08.06.2016

Nationwide adds spiders

UK’s largest powered access specialist Nationwide Platforms has taken delivery of 35 new Hinowa spider lifts with working heights from 14 to 26 metres.

The new units include a mixture of Lithium-Ion battery and bi-fuel powered units from Hinowa’s Performance IIIS series, including 14 metre Goldlift 14.70s, 17 metre Lightlift 17.75s, 20 metre Lightlift 20.10s and 26 metre Lightlift 26.14s. The new machines were supplied by local distributor Access Platform Sales (APS).
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Nationwide has taken delivery of 35 new Hinowa spider lifts

The first unit to arrive, a 14 metre Goldlift 14.70 was sent straight out on a job on the 11th storey of the Dollar Bay residential development project in Canary Wharf, London. Weighing just 1,750kg, it was easily craned in to position, where its compact dimensions and low ground bearing pressures were perfectly suited to the job.

Nationwide is offering the new spider lifts on an operated or a self-drive basis, features include: non-marking tracks, wireless remote control, automatic levelling and extendable tracks for improved stability when travelling.
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The first unit to arrive was sent straight out on a job on the 11th storey of the Dollar Bay residential development project in Canary Wharf

Operations director Peter Douglas said: “This is an important investment from Nationwide Platforms in a specialist area of the market that has seen significant growth over recent years. We fully expect this growth to continue with this investment helping to cement our position as the UK's leading access specialist.”

Steve Couling of APS added: “Nationwide Platforms is a long standing customer of ours, particularly for replacement parts. We are delighted to now also be working with them as they expand into the rapidly growing tracked boom sector.”

Vertikal Comment

This development has been brewing for some time and is a major development for Nationwide Platforms, which previously sold off all of the spider lifts in its fleet, units that had largely been acquired through acquisitions.

Since then it has tended to re-rent spider lifts as required for its regular customers, using specialist rental companies such as Higher Access, which has now been acquired by Vp and integrated into UK Forks. The problem in the past was that it did not have a sufficiently large fleet to serve its national network, or justify specialist staff. While the 35 new units could easily be lost within its depot network it is a good start, and shows, more than anything, how the spider lift concept is becoming a more mainstream product in the UK market.

While some spider lift rental specialists may will be nervous, given that many full line rental companies end up slashing rental rates to get specialist equipment out - in order to overcome their lack of specialist staff - this hopefully will not be the case this time. On the contrary it could raise the profile of the spider lift platform and help boost the market, not only for this type of lift, but for powered access in general.

Watch this space