You Won the Bid. Now the Clock Starts.
Winning an auction lot feels good. The hammer drops, the invoice lands in your inbox, and for a minute you’re focused on the machine you just bought, not on how it gets home.
Then you read the fine print.
Ritchie Bros: Equipment must be removed within a set number of business days from the auction close date. Miss that window and daily storage fees begin accruing immediately.
IronPlanet: Removal deadlines vary by seller and site, but late pickups result in storage charges that can hit $50 to $150 per day or more depending on the yard.
BigIron, Purple Wave, Bidadoo, Machinery Pete: Every platform has its own removal policy and most of them are not forgiving.
That removal clock is running the moment the sale closes. And if you haven’t already lined up freight before bidding, you are already behind.
This guide covers everything you need to know about shipping equipment you bought at auction, from getting a quote before you even bid to what to inspect when the truck arrives at your facility. No fluff. Just the practical information that saves you money and gets your equipment home on time.
Step 1: Get a Freight Quote Before You Bid, Not After
This is the most important advice in this entire guide. Most first-time auction buyers treat freight as an afterthought. They win the lot, then scramble to find a carrier. That scramble costs them money in two ways: they pay a rush premium on freight, and they sometimes miss the removal deadline anyway.
Experienced auction buyers do it differently. They request a freight quote before they bid, add that cost to their bid math, and know their total delivered cost before they raise their hand or click the button.
Here is how to do it:
Most auction listings include the equipment’s dimensions, weight, and exact pickup location. That is all you need to get a freight quote. Send those specs, the pickup zip code, your delivery zip code, and the auction name to your freight broker before the auction closes. A good broker will turn around a quote same day.
Now you know your all-in cost. If the machine is listed at $35,000, freight is $2,800, and rigging at the yard is another $400, your total delivered cost is $38,200. Bid accordingly.
At Abound Transport Group, we quote auction freight fast specifically because buyers need this number before the auction, not after. Send us your lot details and we will get you a number you can plan around.
Step 2: Know Your Removal Deadline and Build Around It
The moment your auction closes, do two things. First, confirm the exact removal deadline in writing. Second, tell your freight broker that deadline immediately, before discussing anything else.
The removal deadline is the constraint that drives every other decision. Trailer availability, rigging scheduling, dispatch timing, and pickup windows all have to be organized backward from that date.
At Abound Transport Group, when you give us a removal deadline, that date becomes the fixed point in the logistics plan. We build everything else around it. If your deadline is next Thursday at 5 PM, we are not booking a carrier that is available Friday. We are getting a truck staged and scheduled with the yard well before Thursday morning.
Here is what commonly goes wrong when buyers do not communicate deadlines upfront:
Storage fees that add up fast. At major auction yards, $75 to $150 per day in storage adds up to real money over a week. A $500 storage bill on a $15,000 machine is a painful and completely avoidable cost.
Equipment marked for disposition. Some auction houses, particularly on smaller lots, will treat equipment as abandoned after a certain number of days past the deadline. This is rare but it happens, and it is entirely preventable.
Rigger availability conflicts. If you are picking up at a yard that uses third-party riggers for crane loading, those crews book up. A last-minute rigging request costs more and may not be available on your deadline day.
Bottom line: communicate the removal deadline first. Everything else flows from there.
Step 3: Choose the Right Trailer for Your Equipment
Auction equipment comes in every shape and size. Here is a quick framework for matching your purchase to the right trailer:
Standard Flatbed
Best for compact equipment under 8.5 feet tall, skid steers, small forklifts, palletized industrial lots, and crated machinery. Deck height is approximately 58 to 60 inches off the ground. Flatbed is your lowest-cost open-deck option and works for a wide range of auction purchases.
Step Deck
Best for taller equipment that exceeds flatbed height limits. Excavators, medium forklifts, larger CNC machines, and equipment with high profiles typically need a step deck. The lower rear deck sits approximately 42 inches off the ground, giving you extra vertical clearance without going to a double drop.
Lowboy / RGN (Removable Gooseneck)
Best for heavy construction equipment, large excavators, bulldozers, motor graders, and any machine that exceeds standard weight limits or is too tall for a step deck. The RGN’s removable front gooseneck allows equipment to drive or be pushed directly onto the trailer from the ground, which is critical at sites without crane access. Multi-axle configurations handle loads up to 150,000+ lbs with proper permits.
