Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Newcastle upon Tyne
Plant hire is part of Newcastle's industrial base, and hire fleets are where most of our plant sales here come from. A hire company that is cutting its fleet, or closing altogether, has dumpers, mini diggers, telehandlers and rollers by the dozen, plus the generators, compressors, pumps and small tools that go out with them. Auction moves a fleet in one go, on one date, to buyers who compare like with like across the catalogue.
Construction contractors add to it. The work along the A1 Western Bypass and on the riverside sites at Newburn and Walker uses heavy excavators and compaction plant, and when a contract ends that plant is parked in a yard costing money. We sell it by online timed auction, from your yard or from the site where it stands, with a viewing day before the close.
Send a note through the contact form and we will come and look.
Plant hire yards beside the bypass
A hire fleet sells differently from a contractor's plant. There are many machines of the same type, often the same model and year, and buyers want to know which is which. We give each machine its own lot with its own photographs and hour reading, and we lay the fleet out on viewing day so that a line of dumpers can be walked and compared. Bidders can then take one or take ten.
The yards near the A1 Western Bypass, at Airport Industrial Estate and Newburn Riverside, have the space for that, and the gate, the turning space and the loading point are still checked before the sale. From there the A1 runs north to Cramlington and Morpeth or south past Team Valley towards Durham.
Hire fleets are often on finance, sometimes with more than one funder. A financed machine remains the funder's property until it is settled, so we ask for the schedule at the first visit and get their agreement before the catalogue opens.
Riverside sites and specialised yard plant
The riverside at Walker and Newburn has offshore and subsea engineering firms, and their yards hold plant that a general contractor does not. Large capacity telehandlers, mobile cranes, heavy forklifts and generators sized for test facilities. Kit of that kind is used by the same sort of firm in other ports, and bidding is online and not limited to the area, with the Port of Tyne handling project cargo close at hand.
The older riverside roads at Walker are narrow in places, so the route from the yard to the main road is checked before the catalogue opens, along with the gate and the loading point, and moving the bigger machines to a compound first is one of the arrangements we can agree.
Gateshead and Team Valley are across the river, North Shields, South Shields and Wallsend are down the Tyne and Durham is to the south, all near enough to come and see the lots.
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 Newcastle upon Tyne
- Can you sell a hire fleet while the last machines are still out on hire?
Yes, in stages if needed. Machines that are back in the yard are catalogued and sold first. Machines still out are sold once they are returned and the hire is closed, either as late additions to the same sale or in a second sale a few weeks later. We do not list a machine that is still on a customer's site under a live hire, because the buyer cannot collect it and the hire agreement governs what happens to it.
- Is there a market here for generators sized for test work, or are they too specialised?
There is a market, though a narrower one than for a mini digger. Large generators are catalogued with the kVA rating, the hours, the fuel type and the control panel, with the plate photographed, and online bidding is how a specialised lot reaches the firms that use them. What a set makes depends on its specification, its condition, the service record behind it and how long it has stood idle. We will give you a view before you commit.
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.