EXECUTIVE REPORT continued
mixers and concreting equipment, Bomag rollers, Karcher pressure washers and Mosa welders. The fleet also includes a sizeable plumbing and pipework offering, much of which was originally introduced to meet demand from contractors working at the Tyne, Wear and Tees docks. Today, items like Ridgid pipe threaders and Rothenberger test pumps are needed by mechanical and engineering contractors, plumbers and petrochemical plants.
All purchasing is done centrally and each depot stocks a broadly similar range, although individual branch managers can request certain items to meet local demand. Any depot can draw on stocks held by others, if needed, with availability throughout the network shown via the company’s MCS computer system.
Staff training and development
Considerable emphasis is placed on staff development. “As members of the CITB, we pay Levy and make sure we achieve our annual training target,” said Carl Bartlett. “Last year, we achieved a total of 92 training days throughout our organisation on many aspects of fleet equipment and operational procedures. We are also members of RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) and our drivers take part in its safe, economical and environmentally-friendly driving skills courses. We do not offer compact plant in our fleet, to avoid having to add larger vehicles with tachographs. The largest items we have are road-tow machines such as Atlas Copco compressors and Stephill generators.”
Each depot has a sizeable retail display and Lord Hire Centres has introduced a dedicated interactive website to generate wider sales business, which is growing steadily. “We sell a diverse range of tools and consumables from suppliers like Husqvarna, Makita, Stihl, DeWalt, Bosch and Hitachi, and we can basically sell any of the products that we have in the hire fleet.
The company places emphasis on efficient and eco-friendly vehicle management.
“Our ethos is to provide our customers with quality equipment faster. Occasionally, someone will try a rate-cutting competitor, but they invariably come back to us after being disappointed with their level of service. Some companies offer delivery to site next day, but we can usually accommodate this within a few hours.
“We are looking forward to the Executive Hire Show. We have a lot of fleet investment planned for 2017, and have been holding back from spending on particular lines so we can take advantage of any special deals available. It is a good opportunity to see new items we can introduce, and to get them before many others do.”
Lord Hire Centres has recently fitted oil interceptor tanks and wash-down facilities at its main workshop sites in Newcastle and Blyth. The company also plans to have achieved accreditation to the revised ISO 9001 quality standard by 2018. “We first gained a quality standard in 1991, and the latest version places great emphasis on risk management throughout every stage of a business including interested parties, external factors such as market changes, and internal issues including the potential impact of losing key staff. As a result we have been going through the process of reviewing and improving our quality control manuals and procedures.”
The Lord Hire Centres logo incorporates the image of a crown as a symbol of responsibility, authority and leadership. It is certainly an impressive operation that upholds high standards of service, and which has been able to adapt to meet changing customer needs.
www.lordhire.co.uk
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More storage space was needed as Lord’s equipment range grew. 39
Each Lord location has a dedicated retail display area.
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