Container Access Ramps

Container ramps solve one small, expensive problem: a shipping container standing at ground level has a 150 mm floor lip, and neither a pallet truck nor a forklift will climb it. A container ramp bridges that step and turns a grounded container into a working store or a goods-in point. The same product is sold under half a dozen names — container access ramp, container loading ramp, shipping container ramp, forklift container ramp — and they all describe the same job.

Our container ramps are made by Thorworld Industries at their Chesterfield factory, in steel from 6,000 kg to 12,000 kg and in high-tensile aluminium at 810 kg and 1,450 kg. Bespoke specials can be accommodated where a standard size will not do. Everything below is read off the published model data rather than generalised, because on this product the specification decides whether the ramp is usable and the marketing rarely tells you.

Rubber and plastic ramps are not the same product — read this first

If you have been looking at container ramps online you will have met two completely different things sold under one phrase. Modular rubber and plastic ramps are kerb-style wedges, usually a few hundred millimetres wide, bolted or laid side by side across a doorway. They are inexpensive, they are fine for a sack truck, a wheeled bin or foot traffic, and they will not take a laden fork truck. Rated steel and aluminium ramps are engineered structures with a stated maximum load, a fixed width and a published weight.

The two are not interchangeable and the difference is not cosmetic. A rubber kerb ramp has no load plate to check and no defined edge protection; a rated ramp does. If the traffic is a pedestrian pallet truck carrying a full pallet, or any kind of fork truck, the rubber option is out of scope and no amount of doubling up changes that. We sell the rated steel and aluminium ramps only — if a rubber threshold wedge is genuinely what the job needs, buy that instead and spend the difference elsewhere.

Yard ramp or container ramp? They are different machines

This is the single most common mix-up on this product and it is worth being blunt about. A mobile yard ramp is a large, height-adjustable ramp — usually hydraulically raised, often six to twelve metres long, towable — designed to let a forklift drive up into the back of a lorry or trailer parked in the yard. A container ramp is a fixed-height ramp sized to a container floor sitting on the ground.

They cost different money and they solve different problems. If your container is on a trailer bed or a lorry deck, a ground-level container ramp will not reach it and you need a yard ramp. If the container is grounded — set down in a yard, on a site compound, behind a unit — a container ramp is the right and far cheaper answer. We supply the ground-level container ramps and not the mobile yard ramps, so if the trailer-bed job is what you actually have, we would rather say so than sell you the wrong ramp.

Loading from a raised dock is a third case again, and a container ramp is wrong for that too — you want a dockboard or dockplate, and our dockboards vs dockplates guide explains which of those to specify.

The range, with real numbers

Model	Type	Max load	Size (W × L)	Weight
GLAR-4860	Lightweight aluminium	810 kg	1220 × 1525 mm	52 kg
GLAR-H4860	Lightweight aluminium	1,450 kg	1220 × 1525 mm	73 kg
GLAR-R-6	Steel — ramp only	6,000 kg	2200 × 1200 mm	235 kg
GLAR-R-10	Steel — ramp only	10,000 kg	2200 × 1200 mm	285 kg
GLAR-R-12	Steel — ramp only	12,000 kg	2200 × 1200 mm	310 kg
GLAR-P-6	Steel — ramp & platform	6,000 kg	2200 × 3000 mm	665 kg
GLAR-P-10	Steel — ramp & platform	10,000 kg	2200 × 3000 mm	775 kg
GLAR-R-AS / GLAR-P-AS	Aggregate anti-slip coating	—	Ramp-only / ramp & platform	30 kg / 70 kg

Width is the specification nobody quotes and it decides the ramp

Read the size column across rather than down and the range splits cleanly in two. Every steel ramp is 2200 mm wide. The door opening on a standard ISO shipping container is about 2286 mm, so a steel ramp effectively spans the full doorway: a fork truck can enter square, drift a little, and still be on the ramp at both ends of the axle.

The aluminium ramps are 1220 mm wide — a little over half the door opening. That is ample for a pedestrian pallet truck driven straight in and out on a known line, and it is not enough for a fork truck to be casual on. Combined with the 810 kg and 1,450 kg ratings, the aluminium models are unambiguously pallet truck ramps, and the steel models are forklift ramps. Choosing on capacity alone and ignoring width is how people end up with a ramp their driver quietly refuses to use.

Gradient: what slope a container ramp actually gives you

"What slope should a forklift ramp be?" is asked constantly and almost never answered on a product page, so here is the arithmetic from the published dimensions. A container floor sits 150 mm above the ground. The steel ramps run that rise out over roughly 1200 mm of length — about 1 in 8, or a little over 7°. The aluminium ramps spread the same 150 mm over 1525 mm, closer to 1 in 10, around 5.6°, which is why a pedestrian pallet truck copes with them.

