Traditionally, the UK market for loaders has been dominated by a handful of big players, buying hundreds of cranes at once. Most important among these have been builders’ merchants such as Saint Gobain (which owns Jewsons, one of the biggest UK merchants), Travis Perkins, Wolseley and the Grafton Group. These companies have focussed on the capacity of loaders to load and unload bags and pallets of construction materials to the kerbside.

Ismo Leppanen, MD of Hiab UK, says, “We have a lot of big operators here in the UK, with big fleets. These are often very specialised for moving particular products, so they don’t need to cater for the variety of use that users on the continent do, so they may not need cranes at all. In parts of Europe and in Scandinavia we have smaller operators who may only run one or two trucks and they need to cater for variety of jobs. They prepare the truck with multiple use in mind. They often use bigger cranes, often with demountables and other ancillary hydraulics, winches and even snowploughs in the Nordic countries.”

Leppanen continues, “People say the Italian market has a lot of cranes for its population, but these are often small cranes of less than 5tm capacity. Two regions that are showing growth are Eastern Europe and Spain. There’s a lot of construction going on there. In Spain, in particular, they’re still building a lot of holiday homes and hotels, and delivering straight to the building, through windows and so on. They use big cranes for that, with long jibs, and that’s one of the reasons we have our big crane factory there.”

Lee Maynard, general sales manager with Terex Atlas, says, “In mainland European countries, such as Spain, loaders are being sold with seven extensions and big fly jibs. It’s not so common in the UK. Some of the builders’ merchants have taken very big cranes, for delivering plasterboard or roof sections, especially on sites where they are limited for space.

“We’ve got a new family of large cranes, of 30tm–60tm capacity, geared towards mainland Europe. We’re planning to release the first crane in this series this year. This will be a 34tm/38tm model, with eight or nine extensions, and another three or four on the fly, equipped with winches and other specialised equipment. With a loader that size, you can still carry a payload, but it has versatility. In Spain, users will point the boom extensions straight up, and then angle the fly jib at 90°, to reach over buildings and other obstacles.”

Mark Rigby, general manager, cranes, for UK Palfinger distributor T H White thinks there is scope for growth in the UK, if users make more use of these capacities. “We have an opportunity. Chassis numbers are buoyant, and the percentage of cranes to chassis is growing: it was around 5% nine years ago, and I would guess it is at 8%–9% at the moment. The grab bucket market is growing, on the back of infrastructure, cabling and the London Olympics. Builders’ merchant spec is growing, and will be more Europeanised. Instead of delivering supplies to site and leaving them piled up, to be moved with a mobile crane, companies like Lawson’s, a London roofing specialist, are now using dedicated vehicles to lift supplies into place. Using a lorry loader like this avoids the cost to the client of hiring a mobile crane, at maybe £8,000 a week. Instead, the client pays a few hundred pounds extra for delivery.”

Leppanen, however, sounds a note of caution, “What stops the UK market developing the use of loaders for delivery direct to the point of use, is the culture here. The legal situation makes builders’ merchants reluctant to deliver directly on to the scaffold, as they’re worried they will be sued if anything goes wrong. Builders’ merchants in the UK will use shorter jibs, and just deliver loads to the side of the truck, and then leave it to the customer, or the crane hire firm, to deliver materials around the site.”

Terex-Atlas’s Maynard agrees: “In the medium size crane range, in the UK, builders’ merchants are very reluctant to do anything but kerbside deliveries. With the UK, you have tight rules on risk assessment, but it’s fear too: if you run a small company, do you want the risk?”

Leigh Carter, sales manager of Fassi UK, reckons niche applications are prompting users to see new potential in loaders: “There’s growth in larger, longer, cranes in the UK. People are seeing more uses for them. You’re getting a lot of people putting rigs together to meet this sort of micro-segmentation. They’re able to fit cranes on their trucks, and not use mobiles.”

Reaching new markets

One Fassi user that has seen the scope of loader cranes to cut costs is Keller Ground Engineering, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading ground engineering firms, with a large proportion of its business focussed on piling. Paul Coxon, transport and fleet manager for Keller, says, “We decided to buy a [43.4tm] Fassi 450AXP.22, primarily for moving our site gear, piling equipment, cabins and other ancillary equipment to support the piling rigs and other geotechnical systems we operate. Prior to having the Fassi, we rented mobile cranes to unload vehicles and to move equipment around the site. We found we saved £114,000 (EUR168,000) in the first year using the Fassi. That’s based on mobile crane hire rates of about £300 (EUR442) a time, so that’s around 380 jobs where we used our own crane rather than a mobile.”

Coxon continues, “We move piling rigs from site to site. The Fassi is used to unload storage units, cabins, etc, where we need them. We can lift 13.5t next to the vehicle, to 5.3t at full extension. Most of the time there’s a piling mat, basically a layer of stone, already down, so the sites are pretty good for using them. We do sometimes still need to use all terrain mobiles though where ground is uneven or access is restricted.

“A big advantage is we don’t have to wait around for cranes from the rental companies, so we don’t have time where the piling rig is waiting and not working. The savings are more because of that: a piling rig can earn £500–£600 per hour, so any delays while we wait for a crane are worth that.”

“We bought the first crane in October 2005, and a second one, a [40.8tm] 450AXP.24, this year, which was delivered in February 2007. There were more jobs where we could be using our own crane, rather than a mobile, so this will increase our savings.”

