Hiab Truck

A hiab truck is a common term for truck crane; a crane that is fixed on a heavy, customised truck chassis. 

Hiab crane trucks are commonly used in the transport industry for the loading and unloading of freight, (e.g. boat transport) and in the construction industry for heavy haulage.

But what does HIAB, the name, actually stand for though?

The company was founded in Sweden in 1944. Its full name is Hydraliska Industri AB, which was shortened to HIAB. The founder was Eric Sundin who had developed a way to use hydraulics to power loader cranes.

Around the same time, three Finnish brothers developed the first hooklift. They launched the Multilift company in 1949. The two companies would later find themselves merged together when the Partek Corporation purchased Multilift (in 1977) and then HIAB (in 1985).

Fishing boat transport

We recently organised the transport of a fishing boat from Holland to Galway. Our professional heavy haulage transport trucks are able to service large loads like this. In some cases road transport can be the most efficient method of all and is applicable to boats of up to a large size.

Anyone who doubts this only needs to look at the choice of location for one of Europe’s largest boat builders, Bavaria Yachtbau. The factory, which builds craft of up to 56ft, is in Southern Germany, more than 350 miles from the nearest sea!