MARKET REPORT SURVEY EQUIPMENT & MACHINE CONTROL
Upturn in demand
EHN talks to two national hirers with specialist survey equipment operations that are reporting growing interest across their product portfolios.
Hirers with specialist operations serving the survey equipment market report healthy demand. One reason for this has been the strength of housebuilding and other construction activity in recent years, although there are other factors at work.
now have in our fleet upwards of 250 robotic total stations and 200-plus network rovers. Those figures are growing daily.”
Indeed, GAP plans to continue the growth of its hire fleet. “This has been one of the reasons for our success up to now,” says Jim Burke. “The policy of the GAP board to continually invest in equipment enables us to have a young fleet and gives us the advantage of being able to offer our customers the latest technology available, across all makes and models. Purchases will include more robotic total stations, GPS (global positioning systems) network rovers and base kits from Leica, Trimble and Topcon, and machine control products from Trimble and Topcon.
“We are continually adding new products at our customer’s request. We are also looking at the option of introducing HD scanners to our hire fleet, but as yet no decision has been made on this.
GAP launched its Survey & Safety Division in 2014.
Jim Burke, Survey Division Manager with GAP Group, says that demand for hiring survey equipment is very strong. “Since opening our first four dedicated Survey & Safety depots back in June 2014, we have gone from strength to strength. We now operate from 14 standalone locations with two fully-equipped regional workshops and a national technical support team.
“The biggest driver for us has been the adoption of GAP customers who, five years ago, would have used independent regional survey and safety equipment suppliers. This was because of their lack of confidence that national hire companies could offer the same level of service and support required for these types of instruments. We have worked very hard at overcoming this and have put in place a model that gives our customers full confidence that we can meet and exceed their expectations.
“Massive increase in demand”
“We have seen a massive increase in the demand for robotic total stations and GPS network rovers on the job site, so much so that we
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“There definitely has been an upturn in the demand for machine control products, which has mostly been driven by some of the major projects in the UK. These systems have become easier to install and operate and this is something we are focusing on. We do at present supply out-of-the-cab equipment to our customers who are benefiting from machine control technology, and the plan is to introduce 3D and 2D in-cab solutions to our customers as demand grows.”
GAP recently added more vans for its growing Survey & Safety operation.
GAP also says it is exploring ways of developing its survey activity. “We are always looking for opportunities to introduce new products and expand our operation. We have just added another eight vans to our Survey & Safety fleet and are continually on the lookout for driven and hungry people to join our ever-growing team.
MOVING FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE
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