Bahrain
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Print
Email
Discuss this article (0 Comments)Boom with a view
by ArabianBusiness.com staff writer on Wednesday, 12 November 2008
zoom
The powered access market is, to use a pun, booming. We visit a local firm to learn the industry's ups and downs.
Tim Richards is on the phone. Actually, he is on two phones as he deals with somebody on his mobile, while trying to extract payment from a client on the landline. His company, Al Laith Scaffolding, at which he is divisional manager, is experiencing high times.
This might seem odd, as the access platform business is traditionally the first to feel the pinch of recession, but the Emirates are a changing market, as once he had finished his calls, he explained.
"The market is increasing for access platforms. There are issues that affect that which include health and safety and the speed in which contracts have to be completed.
To lift somebody five metres you would never consider a scissor lift - until recently. - Tim Richards
So there is a good demand for access platforms."
We wondered if speed played a major factor in firms upgrading from ladders and low scaffold towers. Richards replied;
"Yes, speed, that is exactly it, so it is much less labour intensive than the traditional methods so the job can be done so very much more quickly.
"They replace ladders, and mainly scaffolding, scaffold towers and conventional contract scaffolding They replace labour, which is unfortunate for those employed before powered access came along, Basically it is about the efficiency of the job and increasing the savings."
He added that a growing awareness of health and safety was also driving the region to upgrade its towers, and this in turn had been prompted by a change of legislation in Europe.
"The working-at-height regulations in Europe have changed. You could fall off a chair and kill yourself, so (in the EU) it is the responsibility of the man, the contractor to provide access equipment. It is the responsibility of the operator and the contractor to operate safely. Because of the influence of the contractors coming in from Europe, that attitude is becoming more dominant here." he said.
Run with scissors
"So in the past you would have found scissor lifts raising people a minimum of 15-20 meters. At that sort of height you would always consider using a scissor. But to get somebody up five meters they would have never considered until recently that it was necessary to provide an all enclosed scissor lift.
"You'd put five or six guys on a scaffold tower and go away from it but that's all changed now" he said, pausing to take another call on his infuriatingly busy mobile.
When he is finished, he adds that attitudes to safe working at height, while going in the right direction, still have a way to go.
"Yes, definitely there is (a growing awareness of HSE practice in the Emirates). It is still an uphill battle. It is still not really regulated, there are no laws, just recommendations from the municipality" he said.
"It's all loosely based on European regulations, but it is still very vague about enforcements of the law. It's like the 1974 HS at work act where you had to interpret what the law said, and work under those conditions. There wasn't a rule which said that if you didn't you'd be breaking the law and if somebody fell off and hurt themselves, then why didn't you provide that equipment?"
Besides the trend toward battery-powered scissors, platforms on booms are gaining popularity too. Although Al Laith do sell new machines to the public, hire is far more common, usually on monthly terms. As such, the fleet of lifts is getting larger by the day; "At present we have just under 300 platforms and about seventy percent are made by Genie.
Global swings of access market
Ladders are old hat. For a fast, safe and let's face it, enjoyable way of lifting personnel, there is no substitute for an access platform, (also called man lifts or cherry pickers.) Since the introduction of access platforms some thirty years ago, the market for these devices has matured.
However, platforms sales are even more affected by the global market than heavy equipment sectors. This is mostly due to the fact that the vast majority of platforms are rented, not bought - and it is the rental sector that feels the pinch of recession first.
For example, back in the 1990s many firms emerged, each with their own separate designs.
In fact, after the worldwide economy snapped out of recession in 1994, global sales jumped 80% in a year, and even more gains were made after this date. The construction slump that happened at the turn of the century lead to a period of takeovers and mergers, though a regenerated market meant boom time until the current so-called ‘credit crunch'.
Ladders are old hat. For a fast, safe and let's face it, enjoyable way of lifting personnel, there is no substitute for an access platform, (also called man lifts or cherry pickers.) Since the introduction of access platforms some thirty years ago, the market for these devices has matured.
However, platforms sales are even more affected by the global market than heavy equipment sectors. This is mostly due to the fact that the vast majority of platforms are rented, not bought - and it is the rental sector that feels the pinch of recession first.
For example, back in the 1990s many firms emerged, each with their own separate designs.
In fact, after the worldwide economy snapped out of recession in 1994, global sales jumped 80% in a year, and even more gains were made after this date. The construction slump that happened at the turn of the century lead to a period of takeovers and mergers, though a regenerated market meant boom time until the current so-called ‘credit crunch'.
READERS' COMMENTS
Disclaimer: The views expressed here by our readers are not necessarily shared by ArabianBusiness.com or its employees.
MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM
TOP IN MIDDLE EAST TRANSPORTATION
TOP MIDDLE EAST BUSINESS STORIES
ALSO IN MIDDLE EAST TRANSPORTATION
From 
Mobile
