In Alberta we call it a picker; elsewhere it's a boom truck. Either way it's a crane and a flat deck in one unit — the right tool when you need to carry the load in and set it in place.
A picker truck pairs a hydraulic knuckle or stick boom with a flat deck, so it can haul material to site and lift it into position without a second truck or a separate crane. For lighter, faster, more mobile lifts around Calgary, it's often the most economical choice — you're not paying to mobilize a large mobile crane for a job a picker can finish in an hour.
Pickers shine on repetitive and material-handling work: dropping bundles of material onto a roof, setting signage and light standards, placing smaller HVAC units, moving equipment around a yard, and handling modular or prefab components. Where the load gets heavy or the reach gets long, we'll tell you honestly that a mobile crane is the better call.
Lower mobilization, faster setup, and the ability to carry the load means a picker often wins on total cost for the right job. The trade-off is capacity and reach — which is exactly the call we help you make before anything is booked. Tell us the weight and how far it has to go, and we'll point you to the unit that does it for the least money.
Picker trucks commonly run roughly $150–$275/hr (CAD) in the Calgary area, with minimums and travel. Typical guidance — not a quote.
Send the weight and reach and we'll tell you whether a picker or a mobile crane is the right — and cheaper — choice.
Signage, a rooftop unit, or a yard move — tell us the load and we'll quote it.