Plant hire group makes £4m investment in eco-friendly powered lifts

A £4.3m investment by Newton-le-Willows-based national plant and services provider, Speedy, has seen it take delivery of 380 new Dingli lifts.

The boost is part of its strategy to replenish and expand its powered access fleet.

Speedy’s powered access division bought a significant quantity of zero-emission battery powered scissor lifts and mast lifts.

These are among a range of other machines recently added, including a 4×4 scissor lift which can run on low-emission hydotreated vegetable oil (HVO), which Speedy uses to pre-fuel all powered access equipment as standard. HVO emits up to 90% less CO2e than standard red diesel.

Speedy operates 10 powered access specialist service centres around the UK, including its industry first low carbon Innovation Centre in Milton Keynes.

This latest investment builds on the previous round in April 2020, which added 130 scissor and mast boom lifts made by Chinese company Dingli to the firm’s powered access fleet.

Andy Briggs, managing director at Speedy Powered Access, said: “Contractors are increasingly choosing low carbon equipment that helps them to meet clients’ emissions targets. We’re making significant investments to replenish and expand our powered access fleet to boost availability of the sustainable assets they require UK wide.

“We’re already seeing strong demand for the new Dingli machines as we help contractors to work safely, sustainably and efficiently at height.”

Andy Northwood, general manager at Dingli, said: “Our versatile range of machines helps contractors to carry out a variety of projects, from day to day maintenance to major construction projects. It’s a strong vote of confidence that Speedy has chosen to make its second major order with us in the space of a year, as it strives to provide the best assets to its UK wide base of customers.”

Speedy Powered Access was formed in November 2020, following the merger of Speedy’s existing powered access businesses with three acquisitions – Prolift, Platform Sales & Hire and Lifterz.

Since then, the division has invested upwards of £20m in powered access machinery, adding more than 700 units to its fleet, including models from Dingli, Skyjack, Genie and Niftylif.