The riskiest minutes of a machine's trip are the ones at each end. Across the Memphis metro we load and unload machinery, crated equipment, and containers with high-capacity forklifts and rigging gear — weight and center of gravity checked, forks positioned, and the load secured before anything leaves the ground.
Quick answer: Badass Logistics provides machinery loading & unloading in Memphis, TN and the surrounding metro. We load and unload machines, crated equipment, and containers as rigging work — weight and center of gravity verified, forklifts sized to the real load, and a crew that can take it into the building. Our crews work across Memphis and nearby Tennessee metros, and moves between facilities run as project freight under the same plan — usually quoted the same day. Call (307) 284-1332.
Most loading damage happens in a few seconds: forks set under the wrong point, a top-heavy machine tipped on a slope, a forklift picking a load past its rated load center. In a metro built on America's distribution crossroads, machines and crated equipment arrive and leave every day at buildings that were never laid out for them — no dock, a gravel lot, a container that has to be emptied from the doors inward.
Badass Logistics treats loading and unloading as rigging, not labor. We verify weight and center of gravity, size the forklift to the actual load and ground, and position and secure the load for the carrier — and when the machine has to go further than the tailgate, the crew skates it through the door and sets it in place. We don't rent forklifts; we provide the crew, the lift, and the gear as one job. Forklift vs crane for machine loading →
A lot of what gets unloaded in Memphis arrives in containers. The Port of Memphis on the Mississippi River at President's Island is one of the largest inland ports in the country, handling bulk grain, fertilizer and industrial cargo by barge. Served by BNSF, Union Pacific, Canadian National, CSX and Norfolk Southern, making Memphis one of only a few US metros with five Class I railroads, with Canadian National operating its second-largest classification yard in the country here. The receiving end is usually the Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park on President's Island, the Memphis International Airport air-cargo corridor, and the President's Island Mississippi River industrial district.
Memphis, TN runs on America's distribution crossroads, and almost none of it stays put. Same crews and the same machinery loading and unloading standards across the region:
Memphis's industrial base — America's distribution crossroads — runs on equipment that doesn't move like freight. Most work happens around live distribution and production operations that can't stop for the move. Typical load and unload jobs for Memphis customers include:
The dock is the variable. Memphis buildings are large single-storey clear-span distribution buildings around the airport corridor alongside older industrial buildings on President's Island built around barge and rail-served docks — so one delivery backs into a dock leveler and the next comes off a trailer at ground level onto a lot. What comes off those trucks is mostly material handling conveyors, palletizers and sortation equipment, food processing lines, and grain and bulk handling equipment, and every one of them gets a weight and center-of-gravity check before the forks go in.
Machines rigged out and loaded onto trucks, positioned and secured for transit across the Memphis metro.
Crated and skidded equipment unloaded, inspected, and staged or moved in across the Memphis metro.
Heavy machines and crates pulled from containers with rollers, jacks, and forklifts across the Memphis metro.
Heavy freight unloaded at ground level where there is no loading dock across the Memphis metro.
Plenty of Memphis jobs start and finish on one floor. The rest have to travel — to a new building across the metro, a sister plant down I-40, I-65, I-24 and I-75, or a facility in another state. We don't hand that part off. It runs as project freight inside the same plan: machines crated or prepped on site, loads sequenced to the rig-out, transport through our licensed broker and carrier partners with dedicated capacity for bigger moves, and our crew waiting at the destination to set it.
Every machinery loading & unloading job in Memphis, TN is quoted from the actual work, not a rate sheet. These are the things that move the number — send them with your request and you'll get a real quote back fast:
Photos of the equipment, its nameplate, and the path out of the building save a site visit on smaller Memphis jobs. For bigger moves we walk both sites before we price anything.
The same Memphis crews handle every kind of industrial rigging. If your job looks more like one of these, start here:
Running a trucking fleet out of Memphis? See truck dispatch for fleets of 4+ trucks.
Working throughout Memphis, TN and the surrounding metro — backed by a nationwide network of 88 locations when a move crosses state lines.
Machinery Loading & Unloading throughout Memphis and the industrial suburbs around it — the towns below are where the plants, shops and distribution parks actually sit:
| Town | County | From downtown |
|---|---|---|
| Bartlett | Shelby County | 11 mi |
| Germantown | Shelby County | 14 mi |
| Collierville | Shelby County | 23 mi |
| Southaven, MS | DeSoto County | 11 mi |
| Olive Branch, MS | DeSoto County | 18 mi |
| Millington | Shelby County | 16 mi |
| Horn Lake, MS | DeSoto County | 13 mi |
| West Memphis, AR | Crittenden County | 8 mi |
| Cordova | Shelby County | 15 mi |
| Ellendale | Shelby County | 14 mi |
| Hernando, MS | DeSoto County | 23 mi |
| Forrest City, AR | St. Francis County | 43 mi |
| Lakeland | Shelby County | 18 mi |
| Marion, AR | Crittenden County | 10 mi |
| Arlington | Shelby County | 24 mi |
| Atoka | Tipton County | 25 mi |
| Covington | Tipton County | 37 mi |
Moving across the metro or out of state? See all our Memphis services, Machinery Loading & Unloading across Tennessee or get a quote.
We run machinery loading & unloading in metros across Tennessee — pick the nearest crew:
Most Memphis jobs don't stop at one service. The crew that rigs a machine out is the crew that manages the move and sets it back down — so you're dealing with one company from the disconnect to the re-level, not three subcontractors pointing at each other.
Machine has to come off the floor, through the door, or onto a pad before it travels? That's the rigging side of the same Memphis crew.
Memphis industrial rigging →Presses, compressors, generators, full production lines — disconnected, rigged, hauled, and re-leveled across Memphis as one accountable job.
Memphis machinery movers →Machine tools are instruments, not freight. VMCs, lathes, and grinders moved on air-ride and squared back to the builder's spec in Memphis.
Memphis CNC machine moving →Moving the whole floor instead of one machine? Phased teardown, sequenced loads, and reinstallation planning for Memphis plants.
factory relocation in Memphis →In Memphis we also run riggers, machinery movers, CNC movers, and plant relocation, plus project freight for the jobs we rig — or see every service we offer in Memphis.
The same Memphis crew also handles millwright services, machinery removal, and crane and rigging services.
Tell us what's moving and where. We'll route the nearest crew and quote it fast.
Get a Memphis Loading Quote