See lowboy and RGN specs here.
Conestoga Flatbed or Step Deck
Best for auction purchases that have sensitive surfaces, electronics, control panels, or finished components that should not be touched by a canvas tarp. CNC machines, laser cutters, precision equipment, and any machine with exterior glass or operator interfaces should travel on a Conestoga. The rolling tarp system fully encloses the load with zero tarp-to-cargo contact.
See Conestoga trailer options here.
Hotshot
Best for smaller purchases under 16,000 lbs that need to move fast. If you bought a single small machine, a tooling package, or a light equipment attachment, a hotshot can often dispatch same-day or next-day and gets your freight moving without waiting for a full trailer.
Quick trailer selector for common auction purchases:
| Equipment Type | Recommended Trailer |
|---|---|
| Skid steer, compact track loader | Flatbed or Step Deck |
| Mini-excavator | Step Deck or Flatbed |
| Full-size excavator (10 ton+) | Lowboy / RGN |
| Bulldozer, motor grader | Lowboy / RGN (heavy haul) |
| Forklift under 15,000 lbs | Flatbed or Step Deck |
| CNC machine, precision equipment | Conestoga Flatbed or Step Deck |
| Generators, compressors | Flatbed or Step Deck |
| Single small machine or tools | Hotshot |
| Full production line or multiple lots | Project Freight, multi-trailer |
Step 4: Understand How Rigging Works at Auction Yards
Loading heavy equipment at an auction yard is not like loading at a manufacturer’s dock. The yard controls access, the loading schedule, and in many cases, which rigging crew or crane service is on-site.
Here is what most buyers do not realize: the freight carrier and the rigging crew are two separate things. The truck shows up and positions the trailer. The rigger or crane operator lifts or drives the equipment onto the trailer. Those two parties have to be coordinated so they both show up at the right time.
When they are not coordinated, you get a truck staged at the yard waiting two hours for a rigger that was not told the truck was coming. That is a detention fee. Or you get a rigging crew at the yard with the machine ready to load and no truck. That is a missed pickup window and potentially a storage fee for another day.
At Abound Transport Group, we coordinate directly with the rigging crew at pickup. We confirm the crane or forklift availability, the loading window, and the truck staging position before dispatch. This is standard in our process because we have done enough auction pickups to know that coordination between these two parties is exactly where jobs fall apart.
If you do not have a rigger arranged and need a recommendation, ask us. We have a network of industrial rigging contacts across the country and can point you to trusted crews near any major auction yard.
Step 5: Insurance for Used Equipment Is Not Optional
Here is something buyers consistently underestimate: when you ship used auction equipment, you have no manufacturer warranty protecting you. If the machine arrives damaged, the only thing standing between you and eating that loss is your cargo insurance coverage.
Standard carrier liability is required by law and covers a minimum of $100,000 per load. On a $60,000 excavator, that sounds like enough. But standard carrier liability comes with exclusions. Acts of God. Improper loading. Latent defects in the equipment itself. Disputes over what caused the damage. A carrier’s legal team has seen every one of these situations and they know how to minimize the claim.
All-risk cargo insurance works differently. It covers the full declared value of your load regardless of who caused the damage and without the same exclusions. For auction equipment, which already has no warranty and no recourse against a manufacturer if something goes wrong, all-risk coverage is the only real protection you have.
At Abound Transport Group, we offer all-risk cargo coverage up to $2.5 million per shipment, with same-day certificate issuance. For a machine worth $80,000 or more, the cost of all-risk coverage is small relative to the risk you are taking without it.
Step 6: Cross-Border Auction Purchases
Buying equipment from a Canadian or Mexican auction yard is increasingly common. IronPlanet, Ritchie Bros., and other platforms list machines from facilities across North America. The equipment might be priced attractively, but the cross-border logistics add steps that catch first-time buyers off guard.
Buying from Canada:
You need a customs broker to handle the entry paperwork on the US side. The equipment must be declared at the border, and depending on the machine’s country of origin and classification, duties may apply. Transit documents need to be prepared before the truck crosses. The freight itself works the same as a domestic move, but the border crossing adds a day to the timeline and requires proper documentation coordination.
Abound Transport Group handles cross-border machinery transport from Canada to the US regularly. We work alongside your customs broker or can refer you to a trusted border crossing partner if you do not have one.
