold.
We sell them by online timed auction. A sale can run from your yard or from the site where the plant last worked. If the yard has to be cleared quickly, we collect and sell from our own premises. Each machine is a lot with its hours, its year, its serial number and its certificates, and at the viewing the machines that can safely be run are started so buyers can see and hear them.
Tell us what you have through the contact form. We visit before we quote.
Access platforms need their paperwork
Coventry has a lot of powered access because factory maintenance needs it. Scissor lifts, boom lifts, truck mounted platforms and tower scaffold come up in sales here as often as tracked plant. Buyers of access equipment look closely at inspection records, and a platform with a current LOLER certificate and a thorough examination report is a different proposition from one where the certification has lapsed and the cost of putting that right falls to the buyer.
So before the catalogue is written we ask for every certificate you have. The same applies to telehandlers and to any lifting attachment. Where a certificate has lapsed we say so in the lot description rather than leaving the buyer to find out.
Most access equipment is wheeled and can be driven onto a plant trailer or a beavertail, but the loading point, the turning space and the road outside are checked at Binley, Exhall or anywhere else before collection slots are set.
Selling from the site where the job finished
A contract that has ended at Ryton or Middlemarch often leaves a compound full of plant that nobody wants to move twice. Where the site can stay open for a viewing day and a collection window, we sell it from there. The machines are catalogued where they stand, and buyers see them on the ground they worked. That saves the transport cost and the risk of damage in a second move.
The trade is close at hand. Nuneaton and Hinckley are up the M69, Rugby is along the M6, Leamington Spa and Warwick are down the A46, and Birmingham and Solihull are along the A45, all near enough to come and see the lots. Bidding itself is online and open to bidders well beyond the area.
If the site cannot stay open long enough, we can collect and sell from our own premises. Either way the timetable is agreed before the catalogue opens, and you know the date the ground should be clear.
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 Coventry
- We are an installation contractor with vans and plant. Can they go in the same sale?
Yes. Vans, plant trailers and site equipment sell in one catalogue, and the buyers overlap because a contractor who wants a telehandler often wants a van to go with it. The vehicles are described with mileage and MOT status, the plant with hours and certificates. Collection is in one window from one yard. A vehicle on finance, hire purchase or lease stays with the funder until the agreement is settled and can only be sold with the funder's agreement, the same as a machine.
- How quickly can plant be gone from a compound at Ryton?
About five weeks from first visit to an empty compound is a reasonable plan, and the real timetable depends on the number of lots, the access and the date the site has to be handed back. We need a few days to catalogue, then one to two weeks of bidding, then collection over two or three days. If the site has to go back sooner, we can collect the plant and sell it from our own premises instead.
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.