Emergency Tanker Services

When you've got a drainage incident that needs immediate removal of waste, contaminated water, or sludge, you need a reliable emergency tanker service that can respond quickly and work safely.

ICE Drainage provides rapid emergency tanker services across London and the Home Counties, supporting commercial and residential sites with urgent call-outs for flooding, sewage incidents, septic tank problems, and other high-risk drainage situations.

What are emergency tanker services?

Emergency tanker services are used when liquid waste or contaminated water needs to be removed quickly, safely, and in a controlled way. A tanker can be used to remove foul water following a sewage back-up, pump out flood water where drainage is overwhelmed, empty or stabilise septic tanks and cesspits, remove sludge, silt, and debris from chambers and systems, and support urgent work where waste needs to be contained and disposed of correctly.

In many cases, tanker support is combined with emergency drain unblocking or investigation work to stop the problem at source.

Acting quickly can make all the difference

When waste or contaminated water is building up, delays can lead to increased contamination spread and hygiene risk, strong odours becoming embedded in materials, flooding and damage to floors, walls, and electrics, disruption to business operations, especially in hospitality, and higher clean-up and reinstatement costs.

If you're dealing with foul water, treat it as hazardous and keep people away from the affected area. Then call ICE Drainage.

Common situations where you may need an emergency tanker

We regularly support urgent call-outs for sewage back-ups and foul water incidents, overflowing manholes where chambers need a controlled pump-out, flood response where standing water needs removing, septic tank emergencies such as full tanks, back-ups, or odour issues, blocked drains where waste needs removing to restore safe conditions, silted chambers and systems restricting flow, and commercial site incidents where hygiene and compliance are critical.

If you're not sure whether you need a tanker, call us. We'll help you assess the situation and recommend the right approach.

Our emergency tanker response

Every site is different, but our approach is consistent: assess the risk, stop the cause, remove waste safely, and reduce the chance of it happening again.

Our emergency tanker response typically includes rapid triage and a site assessment, where we gather key details such as location, the type of waste or water, access, and urgency, and assess the contamination risk, safety controls and containment, advising on isolating affected areas and managing hygiene risks, especially in public-facing or food environments, a controlled pump-out and removal of waste or contaminated water to stabilise the situation, identifying and addressing the cause where needed, sometimes combining tanker work with emergency unblocking or investigation, recommendations on repairs, maintenance, or preventative measures to reduce the risk of it happening again, and clear documentation for facilities teams and insurance processes where required.

Emergency tanker services for hospitality and commercial sites

For hospitality and commercial sites, tanker call-outs are often time-critical. A sewage or flood incident can mean immediate closure and lost revenue, food safety concerns, staff welfare issues, and customer complaints and reputational risk.

We support restaurants and commercial kitchens, hotels and serviced apartments, pubs and bars, retail and office premises, schools, public buildings, and managed estates, and facilities managers and multi-site operators.

If you manage multiple sites, ask us about planned preventative maintenance and proactive servicing to reduce emergency incidents.

Preventing repeat incidents

Emergency tanker services solve the immediate problem, but prevention reduces long-term cost and disruption. We can help reduce risk with routine drain cleaning and jetting, gully and rainwater line maintenance, interceptor servicing and silt removal, septic tank servicing and planned emptying, drain inspections and condition reporting, and reactive call-outs backed by a planned schedule.

If your site is prone to back-ups or flooding, we can recommend a targeted maintenance plan based on usage and risk areas.

Why choose ICE Drainage?

• Rapid emergency response across London and the Home Counties
• Experience with foul water and contaminated environments
• Hospitality-first support, so we understand downtime and compliance
• Competitive pricing and practical recommendations
• Qualified, safety-led engineers working to industry standards
• Credentials including Safe Contractor, SSSTS, and Constructionline Gold

ICE Drainage is a specialist service expansion of ICE Cleaning, a leading sewage cleaning company in the UK.

What to do if you need an emergency tanker

If you're dealing with waste or contaminated water right now:

• Keep people and pets away from the affected area
• Avoid contact with foul water, and treat it as contaminated
• If it's safe to do so, stop using sinks and toilets to reduce flow into the system
• If it's safe to do so, turn off electrics in affected areas
• Take photos or video for your records or insurance, if it's safe to do so
• Call ICE Drainage for urgent assistance

Avoid using harsh chemicals. They won't resolve an underlying drainage restriction and can create additional hazards.

Get a free quote for emergency tanker services

Need urgent help with emergency tanker services? Contact ICE Drainage to get started. In many cases, we can provide an initial quote from a few photos and a short description of what's happened.

We cover London and the Home Counties, with support from our wider UK capability for urgent situations.