Most  mobile catering companies I know have their own vehicles and they use a courier service as a back up when moving their commercial kitchen equipment. Moving a commercial kitchen is a structured ordered system that the staff of mobile catering companies are proficient in.

When we move mobile catering equipment I have always found that all I need to do or have one of our drivers do is safely load and unload the vehicles – the staff know how to dismantle the items and what order they need to be loaded, so that when unloading the items such as stainless steel work surfaces come off the vehicles first. Then the equipment that is unloaded can be stacked onto the work surfaces.

In these scenarios the courier service is left to do what it does best – driving the equipment to it’s end destination.

Moving a fixed commercial kitchen is much rarer, often we move one or two items such as the oven or the grill or the fridges.

The fridges do have to be measured before booking a vehicle – sometimes they are too tall for a normal van, they need a curtain side vehicle or to be laid on their side, which we all know unsettles their gases and can cause problems later on.

Dishwashers are loaded with ease, take care to strap down the rinsing shower if it has one (normally on a pass through dishwasher) and tape the trays internally so they don’t move around and scratch the interior. It always pays to check the Dishwasher has actually been unloaded first although we have moved some loaded ones and not broken a thing, it cannot be guaranteed to deliver things in the centre of a dishwasher safe every time.

Ice machines, bottle coolers and hotplates are all smaller items that can be co loaded onto smaller vehicles with ease. Vegetable racks and pots and pans are best crated up for delivery, we recommend tea crates or plastic packing crates for this, and if you don’t have any then they can be hired locally.

The heavy parts aside from commercial kitchen equipment I have found is the crockery. A busy catering kitchen has a tonne of dishes, plates and glassware that needs to be packed and moved safely – get someone who is good at packing to do this. The safe delivery of crockery always comes down to how well it is packaged.

One final tip, when moving a commercial kitchen listen to what the chef has to say, they know their equipment inside out – how to dismantle it, how to pack it and how to store it.

If you are looking to move your commercial kitchen, give us a call we are always happy to help.

Kevin

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