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Crane hire in Leicester and across Leicestershire
We provide crane hire in Leicester, a city that has always made things, from the hosiery and textile trade that built it to the food production and precision engineering that keep it busy now. Add the distribution clusters lining the M1 and M69 and you get a wide spread of lifting work, from a chiller onto a city-centre roof in the morning to a machinery offload at a logistics shed the same afternoon.
We supply mobile cranes with operators, and we plan and run full contract lifts, across Leicester, Beaumont Leys, Hamilton, Wigston, Enderby, Braunstone, Oadby, Lutterworth, Hinckley and out to Loughborough and Market Harborough. Most enquiries get a quote the same working day.
Crane hire or a contract lift?
With CPA crane hire, we supply the crane and operator, and you provide the lift plan, appointed person and lifting insurance. With a contract lift, we handle all of it. Every lift is carried out to BS 7121 by CPCS or NPORS operators, with equipment inspected under LOLER and PUWER. Our guide to crane hire vs contract lifting explains the difference in more detail.
Cranes for Leicester jobs
| Crane type | Capacity / reach | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| All-terrain mobile crane | From 40t to 1,000t | Steel frames, heavy plant offloading, large structures |
| City crane / pick and carry | From 5t to 60t | Cultural Quarter streets, older residential blocks and tight yards |
| Mobile tower crane | Up to 60m | Tight sites needing height and reach without a fixed tower crane |
| Tower crane | Luffing, flat top and self-erecting | Longer construction programmes and restricted city-centre sites |
Tell us the weight, radius and access for your Leicester job and we’ll recommend the right machine. Not sure where to start? Read our guide to what size crane you need.
Contact us
Get In Touch
Please leave a few details and a member of our crane hire and contract lifting team will be in touch to discuss your requirements in more detail.
Where we work in and around Leicester
Most of our Leicester crane hire work falls into a handful of sectors.
Distribution along the M1 and M69
The corridors running past the city make this one of the biggest distribution clusters in the country, with Magna Park at Lutterworth, the sheds around Hinckley and the Leicester distribution parks all in reach. Lifting there means machinery and plant offloads, conveyor sections, racking and mezzanine steel and yard equipment changes. See our industrial sector page.
Food production
Food manufacturing is a major employer across Leicestershire, and the lifting is line installs and removals, tanks and silos, cold store and freezer plant and process equipment changes fitted into short shutdowns with hygiene and cleaning to work around. See our food and beverages page.
Beaumont Leys, Hamilton and the industrial estates
The estates around the edge of the city hold engineering, textiles and trade operations, often in older buildings with tight yards and awkward door openings. Typical jobs are machinery deliveries and installs, factory moves and rooftop plant replacement. See our HVAC sector page.
Hospitals and the university estates
The Royal Infirmary, Glenfield and the wider hospital estate, along with two universities, bring chiller and air handling unit replacement, scanner and laboratory equipment moves and plant room work, mostly on sites that stay open or during a vacation shutdown. See our healthcare and pharma and education sector pages.
City-centre construction
Residential, student and commercial schemes around Highcross and the Cultural Quarter bring steel, precast, cladding and rooftop plant on streets that are tight and busy, which usually means an early, evening or Sunday slot. See our construction sector page.
Infrastructure, rail and utilities
Bridge and beam work on the motorway and trunk road network, rail lifts inside a possession and substation equipment changes all come with fixed windows and exact timings. See our rail and power and renewables sector pages.
Access and planning for lifts in Leicester
Every site is different, but a few things come up again and again on Leicester jobs:
- Getting there. Junctions 21 and 22 of the M1 and the M69 serve the city, with the A6, A46, A47 and A50 spreading traffic out across the county. Larger all-terrain cranes and ballast loads are routed around low bridges and weight limits, and we plan the route before we quote.
- Live distribution sites. On a working logistics park the crane fits around trailer movements, yard traffic and shift changes, so we agree the route in, the standing position and the working window with the site team first.
- City-centre streets. The streets around the Cultural Quarter and Highcross are narrow, busy and partly pedestrian, with limited standing room and overhead obstructions to check.
- Ground conditions. Older industrial ground around the city and the low-lying land along the Soar can be made or soft. We confirm ground bearing and outrigger positions, and use crane mats where needed.
- Road closures. Where a lift needs part of a road or pavement closed, we can arrange the traffic management and road closure with Leicester City Council or Leicestershire County Council as part of the job.
Postcodes and areas we cover
We cover every LE postcode and the Leicestershire districts around it:
- Leicester: city centre, the Cultural Quarter, Clarendon Park, Aylestone, Evington, Beaumont Leys and Braunstone
- Around the city: Hamilton, Glenfield, Wigston, Oadby, Enderby, Groby, Anstey and Syston
- The county: Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Lutterworth, Market Harborough, Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch
- Wider area: Hinckley, Nuneaton, Coventry and Corby
Beyond Leicestershire we also work across the rest of the Midlands. See all the areas we cover.
Why Leicester firms choose Synergy Lifting for crane hire
- Production work is our normal. Line installs, plant swaps and machine moves inside working factories are the bulk of what we do.
- Logistics sites without the disruption. We plan around trailer movements and shift patterns so the lift fits the operation rather than stopping it.
- Qualified and accredited. CPCS and NPORS operators, lifts planned to BS 7121, and a business certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, with Constructionline Gold Member registration.
- One contractor for the whole lift. We can take on the lift plan, appointed person, RAMS, supervision and insurance.
More than cranes
Many Leicester jobs need more than a lift, so we also offer:
How to book a crane
- Send us the site location, load weight, access details and dates. Photos help.
- We quote, usually the same working day. Complex lifts may need a site visit first.
- For contract lifts we prepare the lift plan and RAMS. For CPA hire we advise on crane position and set-up.
- We arrive on the agreed day and carry out the lift to BS 7121.
Common questions
Can you work inside a distribution centre while it is running?
Yes, and most of our logistics park work is done that way. We agree the route in, the standing position, the exclusion zone and the working window with the site team so the crane fits around the operation.
Can you swap production plant inside a weekend shutdown?
Often, yes, and that is how most food and manufacturing work gets done. Give us the shutdown window, the plant weights and the route in and out, and we’ll plan the crane and the machine moving side together.
Can you get a crane into an older factory yard?
Usually. City cranes and pick and carry machines are built for restricted access, and where a yard is too tight we look at reaching over from the road instead. Send us photos of the approach and the door opening.
Get a quote for crane hire in Leicester
- Phone: 0116 350 1020
- Email: leicester@synergy-lifting.co.uk
We also provide crane hire in Nottingham, Coventry, Derby and Northampton. See all the areas we cover.