The auction format decides when you learn the result, when the removal clock starts and how much time you have to get a vehicle there. A live sale settles in a day and the removal window opens immediately. A timed sale closes lots one after another, often outside office hours. An internet-only auction adds the fact that nobody has seen the equipment on the ground. Three formats, three different transport plans.
Live sale with online bidding
The classic yard sale: an auctioneer taking bids, with an online feed you can join. That is how Manheim works with its Simulcast system across twelve auction centres, and how Euro Auctions has run its yard sales for years. The advantage is obvious: within a single day you know everything. So is the drawback: it all happens at the speed of the hammer, and if you buy two lots from two different rings you are costing the transport on the fly.
Timed auction
Each lot has its own closing moment and bidding runs for days. That is how Ritchie Bros sales in the UK and Ireland run, along with the Clarke & Simpson collective sales and Morris Leslie auctions. The format has two properties that hit logistics directly:
- The result arrives outside office hours. A lot may close in the afternoon or evening while the yard keeps its own hours. If the removal window is counted in working days, the first of them passes before anybody answers the phone.
- Closing time extensions. Many platforms extend bidding automatically when an offer lands just before the end. So you cannot plan precisely when the result will be known.
Internet-only auction
A sale with no physical sale ring and sometimes no auction yard at all. Copart runs entirely online auctions in the United Kingdom, with vehicles held at operations centres. The IronPlanet platform, part of RB Global, goes a step further: equipment sells where it stands, without being hauled to a sale site. That suits the seller, but for the buyer it means the collection point may be somebody’s construction site or factory yard rather than an organised location with staff.
Where you are actually bidding
Many auction houses do not run their own platform but sell through an external service. BidSpotter.co.uk and i-bidder.com belong to Auction Technology Group and host industrial and machinery auctions on behalf of individual auctioneers. The practical effect is that registration, the winning notice and the messages come from the platform, while the terms for collection, payment and release are set by the auctioneer. In a dispute about a removal deadline, you talk to the auctioneer, not the platform.
What to copy from the terms into the transport order
- The exact address where the goods stand. Not the town, not the auction house name.
- The final date and time for collection, and whether the count is in working or calendar days.
- The hours during which the site releases goods.
- Whether collection needs a booked slot, and who books it.
- Who loads, and with what.
- The name and address of the party that is to appear as consignor on the consignment note.
Those six items go into the job every time. Premiums, fees and deadlines we do not guess: they are set separately for each sale and only the terms of the individual auction are reliable here.
How we build it on our side
For a single heavy machine we plan a dedicated movement and send a vehicle to meet the deadline in the terms. For several smaller lots, or purchases from different sites, we run a collection round and consolidate, and anything that does not fit the next departure goes into the Milton Keynes warehouse for short-term storage. On groupage, the consolidated vehicle waits for the next scheduled line departure, and the threshold between groupage and a full load sits at around twelve pallets, roughly a third of a trailer. More in our article on groupage and part loads and in the description of the Milton Keynes warehouse.
Sources
- Manheim UK: physical sales with online bidding via Simulcast
- RB Global: IronPlanet, selling equipment where it sits
- Copart UK: auctions run entirely online
- Auction Technology Group: the BidSpotter and i-bidder platforms
Know which format your lot is being sold in? Send the format, the site and the removal date through our contact form and we will build the transport around that calendar. See also our guide to the UK auction market.
