The short term hire of lift trucks – once a largely unplanned and ‘stop gap’ measure for organisations with a need to cover seasonal peaks – is now an important part of many leading companies’ business models.
So says John Maguire, sales and marketing director of leading articulated forklift manufacturer, Flexi Narrow Aisle and a former chairman of the UK Warehousing Association.
“The flexibility and cost efficient pricing structures offered by short term rental (STR) has seen strong growth in demand for uncontracted STR trucks as part of many users’ core fleet throughout the year – not just at traditionally busy times such as during the run up to Christmas and Easter,” he says.
“More and more businesses want the flexibility to downsize the fleet to maintain optimum fixed costs at all times. They are therefore looking for new contracts with STR input.”
To cope with this demand Narrow Aisle has nearly 300 Flexi articulated trucks within its short term rental fleet. The quality of the equipment is paramount so investment has been made in new equipment and the average age of the trucks in the fleet is now less than four years old.
“Short term ‘uncontracted’ rental appeals to companies for various reasons but operational and budgetary flexibility are perhaps the biggest drivers. Of course, companies still add short term rental trucks to their fleet to cover busy periods, but in addition finance directors often find short term contracts useful as the trucks do not always need to appear in the user company’s balance sheet,“ adds John Maguire.
Such has been the increase in interest experienced by Flexi in STR trucks the company has recently launched a website dedicated to its hire fleet.
“www.flexihiretrucks.com is the portal for anyone with a need for short term articulated forklift hire,” says John Maguire.
The full range of Flexi articulated forklift trucks – including the recently launched Flexi VNA and HiLOAD versions are now available on short term hire contracts.
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