Essex Crane Rental, the company famous for owning nothing but the world’s biggest fleet of Manitowocs, is considering further developing its new relationship with Liebherr, president and CEO Ron Schad has revealed in an interview with Cranes Today.
Essex announced on 7 July that it was buying ‘an undisclosed quantity’ of Liebherr’s duty-cycle HS 855SX crawler crane.
In an interview with Cranes Today last month Schad explained that he needed to be looking to replace some of the old Manitowoc 3900 and 4100 models in his fleet of some 423 Manitowoc crawlers. He said that some of his customers that rent those machines use them for duty-cycle work. Manitowoc’s new duty cycle model, the 1015, was ‘too specialised’, Schad said, ‘and that makes it that much more expensive’. He said that if he was a European buyer, looking for a ‘pure foundation crane’, he might consider the 1015, but for his rental fleet he needed machines with a wider range of applications.
Asked if his relationship with Liebherr would be limited to the HS series of duty-cycle cranes, he said ‘Definitely not’. And he said that he would ‘definitely not’ rule out buying Liebherr LR series lift cranes if the relationship worked out.
‘This will gives us the opportunity to test drive Liebherr’s service and support. It is also about how we perform. Are we ready to support other lines and equipment? How effective are we going to be?’ he said.
Whether he would then look to add other crane brands to the fleet depended partly on applications and partly on how comfortable Essex starts to feel operating non-Manitowoc cranes. ‘I wouldn’t just start buying a mixed bag based on price,’ Schad said. ‘It would have to be for a specific application.’
Essex’s first Liebherr machine – from an initial order of ‘more than one and less than 10’ – is expected to be delivered this month.
