Scott’s Hire is providing dependable support for some of the industry’s most essential work. Construction Plant News Editor, Lee Jones reports.
There are some projects that will sweep aside the impact even of a pandemic and that’s certainly the case with the maintenance of our nation’s vital utilities infrastructure. Scott’s Hire has been supplying the construction industry with the tools to undertake this crucial work since the late ‘90s and Takeuchi mini excavators are an integral feature of its fleet.
With its origins in the north-west, the rental outfit can now boast a nationwide coverage from strategically based depots in Sandbach, Cheshire, Walsall for the Midlands, and two further satellite locations, with a dozen mobile engineers based around the country. In addition, Scott’s has long-term contracts to supply non-operated plant to some the industry’s biggest utility service providers, which takes them into a diverse range of sectors, from prisons to local authorities, highways and rail projects.
“Our main emphasis is the utilities sector,” explains the company’s Gareth Cotgrove. “Traditionally that’s been water, gas and electric but in recent years the expansion of broadband provision has also been a significant source of new business. It’s a recession and pandemic proof market and during the various lockdowns our client base were often able to capitalise on the fact that the road networks were relatively quiet to advance any schemes that were in the pipeline.”
In the world of collapsed sewers and power outages time is of the essence, and it’s an environment in which Scott’s Hire thrives, as Gareth reveals: “Our utilities customers are invariably working on reactive contracts, where a principal contractor can be charged by the minute to repair a compromised water or gas pipe. That in turn demands that their machinery supplier can get equipment to them quickly and it can be relied upon in performance. In that market it’s all about service and reaction time and where we differ from many of our competitors in plant hire is that we run a 24-hour operation.
Scott’s Hire offers its customers excavators from micros up to 22 tonne all from premium brands such as Hitachi and Komatsu, with its more compact machines in the 1 ½, 3, 5 and 6 tonne weight class primarily sourced from Takeuchi via dealer, Parkway Plant Sales. The association with the Japanese manufacturer is, in fact, a long one, with the hirer one of the first UK customers to invest in the brand in the mid ‘90s, and now boasts in excess of 300 Takeuchi units on its books.
This is a rental firm that prides itself on being a one-stop shop, and for the smaller contractor that includes offering a towing vehicle kitted out in utility specification, a Digadoc trailer and a Takeuchi excavator as a single package. “You’ll find the likes of United Utilities, Thames Water, and Severn Trent, as well as their sub-contractors, towing around a Scott’s Hire Takeuchi and trailer,” continues Scott. “We actually conceived and developed the Digadoc concept ourselves, and the business is now run as a sister company. Its success has been safety and compliance driven and it is now the preferred means of transporting a mini excavator amongst some of the biggest players in utilities. As a consequence, we have the largest fleet of these units in the UK, which can equally be supplied with a hydraulic breaker and three buckets onboard.”
So why has Scott’s Hire remained true to Takeuchi for nearly three decades? It is a common lament in the rental sector that hire rates have stubbornly refused to move whilst the price of the most advanced machinery has increased dramatically, a reality that demands that the right decisions on investment are made. Gareth tells us what he and the team are doing to square that particular circle: “For us the two key factors in determining what assets we acquire are reliability and residual values. In our experience Takeuchi scores very highly on both counts – they simply don’t breakdown, and if you find something that works you stick with it.
“On the job, they also demonstrate a very good level of stability, power to weight ratio, and operators really like them. The 5 & 6 tonne units combine an offset boom with zero tail swing, for instance, which means they can slew 360º almost within their own tracks which makes them popular amongst utility contractors, who are often operating in very tight spaces. Moreover, the 2 ½ tonne TB23R and the newer TB325R appeal not only because they’re reduced tailswing, but also because it allows the end user to transport them using a Digadoc trailer with a pick-up or van with a 3 ½-tonne towing capacity.”
The last couple of years have been amongst the busiest for the Cheshire-based company but they have also had to overcome significant supply chain challenges: “As part of our continuous improvement programme we are committed to investing in 150 new machines within the first quarter of every year and ensuring that the majority of our equipment is no more than three years’ old. That’s a position we have maintained, but there’s undoubtedly been an issue with sourcing the kit. With the likes of Highways England contractors now insisting on all kit conforming to the latest emissions standards, the age of the fleet is more important than ever.”
Scott’s Hire has established itself as a key player in one of the construction industry’s most demanding sectors, but there are bigger plans afoot. It is undertaking a significant expansion to its Sandbach site, for example, which will include state of the art workshop facilities, and a new head office complex. “We’ve earnt a reputation for being there for our customers when they need us,” concludes Gareth, “and the Takeuchi machines on our fleet are very much a part of that service.”
