Trailer and lifting gear
Damage to the trailer, cranes, hydraulics and stabiliser legs, including damage occurring during a lift.
Side Loader Insurance
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Side Loader Insurance
Cover for sideloader trailers lifting and carrying shipping containers.
A sideloader carries its own cranes, so it does lifting work in places a crane would never be set up: suburban driveways, tight yards and unsealed hardstand. The container it lifts usually belongs to someone else, and a stabiliser leg punching through soft ground with a loaded box above it is the failure mode operators plan around. It is a lifting risk and a transport risk in one unit.
What is it?
A sideloader, or self-loading container trailer, uses two hydraulic cranes and stabiliser legs to lift a shipping container from ground level onto its own deck without a forklift or crane. Steelbro and Hammar are the makes most often seen in Australia. Units handle 20 foot, 40 foot and tank containers for wharf cartage, container storage hire and regional distribution.
What does side loader insurance cover?
Containers in your care
Damage to a customer's container while it is being lifted, carried or stored, which sits outside standard motor cover.
Lifting liability
Third-party injury or property damage during a lift, including damage to driveways, fences and underground services.
What affects the cost?
- Lifting capacity and age of the unit
- Wharf cartage, storage hire or regional distribution
- Types of container handled, including tanks and reefers
- Ground conditions at typical delivery sites
- Operator training and experience
Worth raising on the call
- Damage to the container and its contents is not automatically part of the trailer cover.
- Ground bearing under the stabiliser legs is behind most serious sideloader incidents.
- Lifting over a fence or onto private property raises liability questions worth clarifying beforehand.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Stabiliser leg sinks mid-lift
A loaded 40 foot box is being lifted in a customer's unsealed yard when a stabiliser leg punches through soft fill and the unit tips. Damage usually spans the trailer, the cranes and the container, and those can sit in three different sections of a program.
Container clipped into a residential driveway
A box swings during placement at a house move and lands hard on the driveway edge, cracking concrete and taking out a fence panel. The trailer is undamaged, but the third-party property claim is the larger and slower one.
Crane arm contacts an overhead line
A crane arm is raised near a service line while lifting over a boundary fence and makes contact. Incidents like this typically bring in the network operator's costs, a safety investigation and questions about the exclusion zone that applied on the day.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming whether the container and the goods inside it are covered while in your care, on what limit, and whether that changes when the box is on the ground rather than on the deck.
- Worth confirming how damage occurring during the lift itself is treated compared with damage while travelling, and whether any ground assessment or setup condition applies.
- Worth confirming whether lifting over a fence, structure or boundary is contemplated by the wording, along with any exclusion zone applying near overhead power lines.
Common questions
Does my trailer policy cover the container I am carrying?
Generally not. The trailer section typically responds to the trailer and its lifting gear, while the container and its contents are someone else's property and usually need a carriers goods, marine transit or care custody and control extension. That gap is one of the more common surprises in this class.
Am I covered if the customer's ground gives way under a leg?
It depends on the wording and on what was done to assess the ground. Damage to your own unit is commonly covered as accidental damage, subject to the policy terms, but the container and third-party property usually respond under different sections. Keeping a record of the ground assessment you carried out is worth doing regardless.
Do I need carriers liability or goods in transit as well?
If you cart containers for other people, it is usually part of the conversation. Carriers liability generally responds to your legal liability for the freight, while goods in transit can cover the goods more directly, and customers or wharf contracts often specify which one they expect. The right answer depends on the contracts you sign.
What drives the cost of sideloader insurance?
Lifting capacity, the age and make of the unit, whether you do wharf cartage, storage hire or regional distribution, the types of container handled and the ground conditions at typical delivery sites all feed into it. Operator training and claims history matter as much as the trailer itself. No honest figure exists until an underwriter sees your specifics.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See truck insurance for the wider picture.
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