Crane Hire Leicester

Crane hire and contract lifting services in Leicester

Most Leicester projects come to us under one of two service arrangements. Choosing the right one at the quote stage keeps the paperwork clean and avoids surprises on lift day.

Contract lifting — Synergy takes the whole operation

A contract lift means we own the job end-to-end. The appointed person sits on our team, the lift plan and method statement are ours to produce, and the lifting insurance is in place before any equipment leaves the depot. For Leicester clients, that typically includes:

• A site survey covering ground bearing, overhead clearances, access and crane standing positions
• Lift plan, method statement and risk assessment specific to the load and the location
• CAD lift studies for tight or complex picks — common on city-centre rooftops and inside live factories around Beaumont Leys, Aylestone and Wigston
• Selection of the crane, lifting accessories and any temporary works (mats, packing) needed for safe set-up
• Appointed person, lift supervisor, slinger/signaller and crane operator on the day
• Liaison with Leicester City Council where road closures, parking suspensions or out-of-hours permits are required
• Documentation pack handed over after completion for your project file

Contract lifting is the sensible default for facilities managers, ME&P contractors and end clients who’d rather transfer the regulatory and insurance burden to a lifting specialist.

CPA crane hire — operated cranes for clients with their own appointed person

If your team already runs lifts in-house, CPA hire is leaner. We deliver a clean, certified crane with a CPCS- or NPORS-ticketed operator and the relevant LOLER paperwork. You handle the planning, supervision and insurance.

This route works well for tier-one main contractors on Leicester construction sites and for specialist subcontractors who carry an appointed person in-house. Standard inclusions:

• Modern, well-maintained crane suited to the load chart you’ve worked to
• Pre-use checks and current thorough examination certificates
• Lifting accessories supplied where requested
• Day, week or longer-term hire to fit the programme

Cranes available for Leicester projects

Leicester throws up a wide range of lifting environments. The Cultural Quarter and the streets around Highcross are tight and busy. Beaumont Leys, Hamilton, Wigston and Enderby host sprawling industrial and distribution units. The university campus, Leicester Royal Infirmary and the Glenfield Hospital sites bring their own access and noise constraints. Different jobs need different cranes.

Mobile and all-terrain cranes

The mobile and all-terrain fleet is what we use most often in Leicester. Capacities from around 40 tonnes up to 200 tonnes cover steel erection, modular building placements, precast panel work, rooftop chiller and AHU swaps, and machinery offloading at distribution sites along the M1 corridor. All-terrain configurations are particularly useful here — the same crane that runs out to a logistics shed in Lutterworth in the morning can be on a city-centre rooftop in the afternoon.

City and spider cranes for restricted access

For tight streets in LE1 and the older residential blocks in LE2 and LE3, city cranes — short tail swing, compact footprint — go where standard all-terrains can’t. Where the lift is inside a building (atria, plant rooms, sensitive equipment moves at hospitals or laboratories), spider cranes are the right tool. They’ll work through standard doorways and across delicate floors with the right protection in place.

Mobile tower cranes for taller central jobs

Mobile tower cranes give you the height and oversail of a static tower without days of erection time. We use them on multi-storey jobs around the city centre — student accommodation schemes, hotel refurbishments and roof-level work where the working radius needs to clear adjacent properties.

Heavy cranes for industrial and infrastructure lifts

For heavyweight work — large pressure vessels, transformer placements, long-radius bridge beams, major plant changes at production facilities — we draw heavy cranes from the wider fleet. These lifts need extra lead time for route planning, ground bearing checks and crane mat design.

Not sure what capacity you need? Choosing the right crane walks through the load, radius and ground variables.

Sectors we serve across Leicester and Leicestershire

Leicester’s economy is unusually broad for a city its size — manufacturing, food production, distribution, healthcare, education and a strong professional services base all need lifting support at different points. The mix below reflects the work we actually see in Leicester, with the city’s stronger industries leading.

Manufacturing and engineering

Leicester’s manufacturing base spans hosiery, textiles, casting, fabrication and precision engineering — businesses that need internal machine moves, line changeovers and equipment installations to keep production running. We handle these as discrete lifts or as full factory relocations using machine movement equipment alongside the cranes.

Food and beverage

Food production is one of Leicester’s biggest employers, with sites across Beaumont Leys and the wider county. Cold store installations, production line moves, packaging equipment changes and rooftop plant swaps are routine. Hygiene zones and live operations make the planning more involved than a standard industrial lift, and we plan around those constraints from the survey onwards.

Logistics and distribution

The M1 / M69 / A14 corridors that run past Leicester make it one of the UK’s biggest distribution clusters. Magna Park at Lutterworth, the sheds at Hinckley and the Leicester Distribution Park all generate steady demand for plant offloading, conveyor system installations and yard equipment changes.

The wider sector mix

• Construction — steel erection, precast panel installation, modular buildings and rooftop plant lifts on commercial, residential and student accommodation schemes
• Healthcare and pharma — chiller and AHU swaps, scanner placements and plant room equipment changes at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield Hospital and the wider University Hospitals of Leicester estate
• Education — building works at the University of Leicester, De Montfort University and across colleges and schools
• Power and renewables — transformer lifts, generator placements and substation equipment
• Data centres — chiller and generator handling for critical infrastructure
• Waste and recycling — heavy machinery moves, conveyor and shredder installations
• Telecoms — mast and equipment installation across the region
• Wastewater treatment — tank and process equipment placements at Severn Trent assets across the catchment

When the project goes beyond crane hire, we routinely combine it with factory relocation services, machine movement and steel erection so a single contractor sees it through.

