Traffic management equipment hire — the gear, without the full-service price tag
If your crew has a qualified STMS and an approved TMP, you don't need to pay a full-service traffic management company to stand on the road for you. You need the gear — temporary lights, VMS boards, TMA trucks, cones and signs — delivered to site, compliant and ready to run. That's what this section of CiviEase does.
And if you'd rather hand the whole thing over — TMP design, corridor access, crews, equipment, pack-down — we do that too. Either way, you're dealing with the team that understands the approval the gear has to match, not a hire desk that's never read a TMP.
Need the gear, the TMP, or both?
Send it through — we'll identify the next step, usually within one working day.
DIY hire vs full-service TTM — the honest version
Full-service traffic management means you pay for everything: the plan, the crews, the vehicles, the equipment and the margin on all of it. For a contractor without TTM-qualified staff, that's the right spend — there's no legal shortcut.
But plenty of Canterbury civil contractors already employ an STMS and hold their own traffic control capability. If that's you, the maths is straightforward:
- Full-service: crew day-rates plus equipment plus vehicles, every day the site is live.
- DIY hire: your people (already on the payroll) plus the hire cost of the gear, plus a TMP if you don't already have one.
The saving is the crew margin, and on a long-duration job — weeks of shuttle-lane work, a staged subdivision tie-in — that's real money. On a two-day footpath closure, the difference is smaller and full-service may be simpler. We'll tell you which side of the line your job sits on if you send us the scope. We sell both, so we've got no reason to oversell either.
One thing we will not blur: DIY hire is only legal with an approved TMP and a qualified STMS in control of the site at all times. Hiring cones from us does not give anyone the right to cone off a road. If you don't have the TMP or the STMS, you're not a DIY customer yet — but we can get you there, because TMP design and corridor access lodgement is the other half of our business.
The DIY-eligibility checklist
Before we release equipment for self-managed hire, work through this list. It's the same list the road controlling authority's auditor will use.
- An approved TMP for the site. All temporary traffic management must be installed under an approved TMP before work starts — no approved plan, no legal setup. Don't have one? We design TMPs and lodge them with the CAR.
- An STMS in control at all times. The worksite must be under the control of a qualified Site Traffic Management Supervisor whenever TTM is live. On lower-risk roads a Traffic Controller can run the setup under STMS delegation — but only with a documented briefing and daily STMS inspection. Qualifications lapse three years after assessment, so check card dates, not memories.
- Equipment endorsements where required. An STMS overseeing portable traffic signals or VMS needs the relevant endorsement (or another endorsed person on site). Under the NZGTTM's competency-based system the principle is the same: the person running specialist gear must be demonstrably competent with it.
- TMA rules for your speed environment. Higher-speed work needs a truck-mounted attenuator with the right crash-test rating, on the right shadow vehicle — see TMA and arrow board truck hire for the TL2/TL3 rules in plain English.
- Competent operators for everything else. NZGTTM puts the duty on the PCBU to ensure every person on the TTM site has the skills and training for their task. "Dave watched a video once" is not a system.
Tick all five and DIY hire will save you money. Miss one and the cheapest option is the one that keeps the permit — and the crew — intact.
Ticked all five? Send the equipment list.
Send it through — we'll identify the next step, usually within one working day.
The fleet
Everything below is CoPTTM/NZGTTM-appropriate equipment, maintained and inspected between hires, with the compliance paperwork the TMP reviewer expects. Availability is honest: equipment availability depends on project timing, location, booking schedule, site suitability and the traffic management requirements of the work — ask as early as you can, especially around Christchurch's event season and the summer roadworks programme, when every supplier in Canterbury is stretched at once.
Temporary traffic light hire
Radio-linked shuttle pairs for alternating one-way flow, multi-phase units for junctions, vehicle-activated and pedestrian-capable setups. AS 4191-compliant, NZTA-registered systems with the battery and solar autonomy to run unattended within the TMP's monitoring conditions. The gear that replaces two Stop/Go operators for weeks at a time.
VMS board hire
Trailer-mounted, solar variable message signs in compact and highway sizes — advance warning, detour messaging, event traffic and speed advisory. Remote message updates, amber display for public-road TTM, and messaging that follows what your approved TMP actually says.
TMA trucks, arrow boards and support vehicles
Truck-mounted attenuators in TL2 and TL3 ratings, arrow-board trucks, and TTM support utes for mobile and shadow operations. The crash cushion between a live lane at speed and your crew — and the single least-served hire category in the NZ market.
Cone and signage hire
900 mm cones, temporary warning and regulatory signs, stands, bases and ballast — the small gear in the quantities real setups actually consume. Equipment selection must match the approved plan and the road authority's requirements.
Equipment by GA Applications — our hire fleet is supplied and maintained by GA Applications, so the gear arrives compliant and site-ready.
Delivery from our Sockburn depot
Our base is Unit 7, 2 William Lewis Drive, Sockburn — minutes from the Hornby and Wigram industrial areas and central to most Christchurch sites. We deliver to site, position the gear to your TMP layout, and collect when the job's done; self-collection from the depot is available for smaller kit. Delivery covers Christchurch metro and wider Canterbury.
Hire it with the TMP, or without
Because CiviEase also designs traffic management plans, there's a middle option most hire companies can't offer: we prepare the TMP, you run the site with our gear and your STMS. The sign schedule matches the equipment list because the same desk wrote both. If you're a civil contractor running repeat work across Canterbury, that bundle — approvals plus gear, without the crew margin — is usually the cheapest compliant way to work.
Frequently asked questions
Can I hire traffic management equipment and run the site myself?
Yes — if you hold an approved TMP for the site and a qualified STMS controls the setup, maintenance and removal at all times. On lower-risk roads, a Traffic Controller can act under documented STMS delegation. Specialist gear like portable signals and VMS requires the relevant endorsement or demonstrated competence. Hiring equipment never removes those obligations.
How much does traffic management equipment hire cost in Christchurch?
Most NZ hirers are quote-only. Published market benchmarks exist — one NZ hirer lists portable lights from $150/day plus GST, another lists VMS boards from $100/day, and cones around $4/day each — but rates vary with hire duration and delivery. Send us your equipment list and dates and we'll quote CiviEase rates directly.
Do you deliver equipment to site, and where do you cover?
Yes — we deliver from our Sockburn depot across Christchurch metro and wider Canterbury, position equipment to your TMP layout, and collect at the end of the hire. Smaller items like cones, signs and stands can be collected from the depot yourself. Delivery fees depend on distance and timing; we'll confirm them in the quote, not on the invoice.
What if I need the full crew instead of just the gear?
That's our full-service traffic management option — TMP design, corridor access, qualified crews, vehicles, equipment and pack-down, handled end to end. Tell us the scope and we'll quote both ways where it makes sense, so you can compare DIY hire against full service on the same job.
Paperwork to pavement.
Send us what you have — we'll take it from there.