Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Preston
A buyer from Blackburn, Blackpool, Chorley or Lancaster is on a motorway within minutes of any yard in Preston. The M6 runs down the east side, and the M55 and the M65 both start here. That geography is the first thing we think about when a contractor asks us to sell plant, because it shapes both the viewing day and the collection day.
The second thing is the plant itself. Preston contractors do road work, housing, drainage and industrial building across the county, and their yards at Red Scar and Walton Summit hold excavators, rollers, compressors and site cabins that are stood down when a contract ends. Agricultural contractors from around Kirkham and Garstang add telehandlers and dumpers.
We sell by online timed auction from the yard or from our own premises. The contact form is where it starts.
Winter is when a yard counts its idle plant
Construction in Lancashire slows in the wet months, and a yard that was full of work in June can have machines parked in rows by December. That is when owners look at what is earning and what is not. The date of a sale is worth deciding early rather than by default, and we will give you a view on the timing and on likely interest before the catalogue is written.
We catalogue in the yard. Each machine is photographed with the hour meter and the plate in shot, and the ones that can safely be run are started on video. Any faults we find are written into the description. Reserves are agreed on the main machines before the sale opens.
A machine on finance is checked first. It is the funder's until the agreement is settled and can only be sold with the funder's agreement, and where they agree the settlement figure is usually paid from the proceeds. Nothing is listed until that is in place.
Straight runs from the Ribbleton yards to the M6
Red Scar Business Park at Ribbleton is the kind of site a plant sale wants, with roads that take heavy vehicles and hard standing to line machines up for a viewing day, and junction 31a of the M6 close by. Walton Summit to the south sits near junction 29. We still check the gate, the turning space and the loading point at either before a sale is planned to run in place, with viewing at the yard and collection in booked slots.
Riversway at the old docks has smaller units and shared access, so a contractor selling from there may find it simpler to let us collect the plant and sell it from our own premises.
Chorley and Leyland are down the road, Blackburn is along the M65, Lancaster is to the north and Blackpool and Southport are on the coast, all within a comfortable drive of the viewing day. The national trade bids online.
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 Preston
- We are a machining firm in the Samlesbury supply chain with a telehandler and a compressor in the yard. Do those go in a plant sale or a machinery sale?
Either, and we will tell you which after we have seen them. A telehandler with a current LOLER certificate is a straightforward lot in a plant catalogue, where contractors and hire yards are among the bidders. A compressor from a workshop can go in either sale. If you are also selling the machine tools, we usually list the yard plant in the same sale so one viewing day covers everything. If it is only the yard plant, it joins our next plant sale with other lots.
- Can the sale run while we finish a road contract, with the plant still working until the close?
Yes, if the site allows it. We catalogue the machines with the hour readings on the day we photograph them, and the description states that the machine is in use until the sale closes and that the hours will rise, so bidders price it on that basis. Viewing is arranged at the site with the site manager, and collection slots are set for the days after the close when the plant has finished. It saves a move to a yard and a second handling.
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.