Briggs invests £8m in short term rental lift trucks

Alongside a range of counterbalance machines, the new fleet includes 120 pieces of Cat warehouse equipment, as well as eight 10-16 tonne SMV machines and six 5 tonne Baumann sideloaders. Briggs explains the growth in customer demands for the specialised heavy lifting trucks as being down to risk-averse buying behaviour coupled with traditionally poor quality of short term hire equipment available in this market. Allan Parsons, short term rental manager at Briggs Equipment said the company was satisfying customer demands for specialised equipment in what could be arduous applications. “It is apparent that the quality of short term hire machines available in the heavy lifting and long load handling sectors can be poor,” he went on. “The kit is usually old and not as reliable but most importantly can be unavailable.” The growth in certain sectors of manufacturing, coupled with the uncertainty in the economy, meant that demand for this equipment was strong.