See our Canada freight services here.
Buying from Mexico:
Mexico cross-border equipment transport typically involves a transloading point at the US-Mexico border, where the cargo transfers from a Mexican carrier to a US carrier. Abound Transport Group offers direct through-service for Mexico purchases, coordinating both sides of the crossing without requiring you to manage multiple carriers.
See our Mexico freight services here.
Key tip for cross-border purchases: Before you bid, confirm where the equipment was manufactured. Country of origin affects duty classification on import. A Korean-manufactured machine sitting in a Canadian yard does not automatically enter the US duty-free under the CUSMA/USMCA agreement. Your customs broker can confirm the correct classification before you close the deal.
Step 7: What to Do at Delivery
Getting the equipment home is not quite the finish line. What you do in the first few minutes after delivery determines your options if something went wrong in transit.
Inspect before signing. Walk around the machine with the driver present before anything is unloaded. Look for visible damage: cracked components, broken fittings, bent panels, smashed lights, fluid leaks. Compare what you see to the photos you or the auction yard took before loading. If you see damage, note it on the bill of lading before you sign. A signed clean bill of lading is effectively a statement that the equipment arrived in good condition, and disputing a damage claim after signing one is very difficult.
Photograph everything. Take photos of the load as it arrived on the trailer, the securement, and any damage you find. These photos are your documentation if a claim becomes necessary.
Coordinate your offloading in advance. Have your forklift, crane, or drive-off plan confirmed before the truck arrives. A driver who has to wait because no equipment is available to offload will start accumulating detention time quickly.
Let the machine rest before you run it. For any precision equipment or machinery that has been in transport through temperature changes, give it time to acclimate to the shop before powering it up. This is especially important for CNC machines and equipment with hydraulic systems that may need fluid checks after transit.
How Abound Transport Group Makes Auction Shipping Easy
We do this every day. Ritchie Bros, IronPlanet, Bidadoo, Purple Wave, BigIron, Machinery Pete, we know how each yard operates, what their loading procedures look like, and what documentation they require for release.
When you send us a lot number or auction invoice, here is what happens:
- We review the equipment specs and recommend the right trailer
- We quote you an all-in rate with permit costs included if needed
- We coordinate directly with the auction yard and rigging crew for pickup
- We dispatch a vetted carrier from Armstrong’s 85,000+ network
- You get real-time GPS tracking through the ATGFr8 portal with updates every 15 minutes
- We confirm delivery and send you the paperwork
No call centers. One agent, one point of contact, from the quote to the delivery confirmation.
Get a quote for your auction equipment purchase.
(800) 957-2558 | Monday to Friday, 5:30 AM to 5:00 PM PST
Frequently Asked Questions
Contact a freight broker who specializes in open-deck equipment transport as soon as your auction closes. Provide the lot details, dimensions, weight, pickup location, and your removal deadline. The broker handles trailer selection, carrier dispatch, yard coordination, and permit filing if needed. At Abound Transport Group, we recommend getting a quote before you bid so freight cost is factored into your purchase decision.
Removal deadlines at Ritchie Bros vary by auction type and location, but buyers are typically given a limited number of business days after the close of the auction to remove their purchases. Missing the deadline results in daily storage fees. Always confirm the specific removal window on your invoice and communicate that date to your freight broker immediately.
It depends on the equipment's dimensions and weight. Skid steers and compact equipment typically go on a flatbed or step deck. Full-size excavators and heavy construction equipment require a lowboy or RGN. CNC machines and precision equipment with exposed surfaces should travel on a Conestoga. If you are unsure, share the dimensions and we will tell you what trailer your load needs.
In most cases, yes. Auction yards do not load equipment onto trailers. A separate crane or rigging crew is responsible for lifting or driving the equipment onto the trailer. Your freight broker should coordinate the truck arrival with the rigging crew's schedule to prevent costly delays. Abound Transport Group handles this coordination as part of our standard auction freight process.
Standard carrier liability covers a minimum of $100,000 but excludes many common causes of damage. For equipment worth more than $50,000, all-risk cargo insurance is strongly recommended. Abound Transport Group offers all-risk coverage up to $2.5 million per shipment. Since auction equipment carries no manufacturer warranty, cargo insurance is your only financial protection if something goes wrong in transit.