Gary Sheppard, Founder and Director of Direct Cranes, is ambitious and passionate about what he does. Aiming to be a trailblazer in the field of helicopter lifting, he tells his story.
“My wife and I have been operating Direct Cranes for almost three years now. I started out in construction as a form worker and I left the industry to pursue my career in aviation in 2017. I came back into construction in 2019 and started my first business, Sheppard Cranes and Rigging which was a labour business focused on rigging.”
Direct Cranes has been steadily adding to its fleet and now runs two Franna MAC 25s with SuperLift, which have been working on windfarm projects and general hire, a 60t Liebherr all terrain, as well as the 100t. Gary recently purchased a 60t Sany telescopic crawler.
“Apart from our first Liebherr, everything we have bought has been brand new and our latest addition is a new 60-tonne Sany telescopic crawler which arrived in early March. We had several brands to choose from, but we went with Sany for a number of reasons, most of them fairly obvious.
“Over the past few years, I’ve noticed with interest how much momentum international brands like Sany have been gaining. When it comes to the crawler market, lattice boom and telescopic, Sany has been proving itself for a number of years, and Tutt Bryant Equipment is supporting the product well with service, parts and after sales support.
“The 60t Sany will be working on a fairly ‘ugly job’ where the work will be tough. It’s not there to look pretty, it’s there to turn a profit from the get-go,” said Gary.
“To me, the Sany made sound business sense. The European, United States and Japanese brands have been around a lot longer, but when you examine the business proposition and compare the prices of some European brands to the quality and pricing of a Sany, and then factor in you’re not going to get higher rates because your providing a more expensive crane for the work, then the decision was a no brainer for me.”
The Sany SCC600TB telescopic boom crawler is built to work. The main boom is made of high-strength steel with five sections, of which the basic boom is 11.88 metres and the maximum boom length is 46 metres.
The super structure features a high strength steel frame structure, no torsional deformation with a layout of components designed to enhance convenient maintenance and service.
The block-type counterweight tray and blocks are stacked in a way that is easy to assemble, disassemble and transport.
The ergonomically designed cab has the operator’s comfort and the safe operation of the crane as priorities. Large glass windows provide excellent vision of the work area, the position of the seat provides comfortable access to the joystick controls, various control buttons and mechanisms. The cab also features a large integrated touch screen, and multiple cameras can be presented on the monitor at the same time to realise real-time monitoring of wire rope on each winch, conditions behind the counterweight and surrounds of the machine.
Smart integrated load moment indicator
The integrated load moment indicator (LMI) system is provided as standard, offering high levels of safety when lifting. The LMI system can automatically detect the suspended load weight, working radius of the crane and the angle of boom, and compare rated load weight and actual load, working radius and boom angle.
Under normal operating conditions, it can intelligently judge and automatically cut off the crane’s action if it gets into a dangerous situation and features a black box function to record any information relating to overloading.
Tutt Bryant being the national distributor for Sany was also a key factor in Gary’s decision to purchase the Sany.
“Tutt Bryant Equipment has a national footprint and a commitment to service and support as well as spare parts availability,” he said.
“Realistically we’ve got the best of both worlds. With Sany and Tutt Bryant we’ve secured a cost-effective entry into the crawler market, knowing the support and parts support is going to be there when needed.
“The crawler went straight to work and the ‘bang for the buck’ is obvious, these cranes go out for the same money, it’s just that we’ve just taken a huge chunk of dollars off the price tag.”
Gary and his team are innovative, continuing to examine ways of improving the service Direct Cranes provides its customers.
“We have been busy developing a lifting plan program that’s specifically for cranes with lifting capacities up to 250 tonne. We’ll release this to the general industry shortly and we can see it will benefit similar sized businesses. It is targeted to generate lift plans for Tier one projects.
“Larger crane companies can afford to spend the 140K and have a lift planner sitting in office waiting for a lift plan to come through, we can’t, we’ve got to keep our boots on the ground,” said Gary.
Lifting with helicopters is Gary’s passion. “Our helicopter will lift up to 550 kilos and for anything heavier we hire in larger helicopters. Obviously, you’ve got to build a portfolio to be able to finance the bigger machines. But that’s the direction in which we are headed, that’s the space I’m going to live in, and the cranes, including the Sany, are helping me to get there, they are a stepping stone towards the future of lifting.”