AH Plant hire celebrates decade of success

One of Australia's leading plant hire companies celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and things have never looked better with the company setting its gaze firmly on the future.

Now with 250 employees working from 18 branches in five states, and a fleet of some 4000 pieces of major plant, this Australian business has come a long way.

“It started in Victoria as the result of privatisation of the VicRoads plant and equipment division,” explains Bill Wells, AH Plant's purchasing manager. “And soon after that Transport SA's plant and equipment division in South Australia was acquired, again through privatisation. We were then the major supplier of equipment to the Victorian and South Australian governments and began to expand our operations throughout Australia, purchasing private companies in other states and opening new branches in strategic regional locations.”

AH Plant Hire now rents equipment to a vast array of industries in the public and private sectors, including major and minor contractors, commonwealth, state and local government, materials handling, agriculture, forestry and the mining industry.

Personal relationship

According to Wells, the secret to the company's success is its dedication to customers and a firm commitment to supply and maintain state-of-the-art equipment. “The personal relationship we have with our customers is a major contributor to the success of the business,” he says. “We have some long term customers who have been with us from the start. These relationships are just so important.

“We also focus on being able to provide new and sophisticated equipment by continuously regenerating the company's fleet. This way, our customers know that every time they call us, they are likely to get up-to-date equipment that has done less than 1000 hours,” he adds.

But despite its success of the last decade, the team at AH Plant Hire is not about to rest on its laurels. “We are continuously working on ways to increase our market share,” Wells says. “We are currently the number one plant hirer of large equipment - backhoes, excavators, wheel loaders and trucks - in the country, and we intend to stay there.

“We will continue to pursue a large investment in new equipment, and we are replacing obsolete plant to the tune of $20 million a year.”

Excavator rental up

An integral component of the company's excavator fleet is its 52 Volvo excavators – 18 EC140BLCs, 30 EC210BLCs, two EC240BLCs and two EC290BLCs. “The excavator rental market is on the increase, and we are building that market,” he says. He adds that the decision to go with Volvo was made easier by Volvo's outstanding reputation.

“We wanted quality machines at reasonable prices, and products that would be readily acceptable in the market place. Volvo is a brand name that is synonymous with safety, quality and performance, so we were confident that the excavators would live up to our expectations.”

The Volvo B-series of excavators has been specifically designed to maximise comfort, reliability, productivity and serviceability. Each has a finely tuned hydraulic system focused on operator controllability and precision. Boom, arm and slew priority system, boom and arm flow regeneration, and two variable axial displacement piston pumps enhance hydraulic performance, resulting in high slew torque, powerful digging forces and fast digging and slew speeds in all B-series models.

Superior service

In addition to superior performance, Wells says that CJD Equipment's service performance was also a major contributor to the decision to use Volvo. “It has an excellent reputation for customer service and we've experienced it first hand. They really bend over backwards for us.”

In the plant hire industry, meeting customer expectations is all-important, which made it critical that the Volvo excavators attained customer acceptance. “Customers want performance, consistency and site compliance,” says Wells. “The great advantage of the Volvo excavators is that the combination of the Volvo name and AH Plant's service and maintenance record, means that the machines are compliant for any job site immediately. The standardisation of the product means that you can rely on each machine to be the same, every time you rent an excavator.

“Customer acceptance of the Volvo excavators has been great – the market has really embraced the product. People are ringing up and demanding the Volvos constantly so there is not one Volvo in our yard at the moment.”

Further information: CJD Equipment p/l, 1300 139804.