Special report • covid-19 Drivers collecting machines will have appropriate PPE and have anti-bacterial kits to clean touchpoint areas, such as steering wheels, levers, handles, seats and so on, before driving them onto the truck. When machines return to the depots, they will undergo a complete sanitisation process, before inspection, in preparation for their next hire.
improve confidence in the marketplace, I can’t see the sector returning to pre-Covid Levels. “Construction, especially house-building, relies on consumer confidence and while houses are being completed now, will there be the demand for new houses by the end of year? It will be interesting to see when the groundworkers go back on site. There will be those completing projects, but will there be the next wave of work to come or will that be at a reduced level? These are telling times.”
Even with reduced staff levels, we have continued to support customers who can still work “This is new to all of us, so we are keeping a close eye on best practice and will adapt accordingly if we have to,” says Graham. When asked about how he sees the plant hire industry over the next six months, he responds: “I think initially we can expect a surge as customers get moving again, but will we get back to the existing run rate levels we were at in March? Unless the government kick-starts the economy with a range of measures which will
Hire rates will also come under scrutiny, considered by many plant hire companies to already be too low. “The cost of machines has increased significantly but the weekly hire rates have not reflected this. They continue to erode as a percentage of capital costs. I firmly believe that the industry needs to work together to push the rates up because we now have extra costs to carry out all the
BELOW: A MORRIS LESLIE CAT 313 EXCAVATOR WORKING ON SITE
56 • July 2020 • Plant Planet
additional tasks. But, realistically, until the volume of supply in the marketplace corrects itself, I think the rates will stay much as they were before we went into this. I hope they don’t deteriorate further.” So, is there likely to be a surplus of second-hand plant on the market? “I think it depends on what government initiatives are announced, not just in the UK, but on a global level, to kickstart their own individual economies. Consumer confidence needs to be restored as quickly as possible to encourage new construction projects which will minimise the amount of surplus plant, but it is difficult to predict how this crisis will play out. There may be a surplus of certain types of product. “The problem is, the hirers are unsure of customer demand and thinking about how many machines they need in their fleet, while the manufacturers are trying to predict the volume of business they will generate from plant hire companies. We need the government to drive confidence and drive the economy to get the wheels turning again. I am sure that if the confidence is there, then we will all get a share of it.
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