17.02.2008

Peter Hird celebrates 25

Peter Hird and Sons the Hull, UK based crane and access sales, rental and training company celebrated 25 years in business this weekend. The company, founded by Peter Hird senior began with crane hire and soon added aerial lifts to its fleet.
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Peter Hird senior (L) and Peter Hird at its 25th anniversary

The Hird name became known to a wider audience after Hird Senior devised a consistent method for testing the battery life of electric self propelled lifts. Known as the ‘Hird Test’ it is still used by manufacturers today.

It came about after the company found that the batteries on some Simon lifts it had purchased would not last on site for more than a few hours. It therefore decided to test all of its machines using a cycle of functions that represented real life use, to determine which models were acceptable and which were not. His son also Peter Hird had the job back then of physically cycling each machine for the test.

The company has grown to the point where it operates a fleet of around 450 aerial lifts, with a few mobile cranes and a growing fleet of Valla pick and carry cranes. It is also well known for its training activities becoming one of the pioneers of the IPAF Pal card programme. It currently offers over 65 different cranes and access courses.

Along the way the company added affiliated operations including Valla UK, the Italian manufacturers largest distributor, now covering the UK, Ireland, North America and Middle East. It also owns 3B6 UK the UK distributor for 3B6 Rated Load Indicators.

Peter Hird senior retired in February 2004 leaving his eldest son Peter as joint owner and managing director. Since then the company has expanded year on year both in terms of size but also in terms of geographic spread. It joined the Access Link last year and became one of the few aerial lift rental companies to achieve IPAF Rental + status.