A forklift tipping skip — also called a tipper skip — is a steel bin built to be lifted by fork truck and discharged without anyone touching the waste. It is the standard way to get swarf, offcuts, packaging and general production waste out of a work area and into a bin, baler or wagon. KC Supply stocks the full GPC Industries range — tilting skips, tilting skip trucks, heavy-duty, self-closing, bottom-emptying, roll and mini skips, from 100 litres to 2.4 cubic metres, all fully welded steel and made in the UK.
This page sets out what each type actually costs, where the capacity steps are worth taking, and — just as importantly — what we do not publish about these products. Every price below is the live price including VAT, taken from the product dropdown.
First: are you buying a skip, or hiring one?
This is the decision that trips people up, because the two things share a name and nothing else. Search for a skip and you will get two completely different markets side by side:
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Skip hire — a waste contractor drops a container on your yard, takes it away full, and disposes of the contents. You pay per collection, typically £99–£270 for a small one. You never own anything and the waste leaves your site.
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A tipping skip (tipper skip) — a piece of handling equipment you own, that lives in the workshop for years and moves waste within your site, usually to the point where a hire skip or a compactor is waiting. It does not take waste away.
Everything on this page is the second kind. If what you need is for waste to leave the premises, you want a licensed waste carrier, not us. If you need to stop staff carrying bins of hot swarf across a shop floor by hand, you are in the right place.
The name to watch: "mini skip" means two different things
Ours is called the GPC Mini Skip and it is a 100–190 litre steel bin that fits under a workbench and is emptied by fork truck. It starts at £1,345.68. The phrase "mini skip" far more commonly means a 2–3 cubic yard hire skip on a driveway at around £120. If you arrived here expecting the second one, this is not it, and we would rather say so at the top of the page than have you find out at checkout.
The range, model by model
Mobile tilting skips — hand-tipped, no forklift needed
The entry point to the range and the only skips here that one person can move and empty without a fork truck. The chassis is welded hollow section on a sheet mesh base, with a tubular mesh handle for manoeuvring and a safety catch that stops the body tipping accidentally. They run on two 150 mm swivel cushion castors and two 200 mm fixed cushion wheels.
There are two of these and they are listed under the same product name, so read the model code:
| Model |
What it is |
Price |
Product page |
| SK201Y |
Mobile tilting skip — no drain |
£1,355.83 |
GPC Tilting Skips |
| SK202Y |
Mobile swarf skip — internal drain
|
£1,892.04 |
GPC Tilting Skips |
The internal drain on SK202Y lets cutting fluid and coolant separate out and run off before the chips are disposed of. If you are machining wet, that is the one to buy — a skip full of coolant is heavy, it drips across the floor on the way to the tipping point, and the fluid is usually a separate waste stream anyway. If you are cutting dry, handling packaging or clearing offcuts, the drain does nothing for you.
Both listings carry the same specification text, and that text mentions the SK202Y drain — so if you are reading the SK201Y page you will see a drain described that the skip in front of you does not have. Check the model code in the dropdown, not the feature list. See mobile swarf skips for the drained version on its own.
Tilting skip trucks — mobile and static are two separate listings
This is the most confusing thing in the range and it is worth reading carefully. The specification text on both listings says the truck is "available either mobile or static". That is true of what GPC make. It is not true of either listing: each one sells only one of the two, and there is nothing on either page pointing at the other. Two products, one product name, two different sets of model codes:
If you have landed on a page showing SK101Y and SK102Y and you need the static version, you are on the wrong listing — use the links above. We have raised the duplicate naming internally; until it is fixed, the model code is the only reliable way to tell the two apart.
Both versions are CE marked and plated, fully welded with the top press-formed for rigidity, and fitted with a positive skip-lock mechanism, side-entry fork pockets, retaining bars and integral sideguards enclosing the tip skid. The lock matters more than it sounds: it is what stops the body swinging while the load is in the air.
One published figure does not add up, and you should know before you order. The specification block on both listings gives a body size of 1,220 × 600 × 700 mm and a capacity of "300 kg — 1/2 cubic metre". Half a cubic metre is 500 litres, and 1,220 × 600 × 700 mm works out at almost exactly that — so the figure describes the 500-litre model. It cannot also describe the 1,000-litre model on the same listing. If you are ordering the 1,000-litre version and the footprint matters, ask us for the dimensions in writing before you commit; we will get them from GPC rather than guess.