One of Terex-Atlas’s customers, Julian Rout, director of piano movers Piano Logistics, has shown how loaders can cut costs for specialist users. “We’re only lifting loads of about 600kg. We used to use mobile cranes, and this cost us around £40,000 per year.

“Convenience, and that cost, prompted us to buy the loader. A lot of jobs, we would have had to carry the piano up the stairs. A lot of the time we’re delivering to multi-million pound houses, where the fittings and decoration on the stairs are worth more than the piano, so it’s safer to lift the piano to a window.

“We use a Terex Atlas 200.2, with five boom extensions and three fully hydraulic extensions on the jib [with a maximum reach of 24m and a capacity of 20tm]. We had to have the smallest vehicle, with the longest reach on the crane. We do around 400 lifts a year with it.

“I doubt we’d get another, there’s a lot of training requirements and paperwork. But we can do a lot of jobs now that would have required a mobile crane, or taking the piano up the stairs. It means we’re not losing jobs to cowboys who would drag pianos up the stairs, with no regard to safety.”

Another Fassi customer, mobile crane rental firm Emerson Crane Hire, also saw advantages in using loaders rather than mobiles for a special application. Technical manager Paul Clancy says, “We have a three-year contract with a nationwide fast food restaurant chain to install new air conditioning units, across the country. We bought a [28.9tm] F310AXP.26 with a winch for the job, and recently added an F600AXP. We had the vehicle designed for the project, but found it fitted our needs for numerous other applications. The idea to use the loader was innovated with Liam Clancy, our special projects manager.”

“Invariably, when you take a crane to a site, you’ll be kept waiting for the lorry with the load to arrive. With the loader crane, you can take the load to the site, unload and put it on the roof, and be out in twenty minutes, with just an unloading permit. We’re doing repetitive jobs, the same thing all day, with this. We lift the air conditioning units onto the roof using the loader, and can do four jobs a day. If we used a crane and separate transport, the first job might go all right, but you’d be waiting for one or the other of the vehicles for the other jobs.”

The burden of planning

The development of loaders for full lifting applications has caused concern in some quarters, however, particularly among mobile crane companies who fear that some loader users are ignoring the UK’s standard on lifting operations, BS 7121, and gaining an unfair competitive advantage at the expense of safety. Based on LOLER, the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations, BS 7121 sets standards for lifting operations, which include the presence of an appointed person to supervise the lift, independent of the operator, and to prepare risk assessments and lift plans. However, BS 7121 Part 4 exempts loaders from many of these requirements.

Colin Wood, chief executive of the Construction Plant-hire Association, which represents crane rental firms, among other plant companies, says, “When BS 7121 Part 4 was created, it was ostensibly made for loaders with a small arm, only for unloading to the ground. The standard allowed the driver to be the appointed person. At the time it wasn’t deemed necessary for the driver to be trained. As loaders have got bigger, they’re being used to put stuff onto three storey buildings. On mobiles, under BS 7121 Part 3, there has to be an appointed person, a lift plan and risk assessment.

“Some of our members are complaining that mobile crane users and clients need proper planning, while loader guys may be running on a wing and a prayer. We’ve seen examples where the driver is on top of the building, unloading on to the roof.”

Eric Hawkyard, technical director of ALLMI, the UK Association of Lorry Loader Manufacturers and Importers, says this concern is misplaced: “If someone is doing an on-site lifting job, all the relevant requirements are being followed. When I talk to users in ALLMI, they’re following the regulations. Our members are careful and cautious in how they act.”

Hawkyard’s ALLMI colleague, former chairman Alan Johnson of SJB CraneCo, supports this view, “As far as I’m aware, if someone uses a lorry mounted crane for lifting, it should follow the rules laid out in LOLER: a risk assessment, lifting plan, an appointed person and a slinger. The CPA have pushed for a levelling of the playing field. BS 7121 is up for review with the British Standards Institute, and that’s where it should be debated.”

The users Cranes Today spoke to all took the position that they follow LOLER, and not the one-man operation provisions of BS 7121 Part 4, when performing lifting operations. Keller’s Coxon says, “We would never have one person operate the crane on his own. It’s not in our ethos, and certainly not in our health and safety policy to do that. The driver is an appointed person, and is ALLMI trained. He works with the site foreman, who is also an AP, and banksmen at the site.” Emerson’s Clancy agrees, “We execute the job as a mobile crane. We have a second man with the driver, and both men are trained as appointed persons/lift supervisors, and as operators, so they can perform the lift under BS 7121.”

The revision of Part 4 should clarify the issue, making clear when a lorry mounted knuckleboom crane is a loader, and when it is a mobile. A British Standards Institute source said, “Part 4 is up for revision. BSI is in talks with the UK government on funding, and work is expected to start in the next couple of months. The UK standard will be updated in terms of the new draft of EN 12999, the European standard. That standard comes to the inquiry stage on 1 September.”


A Hiab reaches into a warehouse to lift a load of batteries Hiab batteries Hiab’s Xcavator marks the company’s return to the excavation market in the UK Hiab Xcavator A Keller Fassi lifts a container Keller container Keller Ground Engineering’s Fassi 450AXP.22 Keller 450 AXP Piano Logistics uses its Terex-Atlas 200.2 to lift a 7ft grand piano over a 60ft (18.28m) garden and into a third floor window piano logistics