JCB has loaned $1.25m of machinery to facilitate relief efforts in flooded areas of the United Kingdom.
The British equipment manufacturer has dispatched four of its high-speed, high ground clearance Fastrac tractors – along with trailers – and two backhoe loaders to the worst-affected areas of the country.
“The scale of the floods and the anguish being caused is devastating for all concerned,” said JCB chairman Lord Bamford. “As Britain’s biggest manufacturer of construction equipment, we are in a position to provide machinery quickly to help families and farmers who are suffering so dreadfully through the floods. It’s my hope that the JCB machines we’re providing will help alleviate that suffering.”
The JCB tractors have been deployed to areas in which livestock needs to be transported away from advancing floodwaters. The backhoes, meanwhile, are to begin by assisting in shoring up flood defences, and will ultimately be used to clear debris once the flooding has subsided.
The firm has already supplied a 541-70 Loadall telescopic handler to support farmers in the southwest of the UK. This machine is currently being used to load donated forage onto trucks.
The fleet has been deployed as part of JCB’s longstanding policy of assisting relief efforts in disaster-stricken countries. For example, the manufacturer recently provided $500,000 worth of machinery and generators to the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.
The JCB tractors and backhoes dispatched to flood-hit areas of the UK will be operated by drivers supplied by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
