Kingston KT1 and KT2
One crane-loaded lorry clears riverside and town-centre spoil without a container blocking the kerb.
Grab lorry hire in Kingston upon Thames means a crane-equipped eight-wheeler that loads soil, rubble, concrete and green waste straight from the kerb across KT1 and KT2. Each load takes 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes, with reach of about 7.5 metres. We carry registration CBDU480663 and licence OK2066087.
Send the site postcode, what is on the ground and when you need it moved. We will come back with a written quotation. There is no charge for a quote and no obligation to book.
Lines are answered by the people who run the lorries, not a call centre. Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability.
The vehicle loads from the carriageway. Legs down, crane out, material lifted over a wall or a set of railings and into the body, then the lorry is gone. Nothing is left standing on the street afterwards, which is the practical appeal of our grab hire services in a town centre governed by a gyratory one-way system.
Capacity is 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes per job, subject to loading and road restrictions. Reach is up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle, depending on the vehicle and the site conditions, so a rear garden dig barrowed only as far as the front boundary can still be lifted from the road.
The operator decides the loading position on arrival. On the streets covered by Controlled Parking Zone A and A1 that decision is often made for us, and it is easier to agree it when you book than to solve it with the lorry already circulating.
Kingston town centre is governed by a gyratory one-way system carrying the A307 and A308, which includes a tunnel running beneath the John Lewis department store before the A308 reaches Kingston Bridge. The A308 arrives from Kingston Vale and Kingston Hill past Kingston Hospital and becomes London Road; the A307 Richmond Road and Portsmouth Road forms the western half of the same circuit, heading north through Ham and Petersham to Richmond and south past Surbiton. Kingston Bridge itself is a Grade II* listed Portland stone structure of 1825 to 1828, widened in 1914, with five rusticated arches and a balustraded parapet.
Inside that circuit, the A238 Wheatfield Way is the town-centre relief road past the bus station, carrying roughly 70 buses an hour with a cycle route alongside. A banned left turn operates in the southbound lane of Brook Street at its junction with Wheatfield Way, introduced by traffic regulation order in November 2018 alongside the Go Cycle scheme. Neither of those is a place to load, so an approach that looks obvious on a map is often the one we avoid.
Kerb space is controlled across a wide area. Controlled Parking Zone A and A1 covers more than sixty streets in the town centre, among them High Street, Church Street, Portsmouth Road, Richmond Street, Thames Side and Water Lane, so on-street space for plant or a container requires a permit or a suspension. A grab lorry sidesteps that by loading and leaving, but the loading position still has to be workable and agreed.
Under the surface, the Royal Borough’s Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment records the bedrock for the entirety of Kingston as the Thames Group of clay, silt, sand and gravel, with the London Clay Formation as the main unit, overlain by alluvium, undifferentiated River Terrace Deposits and sand and gravel of uncertain age. The same assessment identifies alluvium and river terrace deposits beside the Thames and the Hogsmill, meaning groundwater is often shallow in the low-lying riverside parts of town and excavations there frequently meet water-bearing gravels. Spoil therefore ranges from heavy wet clay to free-draining Thames gravel depending on where you dig, and the two behave very differently on a weighbridge.
Both come away as ordinary grab loads. We take soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste, and Kingston digs tend to produce the first two in quantity because of what sits under the borough.
Weight is the thing to plan around. The 16-tonne figure is a legal ceiling, not a target, and saturated London Clay or wet terrace gravel reaches it well before 20 cubic yards of body space is used. On a riverside plot where groundwater is shallow, budget for the load being called off on weight rather than volume.
Some materials cannot go on a standard booking at all, and the list is short but firm.
