What is a hiab, and when do you actually need one?
A hiab is a lorry with its own crane. Here is what that changes, and the jobs where it is the difference between one visit and three.
13 September 2026 · 5 min read
Guide
Hiab is one of those words that has become the name for the whole category, like Hoover. Strictly it is a Finnish manufacturer, Hiab, and the correct generic term is a lorry loader crane or vehicle loading crane. Everybody in the trade says hiab, so that is what we call it too.
What it means in practice is simple: the lorry carries the load and lifts it off itself. There is no separate crane, no telehandler waiting on site, and no forklift needed at either end.
The three ways a load usually arrives
- Flatbed or curtainsider: cheapest per mile, but the load stops wherever the lorry stops and somebody else has to move it.
- Hiab: the lorry lifts the load off and places it, usually within about ten metres of the vehicle.
- Crane hire plus a separate lorry: the right answer for big or high lifts, but it means two vehicles, two operators and a lot of standing about.
When a hiab is the obvious choice
The pattern is always the same: the load has to end up somewhere a lorry cannot drive.
- A container going into a back garden, behind a building, or onto blocks
- Steel beams lifted into a scaffolded opening rather than dumped at the kerb
- A pack of timber placed on the stack instead of on the drive
- Plant unloaded on a site with no ramp and no second machine
- Anything over a wall, a hedge, a verge or a parked car
When it is the wrong tool
A hiab is not a mobile crane. If the lift is very heavy at a long radius, or it has to go up several storeys, or over a building, that is crane hire and it is a different conversation. An honest haulier will tell you that rather than turning up and failing.
It is also not the cheapest way to move a simple palletised load from one loading bay to another. If both ends have a forklift, a flatbed is cheaper and there is no shame in saying so.
What it saves you
The saving is rarely the hire rate itself. It is the day you do not lose. A crew of three standing around waiting for a telehandler costs more per hour than the lift, and a delivery left in the wrong place has to be moved twice.
That is the whole argument for a hiab, and it is worth doing the sum honestly for your own job rather than taking anybody's word for it.
Questions
Common questions
- Is a hiab the same as a crane?
- No. A hiab is a lorry with a crane mounted on it, designed to load and unload its own vehicle within a modest radius. A mobile crane is a dedicated machine for bigger and higher lifts. Different jobs, different money.
- Do I need a banksman or anybody on site?
- Usually somebody to confirm access and say where the load goes. The lift itself is the operator's responsibility. On a commercial site your own rules on lifting operations will apply as well.
- How close does the lorry need to get?
- Within the crane's working radius, which on ours is up to about 10 metres from the vehicle. Send a photograph of the access and we can usually tell you before the day.
What we do
Hiab hire and haulage across Cornwall and Devon
30TM crane, 10 metres of reach, 10 ton capacity, based near Truro. Tell us the weight, the distance from the lorry and what is in the way, and you will get a straight answer.
More reading
Other guides
What 30 tonne-metre actually means
Crane ratings confuse almost everybody, and the confusion costs people money. Here is the arithmetic, and why the load chart is the only answer that counts.
Getting your site ready for a hiab delivery
Most failed deliveries are decided before the lorry leaves the yard. Ten minutes of checking saves a wasted day and a return charge.
Moving a shipping container: weight, ground and access
Containers look like the simplest thing a hiab moves. The lift usually is simple. What goes wrong is everything around it.
Enquiry