Britannia AuctionsPlant and construction equipment auctions in Southampton
The docks put shipping at the end of the road. A large share of the country's vehicle exports leaves through Southampton, and the same shipping lines and forwarders handle used plant, so a machine sold from a yard at Nursling is close to a vessel if that is where it is going. Bidding is online, so a dealer who ships and the local trade see the same catalogue.
Most of the plant we see here comes from two places. The distribution sheds at Nursling and Adanac Park, off junction 1 of the M271, each left a groundworks compound behind when they were finished. Along the Itchen and Southampton Water, boatyards and marine engineers run telehandlers, compressors and generators that are sold when a yard changes hands.
We catalogue on site or collect to our own premises. The contact form is where every sale starts.
Cataloguing for a bidder who cannot visit
Plant that is too old or too high in hours for a UK hire fleet is not necessarily at the end of its working life, and the catalogue has to give a bidder who cannot visit enough to price on. That matters in Southampton, where freight forwarders around the Western Docks handle used machinery and a buyer shipping abroad works from photographs and video rather than from a walk round the yard.
So every machine gets a video of the engine starting and the hydraulics working, where it can safely be run, as well as the hour reading and the serial number. We also list dimensions and weight for each lot, because a shipper prices on cubic metres.
One catalogue covers both ends of a fleet. Newer telehandlers and mini diggers suit the trade at Eastleigh, Totton, Romsey and Fareham, and the tired machines suit a buyer prepared to do the work.
Shed builds off the M271 leave plant behind
A distribution shed at Adanac Park or Nursling starts as an earthworks job. Dozers, rollers, scrapers and articulated dumpers do the first months, then the piling rig, then the compound fills with telehandlers, generators, cabins and welfare units while the frame goes up. When the keys are handed over the contractor has a compound of plant and a landlord who wants the ground back.
Selling in place suits a compound like that where the hard standing, the gate and the road outside allow it, and those are checked before anything is listed. The M271 is at the bottom of the road. We photograph and list from the compound, run the bidding for a week or two, and clear the site in booked slots after the close.
Where the handover date is fixed and close, we can collect first and sell from our own premises, so the compound goes back on the day.
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 Southampton
- We run a boatyard on the Itchen with a telehandler and two compressors. Is that enough for a sale?
Yes. A telehandler with a current LOLER certificate is a lot that contractors and other boatyards both look at, and compressors suit anyone with a breaker. We would normally add your plant to a sale with other lots rather than run one on its own, so that it sits in a full catalogue. Access on the Itchen yards can be tight, so we look at the route out before we quote. Anything on finance can only be sold with the funder's agreement.
- Can an overseas buyer collect from a compound at Nursling?
They collect through a forwarder. The buyer pays us, we issue a release note, and their haulier arrives in the booked slot like any other. From Nursling the lorry is on the M271 and into the Western Docks in minutes. We do not arrange shipping, but we give the forwarder the dimensions and weight from the catalogue so the machine can be booked onto a vessel before it leaves the yard. Payment must be cleared before the machine moves.
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.