Why Leicester clients choose Synergy Lifting

The East Midlands has plenty of crane hire options. The reasons clients keep coming back to us are pretty consistent.

Documentation that meets your principal contractor’s bar first time

Lifts are planned and delivered to BS 7121, with operators carrying current CPCS or NPORS certification and equipment maintained to LOLER and PUWER. Method statements, risk assessments and CAD lift plans go out in advance for contract lifts. If your CDM principal designer or principal contractor wants the documentation up front, you’ll have it without chasing.

One contractor for the whole lift-and-shift scope

Most Leicester jobs need more than just a crane on the day. Steel needs erecting, a production line needs to come out and a new one needs going in, plant needs offloading and positioning. We do all of it in-house — crane hire, machine movement, factory relocation, steel erection, steel dismantling, plant dismantling and haulage — so you’re not stitching three or four contractors together at the interfaces.

Out-of-hours cover that actually mobilises

The 24/7 availability isn’t a marketing line — there’s a duty rota covering nights, weekends and bank holidays, and a meaningful share of our Leicester work happens outside standard hours. Overnight rooftop swaps, weekend road closures, shutdown windows at food and engineering plants where the production schedule dictates the timing.

Local routing on a national fleet

Leicester’s road network is one of its biggest commercial assets. M1 J21/J22, M69 to Coventry, A6 north to Loughborough and south to Market Harborough, A46 to Newark and Coventry, A47 east to Peterborough. Our logistics team uses that network to draw cranes from the closest available depot, so mobilisation times stay short without compromising on the right crane for the lift.

Wider lifting and industrial services across Leicester

Crane hire is usually the headline, but it’s rarely the whole job. The services we wrap around it are why Leicester contractors and end clients tend to use us for the full scope.

• Machine movement and installation — skates, hydraulic jacking, rollers and skidding equipment for moves inside factories, between buildings and across multi-floor sites. Common at the engineering and food production sites across Leicestershire.
• Factory relocations — dismantling, transport and reinstallation of production lines, presses, packaging machinery and process equipment across single sites or to a new facility elsewhere in the UK.
• Steel erection and dismantling — frames for new commercial and industrial buildings around Beaumont Leys, Hamilton, Wigston and the M1 corridor, plus controlled dismantling of redundant structures.
• Plant dismantling — safe decommissioning, stripping and removal of redundant industrial equipment, with recycling and disposal handled where appropriate.
• Haulage and abnormal loads — combined crane and transport packages so heavy items reach their next destination without the gaps that come from running two separate suppliers.

One roof, one point of contact, one set of documentation — from initial survey through to commissioning support.

How a Leicester crane hire job runs from first call to handover

Every Leicester lift follows the same five-stage process, scaled to suit the complexity. Knowing what to expect at each step helps you plan, and helps us quote accurately.

Enquiry, survey and lift planning

Most enquiries start with a quick call or an email setting out the basics — site address, load weight and dimensions, required radius and height, preferred dates and any access issues you already know about. From there we’ll either quote directly (where the picture is clear) or arrange a free site survey.

For a contract lift, the survey covers ground bearing capacity, overhead clearances (cables, neighbouring buildings, scaffolding), access and egress routes, and any liaison needed with Leicester City Council for road closures, parking suspensions or out-of-hours permits. The output is a lift plan, method statement and risk assessment specific to your project — and, where the geometry warrants it, a CAD lift study with simulated load paths.

Mobilisation, execution and post-lift handover

Once dates are locked and the plan is signed off, we book the crane, lifting accessories and personnel. On the day, the appointed person or lift supervisor runs the briefing, the operator and slinger/signaller execute the lift to plan, and conditions are monitored throughout. After completion you receive the lifting documentation and any post-lift records you need for your project file.

For repeat works — framework agreements, regular plant changes at a particular Leicester facility, ongoing support to a contractor with a long programme — we set up a streamlined version of this process so each individual lift doesn’t start from a blank sheet. Costs vary lift by lift; how much crane hire costs sets out the variables that drive a quote.

Get a Leicester crane hire quote

Whether it’s a single rooftop swap or a multi-phase programme of work, get in touch and we’ll come back with options.

To make the first response as useful as possible, send us:

• The site address (or at least a postcode within LE1–LE19)
• The load — weight, dimensions, lifting points if you have them
• Required radius and lift height
• Preferred date or programme window
• Drawings, photos or BIM extracts that show the site and the proposed crane position
• Any constraints you already know about (overhead lines, ground concerns, neighbours, road or rail proximity)

Same-day quotes are routine for straightforward lifts. For anything more involved — heavy lifts, restricted access, lifts close to live operations or anything needing a road closure — we’ll arrange a site survey within a few working days and come back with a fully planned proposal.

We work across Leicester city centre, Beaumont Leys, Hamilton, Belgrave, Aylestone, Wigston, Enderby, Glenfield and the wider industrial corridor. Beyond the city we cover Loughborough, Hinckley, Coalville, Lutterworth, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray and the rest of Leicestershire — and, with our national fleet behind us, anywhere else in the UK if your operation spans multiple sites.

Call, email or use the enquiry form above. A planner will respond, talk through what you need and put a proposal together that fits your project.