Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Doncaster
Plant hire yards are common on the outskirts of Doncaster, and that shapes the sales we run here. Machines from a hire fleet usually come with service records and inspection certificates behind them, and a catalogue is stronger for having those in it.
The sales come from those hire yards when an owner retires or trims the fleet, and from the civils contractors who built the sheds at iPort and West Moor Park. The fabrication and glass works on Kirk Sandall and Wheatley Hall Road keep a telehandler and a compressor in the yard and sell them through us when the yard changes hands. Agricultural machinery dealers on the edge of the borough sell the odd telehandler and dumper through us too.
Online timed auction is how it is sold. Viewing is at the yard, and buyers pay us before they collect. The contact form is where it starts.
A hire fleet trimmed to the machines that earn
A hire yard knows which machines went out last year and which did not. The ones that stayed in are costing insurance and space, and our advice is to deal with them as a group while they still have a value rather than one at a time as each fails an inspection. A catalogue of twenty items from one fleet, with the service records to match, gives a bidder the evidence to price on.
We list each machine with the hour reading from the meter and the serial number, and the machines that can be run without risk are started on video. Inspection certificates go in the catalogue as photographs.
Timing is your choice, and we will give you a view on the date and on likely interest before the catalogue is written. The trade at Rotherham, Barnsley, Worksop and Goole is a short trip from the viewing day.
Motorways on every side of the borough
The A1(M), the M18 and the M180 all cross the borough, and the M1 and M62 are one junction away from each. For a plant sale that puts a wide circle of trade a short trip from the viewing day: Scunthorpe and Goole along the M180 and M62, Sheffield and Rotherham up the M18, Pontefract and Wakefield down the A1, and Barnsley under half an hour away. Bidding itself is online and open to the rest of the country.
The yards on the newer estates at iPort and Redhouse Interchange were built for constant lorry traffic and the older sites at Balby Carr and near the town centre were not. Either way we check the route, the gate, the hard standing and the loading point before the sale opens, and what we find goes in the catalogue so nobody arrives with the wrong vehicle.
Where a yard cannot take the collection, we can collect and sell from our own premises.
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 Doncaster
- Our plant is spread between a yard at Kirk Sandall and a site near the rail depot. Does that complicate the sale?
Not much. Each lot in the catalogue states where it stands and what vehicle is needed to collect it, so buyers know before they bid. Viewing can be arranged for both places on the same day. Collection slots are set separately for each so lorries do not queue. If one site is awkward for a low loader, we move the plant there to our own premises before the sale opens and it sells from there instead.
- Will a farm telehandler from an agricultural dealer sell in a construction plant sale?
Yes. A telehandler is judged on its hours against its age, its condition and its current LOLER certificate rather than on whether it has worked on a farm or a site. Agricultural machines often carry lower hours and cleaner cabs than site machines, and the catalogue says so where the meter and the records support it. We list agricultural attachments as separate lots with the carriage type stated, so they can be bid on without the machine.
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.