How to Choose the Right Crane Hire Company

So, you need to hire a crane? Well, whatever the reasons you need a crane for, you’re making the right choice by hiring a professional crane hire and transportation company to help you.

Given the nature of the work involved with cranes, health and safety is of the utmost importance and all the necessary precautions must be taken and regulations met. As such, it is essential that you employ the services of a company that can be trusted - but how do you know if a crane hire company is reliable or not?

In this guide, we’ll discuss the key considerations you should be making when deciding whether a crane hire company is reliable or not, so that you can be sure you are choosing the right people for the job and can trust that they will get it done smoothly and professionally. Read on below to learn more.

Why is it Important to Choose a Reliable Crane Hire Company?

Cranes are typically involved with heavy-duty work that deals with large scale equipment and high-pressure, meticulous processes. As such, there is a high risk factor associated with crane-related tasks; due to the sheer scale and weight of the equipment and materials that cranes often work with, any personnel involved must be careful to ensure that they are not in harm's way in the event that something does go wrong.

Furthermore, the person in charge of acquiring and/or operating any cranes is responsible for ensuring that these are in proper condition and meet the necessary regulations required of cranes. If this is disregarded, then a multitude of issues could occur, with an increased safety risk along with the potential to slow down work productivity or even bring it to a halt should accidents and/or damage happen.

This is why it is important to choose a reliable crane hire company when acquiring a crane to help with your work project.

By choosing a company that you know to be trustworthy and professional, then you have it in good conscience that you are not putting your staff or your project at risk as a result of improper or lacking practice.

Safety Measures for Crane Haulage

When looking to choose a reliable crane hire or haulage company, one of the first and most important aspects of their business that you should look at is what safety measures they have in place and adhere to. As we’ve mentioned, safety is imperative when it comes to working with cranes, and any reliable crane hire company should be aware of this and take proactive measures in ensuring that they meet the necessary safety standards.

One of the first indicators that a company operates according to all the necessary safety and industry standards is to check whether or not they are registered with any associations, such as CPA (Construction Plant-hire Association) and LEEA (Lifting Equipment Engineers Association). If they are, then this suggests that they operate according to the industry’s best practices and view this as a highly important aspect of their company’s reputation.

It is also worth checking to see if and what additional services or equipment they offer alongside their cranes in order to suit your requirements and assist in making them easier and as safe as possible. For example, do they also offer palette forks, block grabs, other specialist equipment (such as boat cradles) and crane planner software to help you with your task?

If they do offer these things, then you can trust that they are not only knowledgeable when it comes to working with cranes, but understand the necessity of undertaking projects with the best safety and efficiency that there can be.

Condition of Crane Fleet

Similar to taking the necessary safety precautions, another important part of ensuring safety is to keep cranes in excellent condition and ensuring that they are fit for work. Any respectable crane hire company should be routinely inspecting, servicing and maintaining their cranes so that they can be sure that they are in perfect working condition according to regulation standards before letting them out to customers.

This includes regularly testing their lifting capabilities, examining their cranes before and after they are let out to a customer and keeping a detailed record of each crane’s condition after every inspection and test. This should all be carried out according to British Standards (BS7121), as in compliance with the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

Experience

When choosing any company to do anything for you, you always want the reassurance that you’re choosing a company with an experienced, knowledgeable team regarding the industry and work involved, and that includes crane hire companies.

Since many crane hire companies, such as Nick Sampson, offer contract lift services, whereby they will supervise and operate the cranes that they let out if the customer has no capable personnel who can otherwise do so, then it is important that their staff have the necessary training and experience to do this on their behalf.

To find out how much experience a crane hire company has, you can not only check how many years that they have been in business, but even get in touch and ask them how much experience that their staff has and whether they have the necessary qualifications. Most companies will have this information on their website (likely in the ‘About Us’ section) and will be more than happy to answer any questions regarding this for you, as they understand how important this reassurance is for their customers.

Reviews

As with any company, one of the best ways to see whether they are reliable and their services adequate is to check online reviews. It’s all very well for a crane hire company to list all the services they offer and label these as being high-quality or even including supposed testimonials on their website, but there is always the risk of these being biased.

You are more likely to trust the words of other customers who have actually used their services and have nothing to gain from lying about their experience with a specific company. As such, you are more likely to see honest reflections regarding the quality of service that a company provides, so you can see whether they can be trusted or not and are worth your money.

It is important that you always use trustworthy review sites such as Google Reviews or Yell when searching for customer reviews, as you will then be reading real reviews from real customers and can better gauge the overall consensus.

Customer Service

It’s one thing if a company ticks all the boxes in terms of capability, but a lot of that can be completely disregarded if they have poor customer service. Being able to communicate with a company is extremely important for reassurance and productivity, as it allows you to organise business with them efficiently and with clarity. If this is not the case, then it can leave you feeling frustrated and left in the dark regarding when you can expect and what you can expect from their services.

Furthermore, if a company has poor customer service that is rude or lacking, then you will not feel respected as a customer, meaning you will mutually not feel respect for them and will certainly not use their services again in the future.

Many reliable companies understand how important their customer service is because of these reasons and the part it can play in their reputation, hence will strive to respond efficiently to their customers and be as patient, polite and helpful as possible to ensure customer satisfaction.

As well as reading reviews, you can always get in touch with a crane hire company with some general questions about their business and/or services to see the speed and quality of their response, which will allow you to determine how well you think they would interact with you should you go on to employ their service.

Mobile Crane Hire

Are you in need of a reliable crane hire company that meets all the considerations we’ve mentioned in this guide? If so, then you need Nick Sampson.

Starting as one man with a van back in 1984, Nick Sampson has now gone on to grow into a 30-strong company that offers mobile crane hire, heavy haulage and crane transport across the UK. As well as our crane and heavy haulage services, we also offer commercial vehicle and truck repairs and maintenance alongside other specialised services.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today to learn more about what we can do for you and to enquire about our services.