Preston Hire introduced a specialist glass handling service 12 months ago. Today, it is a thriving business servicing the construction industry.
Commercial glazing and glass handling are specialist areas in the construction process. Preston Hire has expanded their offering to provide premium services and equipment to the glazing industry with a range of glass lifting rigs and accessories that complement their extensive range of mini cranes.
“Our offering allows customers with glazing requirements to have a single hire solution working with a reputable, trusted and highly experienced team of professionals” explained Preston Hire General Manager, Andrew Lambert. “Our mini crane fleet has been in operation for over 12 years whilst our glass lifting rigs were introduced 12 months ago when we recognised the opportunity and customer demand for this additional service,” he said.
Lambert explains how this highly specialised service evolved.
“We are always looking to expand our service offering for our customers and we are constantly listening to their needs. In the glazing space, we were cross-hiring from other companies to meet our customer’s requests or we noticed customers were hiring a glass lifter from one provider and a mini crane from us to do the lifting.
“It seemed far more streamlined and beneficial for the customer to have a single point of contact and a single delivery/pickup charge. We pride ourselves on being customer-centric and this is yet another example of how you can COUNT ON US for your hire equipment needs,” he said.
The Preston Hire team is on hand and ready to assist customers with any questions they might have in this area explains Lambert.
“Our sales team is technically trained on all assets. We spend hours with our suppliers for operator familiarisation to ensure our team are experienced, knowledgeable and understand product updates and capabilities. One of our longest serving team members and our expert in mini cranes, completes regular 1:1 training with our team to ensure their knowledge of products features, benefits and key technical aspects is always front of mind when helping customers find the best solution for the job.
“Our teams have a wide variety of technical skills with a number of staff having come directly from the glazing industry. skill and knowledge sharing across our business is exceptional and I always find it very humbling to see the growth of our staff across so many fields and services.”
Preston Hire offers this service nationally, as they do with all equipment within their fleet, and will continue their recognisable marketing approach for this category.
“We offer our products all over Australia. Much of the assets are easily portable and can be moved state to state based on customer needs. If a customer needs Preston Hire, we will get the gear to them no matter their location. All of our products fall within the Preston Hire product line-up, however like our other equipment, we’ll be using the “Super” tagline and promoting it as SuperGlassHandling,” he says.
Lambert confirms other hire businesses offer equipment for the glass handling and glazing industries and explains how Preston Hire’s service differs.
“We like to think we have the power of mass with the connectivity of niche. In other words, we are big enough to have a national footprint whilst small enough to remain focused on our customer’s needs and build meaningful relationships with them. When customers are installing glass, the crane is the central need with lifting rigs secondary. By packaging both the lifting rig and the crane in one simple transaction, we allow the customer to keep focused on the job at hand ensuring a safe and speedy outcome onsite,” he said.
“All of our equipment has been carefully selected based on its specialised nature. From our SuperDeck retractable loading platform system to our extensive fleet of cranes and EWPs, Preston Hire has always provided quality, specialist equipment to the industry designed to solve challenges and provide unique machine capabilities. Every unit in our fleet is relevant in allowing us to provide services and products that customers can count on. Our glass lifting products are a further extension of our commitment to specialised equipment,” said Lambert.
Preston Hire is constantly examining new ways to add value to the services it is providing customers. It is no different with the SuperGlassHandling range, says Lambert.
“As a National Australian owned business, we believe we can offer greater flexibility to hold and move stock to meet customers’ needs city to city, while our sales team remain focused locally on working to provide solutions to our customer’s site requirements.
“We are also focused on ensuring we provide the right solution and gear for the application. We have trialled a number of manufacturers of glass handling equipment and work primarily with the Oktopus brand for our SuperGlassHandling needs.
“Oktopus equipment is designed and manufactured in Germany and renowned for its quality of construction, inherent reliability and superb safety standards. The equipment we have in stock today is capable of lifting loads from 300kgs to 1000kgs in both Inline and spider variations with options for larger lifts if required. We also offer labour for wet hire projects, and have done for over 10 years, as well as trolleys and skates,” he said.
“We currently have a new product on trial that’s very unique. It’s the Hoeflon TC1 tracked carrier sold by Monitor Lifts. When a customer is on a boggy or rough terrain site and needs the glass delivery transported from the drop off point to another area of the site, the TC1 is loaded and drives via remote pendant over almost any terrain. With a 1200kg payload its proving to be a winner,” said Lambert.
Lambert confirms the SuperGlassHandling business model follows the Preston Hire way of putting the right solution together for the right application.
“We focus on hiring the safest, most efficient, glass handling equipment for our customers. This allows our teams to move swiftly to meet any customers need. Having such a large range of mini cranes in all shapes, sizes & capacities, ensures that we can offer the best solution for each individual job, not just a single solution forced to work for your site. We work very closely with customers in other product portfolios in all manner of difficult situations and see this customised level of service as one of our key strengths. We will continue to go the extra mile and look forward to showing more customers in the glazing industry why they can COUNT ON US” said Lambert.