If you've been on a building site you've almost certainly seen a hiab without knowing the name. It's the truck with a folded crane sitting behind the cab that turns up loaded, sets its legs down, and lifts the load off its own tray into place.
So what is a hiab, exactly?
Hiab is a brand of truck-mounted crane that became the everyday word for the whole category, the way people say ute or esky. A hiab truck and a crane truck are the same thing: one vehicle that both transports a load and lifts it.
That's the key difference from crane hire generally. A mobile crane lifts but doesn't carry; a truck delivers but doesn't lift. A hiab does both in a single visit.
What a hiab can lift
Shipping containers and site sheds, structural steel, roof trusses and wall frames, brick and block packs, water tanks, generators and pumps, spas, feature rocks and retaining blocks. If it's too heavy to hand-shift and too awkward for a forklift, a hiab is usually the answer.
When you need one
You need a hiab when the load can't simply be dropped at the kerb: it has to go over a fence, across an excavation, around the side of a finished house, onto piers, or up to a second storey. You also need one when there's nothing on site to unload with — no forklift, no telehandler, no crew standing around to hand-ball it.
If the load can be tipped or rolled off at the front of the property and moved by hand, a normal truck will do. The moment placement matters, a hiab saves money rather than costing it.
What decides whether a hiab can do your job
Two numbers: how heavy the heaviest item is, and how far it has to travel from where the truck can safely park. A load close to the truck can be far heavier than the same load at full reach, which is why we always ask about distance and obstacles rather than just weight.
Getting it booked
Have the load details, the site address and a photo or two of the access ready, and we can confirm the right truck and a fixed upfront price quickly.
Central Crane Trucks provides hiab truck hire across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich and the Sunshine Coast. Call 0488 366 661 any time, or request a quote and we'll come straight back to you.