20.03.2009

EWPA urges more professionalism

Australia’s Elevating Work Platform Association has updated its written code of conduct and is its urging members to take a more professional approach to the rental period in their agreements.

The key change to the code of conduct is to the paragraph “Interference with existing contracts” The wording now says:

“Whilst competition between members is encouraged in accordance with the law, this Code is breached where any member intentionally and wrongfully induces a customer to breach an existing contract with another supplier. Such action may also lead to civil liability where a contract is actually breached as a result of it, and the original supplier suffers damage.”


The association news letter say: “This is an area all rental members need to pay attention to, to avoid customer dissatisfaction and misunderstanding. The common business practice is to get your EWP out and the hire agreement signed with the price often based on the indication of a long term hire. A handshake or verbal indication of the length of hire is not an ironclad arrangement as many of us discover.”

“A more professional approach is probably required here which may include getting an official purchase order from your customer that states the minimum period of hire. In addition make sure your own Hire Agreement has the necessary terms and conditions and if relevant enter the proposed period of time and get the customer to sign off on it.”

“At least then, when your customer may get persuaded to consider another offer during what you believed, in good faith, was the original hire period, you can go back with written proof. This may not terminate the problem and of course it eventually comes back to your own commercial decision.”
To see the full code of conduct click here

Vertikal Comment

The EWPA does a first class job and once again it is taking a strong lead in such areas. The aerial work platform rental industry in much of Europe and clearly in Australia, is soft when it comes to rental rates and contract terms.

The fact is that if a customer rents a machine for two months or more and obtains a corresponding rate and then half way through off-hires the machine swapping to a rate cutter – he should be charged a supplement or penalty.

As the EWPA points out in order to make something like this work, there needs to be some paperwork spelling out the agreed rental period. IPAF also ought to consider adopting a similar clause in a written code of practice. At the very least it might put a stop to some of the worst rate cutting practices.