Amid the constant bids by manufacturers to outdo each other in terms of height, speed and overall productivity, some OEMs are increasingly turning to the issues of service and safety and opening up new fronts of competition
The good news is, there’s plenty of work at height — between the steady drumbeat of hospitality and Expo 2020 Dubai projects in the UAE and the 2022 FIFA World Cup projects in Qatar.
Beyond construction, oil and gas provides a steady stream of demand, and with the oil price stabilised, this will continue as a rock of ages for the sector for some time to come.
Equally, the gradual maturation of the urban environments in the Gulf is yielding increasing volumes of work in the facilities management segment: managing shopping malls, event space and also the airports.
The general buzz is good, and the vast majority of aerial access manufacturers and rental operators are upbeat about their prospects in 2016 and over the horizon.
The only kicker in the scheme of things is the sheer ferocity of the competition. Aerial access is a cut-throat business, with OEMs loudly proclaiming every centimetre of height they manage to creep over their competitors; every morsel of fuel they manage to scrimp and save; and every degree of gradeability.
Given the diminishing return of this ever more detailed fixation on the minutiae of performance, it is perhaps unsurprising that some manufacturers are instead choosing to, while not discarding the performance-linked metrics, pitch equally from the perspective of aftersales support and end-user safety.
This is a conversation that has already long been under way in Europe, where safety in particular has been on the march for decades.
However, the active and vocal presence of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) in the Middle East, is an indication that exactly the same conversations are already coming over the horizon in this region as well.
The argument is often made that if Europe took decades to do something, we shouldn’t expect it any quicker in the Gulf, and this is true. We shouldn’t expect it any sooner in the region. However, experience also tells us that the Gulf does in fact implement faster.
The tentative baby steps are already underway: the major manufacturers have phased out man baskets on telehandlers that do not enable operator control from the basket; anti-entrapment technologies are available on most new machines in the region; and rental operators like Manlift are already implementing RFID systems on large fleets of machines to prevent their use by unauthorised personnel — tying in with operator training.
As the growing presence of these technologies steadily raises expectations in the region, the winners of this turning tide will be the manufacturers who are driving the movement; the losers will be everyone left in their wake.
Service and safety: AWP moves beyond price-point
Amid the constant bids by manufacturers to outdo each other in terms of height, speed and overall productivity, some OEMs are increasingly turning to the issues of service and safety and opening up new fronts of competition
The good news is, there’s plenty of work at height — between the steady drumbeat of hospitality and Expo 2020 Dubai projects in the UAE and the 2022 FIFA World Cup projects in Qatar.
Beyond construction, oil and gas provides a steady stream of demand, and with the oil price stabilised, this will continue as a rock of ages for the sector for some time to come.
Equally, the gradual maturation of the urban environments in the Gulf is yielding increasing volumes of work in the facilities management segment: managing shopping malls, event space and also the airports.
The general buzz is good, and the vast majority of aerial access manufacturers and rental operators are upbeat about their prospects in 2016 and over the horizon.
The only kicker in the scheme of things is the sheer ferocity of the competition. Aerial access is a cut-throat business, with OEMs loudly proclaiming every centimetre of height they manage to creep over their competitors; every morsel of fuel they manage to scrimp and save; and every degree of gradeability.
Given the diminishing return of this ever more detailed fixation on the minutiae of performance, it is perhaps unsurprising that some manufacturers are instead choosing to, while not discarding the performance-linked metrics, pitch equally from the perspective of aftersales support and end-user safety.
This is a conversation that has already long been under way in Europe, where safety in particular has been on the march for decades.
However, the active and vocal presence of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) in the Middle East, is an indication that exactly the same conversations are already coming over the horizon in this region as well.
The argument is often made that if Europe took decades to do something, we shouldn’t expect it any quicker in the Gulf, and this is true. We shouldn’t expect it any sooner in the region. However, experience also tells us that the Gulf does in fact implement faster.
The tentative baby steps are already underway: the major manufacturers have phased out man baskets on telehandlers that do not enable operator control from the basket; anti-entrapment technologies are available on most new machines in the region; and rental operators like Manlift are already implementing RFID systems on large fleets of machines to prevent their use by unauthorised personnel — tying in with operator training.
As the growing presence of these technologies steadily raises expectations in the region, the winners of this turning tide will be the manufacturers who are driving the movement; the losers will be everyone left in their wake.
Congestion bus-ting OEMs eye future transportation