Plant Machinery: Excavators, Mini Diggers and Dumpers

Some forklift dealers also sell and hire construction plant, and the members below supply it. Contact any of them directly using the details on their card, for a machine to buy or hire, or for parts and servicing.

The main types of plant machinery

• Micro and mini diggers – small tracked excavators for landscaping, drainage and footings. Micro diggers, under about a tonne, often have tracks that narrow to pass through a doorway or garden gate; the smaller minis can be towed on a plant trailer.
• 360 excavators – tracked or wheeled machines whose whole upper body slews right round. Midi excavators sit between the minis and the full-size machines. For operator training the UK schemes divide them at 10 tonnes.
• Backhoe loaders – the familiar “JCB”, with a loading shovel at the front and a 180° digging arm at the back.
• Site dumpers – forward tipping dumpers, straight or with a swivel skip, from small high-tip and tracked dumpers to larger site machines, and articulated dump trucks for bulk earthmoving.
• Loading shovels and skid steers – wheeled loaders for moving loose material, and compact skid steer and tracked loaders that take buckets, forks, sweepers and breakers.
• Rollers and compaction – ride-on and pedestrian rollers, and plate compactors.
• Telehandlers – telescopic handlers that lift and place loads on site; see also our telescopic handler specialists and rough terrain forklifts.

On UK construction sites operators are normally expected to hold a CPCS or NPORS card for the type of machine they drive. To move a machine between sites, see plant and forklift transport.