Kingston’s one-way system and its parking zones tend to answer this before the volume does.
| Factor | Grab lorry | Skip hire |
|---|---|---|
| Controlled Parking Zone A and A1 | Nothing remains on the kerb, so no bay suspension is needed for a container | A skip on the highway in more than sixty town-centre streets needs a permit or a suspension |
| Gyratory one-way system | One approach, one stop, one departure | Delivery and exchange trips repeat the same circuit each time |
| Wet clay and terrace gravel | 16 tonnes in one lift, subject to loading and road restrictions | Weight limits are often reached with the container half empty |
| Loading over railings | Crane reach of about 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle | The container has to be within barrow distance of the spoil |
| Riverside plots | Stabiliser legs are set on a chosen bearing point, so soft ground is assessed on arrival | The container is placed and left wherever the lorry can reach |
| Best suited to | Muck away, breakouts and bulk arisings across KT1 and KT2 | Small mixed loads on a site with off-street space |
For light, dry, mixed waste with room inside the site boundary, a container is still the simpler answer.
MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, topsoil and shingle. The crane places material where it is wanted instead of tipping it across a driveway, which matters where the frontage is narrow and the kerb space is permit-controlled.
Pairing a collection with a delivery halves the number of vehicle movements into the town centre. On a street feeding into the one-way system, that is worth more than it sounds.
Our operating centre is Pear Tree Farm, Featherbed Lane, Croydon CR0 9AA, with four vehicles authorised there. Kingston is roughly 27 minutes away on a clear road, with the final leg usually coming in on the A3 Kingston Bypass or the A240 Ewell Road through Tolworth and Surbiton.
A loaded eight-wheeler adds roughly 15 to 20 per cent to a car journey time, so the outbound and return legs are not symmetrical. Times are typical rather than promised, and same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability.
Because duty of care follows the material, not the invoice. Waste produced on your site remains your responsibility until it is passed to someone entitled to receive it, and a transfer note is the evidence that it was.
Prime Waste Services Ltd is registered waste carrier CBDU480663 under operator licence OK2066087, company number 14793814, trading since April 2023 and fully insured. Kingston is a London borough, so the Low Emission Zone also applies, running 24 hours a day and covering lorries over 3.5 tonnes that do not meet the required standard. Compliance sits with the operator, but the vehicle still has to be able to reach your street legally.
Operatives are CPCS compliant and CSCS registered, which keeps site inductions straightforward on the larger regeneration plots.
Not for the lorry, since it loads from the carriageway and leaves rather than occupying a bay. A skip is different: Controlled Parking Zone A and A1 covers more than sixty town-centre streets, including High Street, Church Street, Portsmouth Road, Thames Side and Water Lane, so kerb space there needs a permit or a suspension. Send us the street name and we will confirm where the vehicle can work.
Usually yes, with the approach planned beforehand. The town centre gyratory carries the A307 and A308 and includes the tunnel beneath John Lewis before the A308 crosses Kingston Bridge, and there is a banned left turn in the southbound lane of Brook Street at Wheatfield Way. We route around those rather than through them, which occasionally means the lorry arrives from a direction you were not expecting.
Not for trade material. The Villiers Road Household Reuse and Recycling Centre at 20 Chapel Mill Road, KT1 3GZ, is a household site that does not accept commercial waste, visits must be booked in advance and users have to prove they are Kingston residents. Entry conditions also apply to trailers, vans and large or heavy vehicles, and anyone without a valid booking is turned away.
Twenty cubic yards or up to 16 tonnes, subject to loading and road restrictions, whichever arrives first. That last part matters locally, because Kingston spoil is often London Clay or water-bearing terrace gravel and both are dense when wet. A dig near the Thames or the Hogsmill frequently fills the weight allowance before the body is visually full.
Roughly 27 minutes on a clear road from our operating centre at Featherbed Lane, CR0 9AA, usually approaching on the A3 Kingston Bypass or the A240 Ewell Road. A loaded eight-wheeler adds around 15 to 20 per cent to a car journey time, so allow more for the return leg. Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability.
Sources and further reading
Call 07778 541120 with the KT postcode and the material, and we will confirm access and price.