Heavy-duty tilting skips — the widest capacity range, and the clearest value step
Built on a stronger chassis and designed to be lifted and tipped by fork truck rather than pushed. A forklift is needed to offload them. Five capacities, and the price behaves in a way that is worth understanding before you pick one:
| Model |
Capacity |
Price |
Cost per litre |
Step up from the size below |
| SK302Y |
250 litre |
£2,397.24 |
£9.59 |
— |
| SK305Y |
500 litre |
£2,751.36 |
£5.50 |
+£354.12 (+14.8%) for double the capacity |
| SK310Z |
1,000 litre |
£3,406.08 |
£3.41 |
+£654.72 (+23.8%) for double again |
| SK312Z |
1,200 litre |
£3,664.14 |
£3.05 |
+£258.06 (+7.6%) for +20% |
| SK315Z |
1,500 litre |
£4,137.90 |
£2.76 |
+£473.76 (+12.9%) for +25% |
The 250-litre model is the worst value on this page by a wide margin. It costs £9.59 per litre against £2.76 at the top of the range — and stepping from 250 to 500 litres doubles the capacity for 14.8% more money. That is the cheapest capacity you can buy anywhere in our handling range. Unless the 250 physically has to fit a space the 500 will not, take the 500.
Across the whole ladder, going from 250 to 1,500 litres costs 72.6% more and gives you six times the volume — a 71.2% reduction in cost per litre. The one genuine flat spot is 1,000 to 1,200 litres at +7.6%: if you are choosing between those two and the floor space exists, take the 1,200.
Browse the range at tilting skips.
Self-closing skips — and the one price inversion on this page
A self-closing skip has a spring-loaded bottom instead of a tipping body. The driver pulls a release chain from inside the cab, the base opens, the load drops, and the base closes again on its own. Strong fully welded steel, a full-length hinge, and they stack four high empty — which is the real floor-space argument for them.
These are the only two skips on the page where we publish dimensions and weight, so you can actually plan around them:
| Model |
Capacity |
Size closed (L × W × H) |
Weight |
Price |
| SKC16Z |
1.6 m³ |
1,380 × 1,340 × 1,354 mm |
164 kg |
£4,069.56 |
| SKC24Z |
2.4 m³ |
2,000 × 1,200 × 1,354 mm |
212 kg |
£4,993.08 |
Stepping from 1.6 to 2.4 m³ costs £923.52, or 22.7%, for 50% more capacity — a reasonable step if the forklift can handle the loaded weight.
Now the comparison worth making, because it runs against what you would expect. The 1,500-litre heavy-duty tilting skip is £4,137.90. The 1.6 m³ self-closing skip is £4,069.56 — £68.34 cheaper, and it holds 100 litres more. Per litre that is £2.54 against £2.76, or 7.8% cheaper. The self-closing skip is the more mechanically involved product: spring-loaded base, release chain, full-length hinge, stackable. At matched capacity it is the cheaper purchase, not the dearer one.
That does not make it automatically right. A tilting skip discharges by rotating, which throws the load forward and out — good for swarf that packs down and clings. A self-closing skip drops its load straight down through the base, which needs clearance underneath and a target directly below. If you are emptying into a bin at ground level or a hopper, the drop suits you. If you are tipping over the lip of a large container or a wagon side, the tilt suits you. Choose on discharge geometry first, and take the fact that the better-specified unit is also cheaper as a bonus. See self-closing skips.
Bottom-emptying and roll skips
The bottom-emptying skip (SK209Z, £2,695.74) discharges through its base for controlled unloading into a hopper or a lower container, rather than tipping. We publish no capacity, no dimensions and no weight for it — the manufacturer's listing gives a model code, a name and a price and nothing else. If that skip is the right shape for your job, ask us and we will get the figures from GPC before you order. We are not going to estimate them here.
