08.04.2005

Nationwide boosts its fleet

Nationwide Access, the UK arm of the Lavendon group, Europes largest access rental company, has restarted its investment programme with the purchase of almost 170 new machines from Genie worth almost £4 million.

The latest order includes 68 scissor lifts and 89 booms all of which will be delivered by the end of May 2005 These come in addition to nine Genie S125 booms recently delivered. The investment includes a large number of popular machines to meet the continuing high level of demand and to improve availability. The new boom order includes 40 Genie Z45/25JRT, 16 G30/20N and eight Z80/60 articulated booms.
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One of nine Genie S125 booms delivered this year

“The ability to supply is critical to our customers”, says Nationwide managing director, Hugh Cole. “This investment, together with further expenditure we have planned for later in the year, will add 5% availability to our fleet.”

In a significant departure for Nationwide, the new order includes 25 Genie Runabout GR-15 self propelled mast type lifts for use indoors. The company believes that the new Work at Height Rules that came into force earlier this week will encourage contractors to become more aware of the risks and cost inefficiencies faced when using ladders.
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Some of the 25 Genie GSR15 Runabouts bought by Nationwide

The scissor lift order , which is all Electric includes 43 19ft GS1032 Micro scissors and 25 narrow 26ft units the GS2632.

In addition to the new machines Nationwide is investing in its 6,000 strong existing fleet which has seen its average age rise over the past two years. In order to keep these units in tip top shape the company has launched, what Cole describes as “an ambitious engineering programme designed to further improve the availability of the fleet and the quality of the machines offered to customers”.
“By the end of May we will have increased our engineering resource by 15%,” continued Cole.

Vertikal Comment
This investment by Lavendon demonstrates the improvement in the UK market and in the company’s performance. It is also good to see a major access rental company investing in the smallest units, Hopefully Nationwide will concentrate the 25 Runabouts it has ordered over two or three depots, otherwise they will simply be lost in the network and will do little to develop the market for this type of machine.