Two practical consequences. First, these are short, shallow ramps by design — this is a threshold, not a hill, and it is nothing like driving up a yard ramp into a trailer. Second, the gradient is only as good as what the ramp stands on. The published requirement is a smooth, flat and sturdy floor area in front of the container, and it matters more than most buyers expect: a ramp bedded on soft ground or a broken slab sinks at the toe, the effective gradient steepens, and the transition at the container lip turns into a step again.

Ramp only or ramp and platform?

The ramp-only models are a one-piece unit giving a steady incline straight up to the container floor. They are moved from the front by fork truck through the fork pockets, which means one operative can reposition one quickly without a side-shift attachment. They are also far lighter — 235 to 310 kg against 665 to 775 kg — so they are the sensible choice if the ramp gets moved between containers.

The ramp and platform models add a level working platform, typically 1850 mm, so the truck arrives at the door horizontal rather than still tilted on the slope. That matters for one specific and expensive reason: on an incline the mast and the top of the load are pitched back towards the container ceiling, and tightly packed containers loaded to the roof get clipped. If your containers are stuffed to the top, the platform pays for itself the first time it prevents that. The trade-offs are honest ones — the platform version is positioned from the side and needs a fork truck with side-shift, it occupies 3000 mm of ground rather than 1200 mm, and it weighs roughly two and a half times as much, so it is a semi-permanent installation rather than something you shuffle about.

Steel or aluminium

Capacity is the obvious difference and handling is the one that changes day-to-day life. An aluminium ramp weighs 52 kg or 73 kg and can be positioned with a pallet truck — no fork truck required simply to set the ramp. A steel ramp is a fork-truck job every time it moves. If the container is a permanent fixture the steel weight is irrelevant; if the ramp follows the work around a yard, or is stored inside overnight against theft, the aluminium option is much easier to live with within its rating.

The aggregate anti-slip coating is an optional extra on the steel models and is worth specifying for anything permanently outdoors. Wet painted steel at even a shallow gradient is unpleasant underfoot for the operator walking a pedestrian truck up it, and that is usually the risk rather than the truck losing traction. For a wider discussion of finishes on outdoor steel, see our guide to galvanised versus powder-coated steel.

What container ramps cost

Prices are asked on every one of these SERPs and published on almost none of them, so here are ours as bands rather than quotations. Steel ramp-only units run from roughly £1,000 at 6,000 kg to £1,500 at 12,000 kg — note how little the jump from 6 tonnes to 12 tonnes actually costs, which is a strong argument for buying the capacity headroom while you are buying anything at all. Steel ramp-and-platform units sit around £2,600 to £2,900, so the platform roughly doubles the outlay. Aluminium models are about £1,600 to £1,900 — more than a steel ramp-only unit of far greater capacity, because you are paying for the light weight and the easy handling rather than for strength. The anti-slip coating adds roughly £370 on a ramp-only unit and £880 on a ramp and platform.

Two related questions come up alongside price. Hire: we sell container ramps, we do not hire them, and if the requirement is one container being emptied over a fortnight then hire is genuinely the better answer — we would rather say that than sell a ramp that stands idle. Used ramps: we do not deal in second-hand ramps. If you buy one privately, get the load plate and any test documentation with it, and inspect the fork pockets and the toe end, which is where a hard-worked ramp shows its age.

Before you order

• Confirm the container floor height. Standard is 150 mm. Temperature-controlled, insulated and raised-floor containers are not standard — tell us what you have and we will check it against the model data rather than guess.
• Check the ground in front. Smooth, flat, sturdy. This is a published requirement, not a preference.
• Match width to the traffic. 2200 mm steel for fork trucks, 1220 mm aluminium for pedestrian pallet trucks.
• Decide who positions it. Ramp-only needs a fork truck with pockets; ramp-and-platform needs side-shift as well.
• Plan the offload. A 775 kg steel ramp arrives on a lorry and comes off with a fork truck. Have one on site on the delivery day.

What goes with a container ramp

The ramp only solves the step. Once goods are moving, the equipment either side of it matters: manual pallet trucks for the aluminium ramps, powered pallet trucks and the wider pallet truck range for volume work, and access platforms and steps where people rather than pallets need to get up to a deck. If the site also takes curtain-siders and trailers, trailer safety supports and the rest of our loading accessories cover the yard-side risks.

Further reading: our guide to choosing a container access ramp goes through the selection in more depth; loading bay equipment without a dock covers how ramps, trailer supports and yard layout fit together; loading bay safety deals with chocks, bumpers and lights; and how to use a pallet truck safely is worth putting in front of anyone who will be walking a laden truck up a ramp. If you are working out what fits through the door once it is inside, see UK pallet sizes explained and our guide to stacking and storing pallets safely.