The heavy-duty roll skip (SKHD08Y, £3,902.82) holds 0.8 m³ at 1,203 × 1,550 × 895 mm and 150 kg, with a published lead time of 15–20 days — the only product in this collection that states one. Worth being clear about the value: at £4.88 per litre it is the most expensive capacity on the page. A 1,000-litre heavy-duty tilting skip costs £496.74 less and holds 200 litres more, at 43.2% less per litre. You buy the roll skip because it rolls and because 1,550 mm of width suits bulky waste that will not compact — not because it is a cost-effective way to hold volume.
Mini skips — take the 190
Designed for production areas where floor space is the constraint. They fit under a workbench and run on three 100 mm nylon castors, two fixed and one swivel. Note that despite the castors, a forklift is needed to lift and empty them — the castors are for nudging the skip out from under the bench, not for emptying it.
| Model |
Capacity |
Price |
Cost per litre |
| SK410Y |
100 litre |
£1,345.68 |
£13.46 |
| SK415Y |
150 litre |
£1,498.38 |
£9.99 |
| SK419Y |
190 litre |
£1,600.92 |
£8.43 |
The 190 is the one to buy unless the bench height genuinely rules it out. It holds 90% more than the 100-litre model for 19.0% more money, and the cost per litre falls 37.4% across the three. Buying the 100-litre to save £255.24 and then emptying it twice as often is a poor trade for anyone paying a fork truck driver.
What we do not publish, and why we are telling you
Competitors in this category sell tipping skips by dimension. We largely do not, and you should know that before you plan a bay around one:
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Seven of the nine products here publish no external dimensions at all. Only the self-closing skips and the roll skip give a length, width and height.
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Only one of the nine publishes a lead time (the roll skip, at 15–20 days). Ask us for the others.
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The mesh top cage is a factory-fit option you cannot order from the dropdown. The heavy-duty tilting skips list a 580 mm cage and the mini skips a 200 mm cage as factory-fitted options — but there is no cage variant to select and no price published for one. If you need a cage to stop light or wind-blown waste escaping in transit, it is a phone call and a quote, not a checkbox. We would rather say that than leave you hunting for a dropdown that is not there.
If you tell us the waste type, the volume between empties and the fork truck you are running, we will get the missing dimensions from GPC in writing and come back with them. That is a better outcome than a skip that does not fit the bay.
How to choose, in the order the decisions actually arrive
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How will it be emptied? If nobody is driving a fork truck to the tipping point, you need a mobile tilting skip — it is the only type here one person can empty by hand. Everything else assumes a fork truck.
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Which way does the load need to leave? Tipping throws the load forward and over a lip. Bottom-emptying and self-closing drop it straight down. Match this to what you are emptying into before you look at capacity.
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How much waste between empties? Size for the interval you want, then check the ladder above — the steps are rarely proportional and the 250-litre heavy-duty model in particular is poor value against the 500.
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Will the fork truck lift it loaded? Check the truck's rated capacity at the required fork height against the skip weight plus the waste. Swarf and offcuts are far denser than packaging, and a skip sized by volume can exceed a truck's rating long before it looks full.
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Wet or dry waste? Coolant and cutting fluid mean the drained swarf skip, or a plan for where the liquid goes. If liquids are stored nearby rather than just generated, look at spill containment too.
Using tipping skips safely
Tipping skips are work equipment, so the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) apply — the equipment must be suitable for the job, maintained, and used by people who have been trained on it. The GPC tilting skip trucks are CE marked and plated by the manufacturer.
In practice the failures worth designing out are the predictable ones: tipping with somebody standing in the discharge arc; lifting a loaded skip above the fork truck's rating for that height; and travelling with a raised load. Use the skip-lock mechanism where the model has one, keep the load low while moving, and set out a tipping point where nobody needs to walk past. Where a skip is lifted by fork truck, the combination of truck, attachment and load should be covered by your own risk assessment and inspection regime — we can supply the manufacturer's documentation, but we cannot assess your site for you. This page is buying guidance, not a substitute for a risk assessment.
Related ranges
For moving waste between areas without tipping, see platform trucks and trolleys and storage cages. For the bench-side setup that generates the waste in the first place, see workshop storage. For handling loaded skips on pallets, see pallet trucks. If the waste is hazardous or the liquids need containing, start with hazardous storage and drum storage. The full manufacturer range is at GPC Industries, and there is a longer explainer at our tipping skips guide.
GPC Industries SK202Y
GPC Industries SK201Y
GPC Industries SK410Y
