Barloworld Handling grows fleet to meet customer demand.

Barloworld Handling is investing GBP3 million (USD4.8 million) in 140 new diesel- and gas-powered Hyster forklifts for its short-term hire fleet.

The company’s UK commercial asset manager, Mark Ward, says Barloworld has seen general market conditions improve over the last 12 months and strong demand returning for its short-term hire trucks.

"Our rental fleet is now highly utilised so we want to increase stock to ensure customers continue to have access to the widest range of machines to suit their needs," Ward explains.

Over the past four years, Barloworld has invested over GBP12 million (USD19.2 million) in new Hyster forklifts for its national short-term rental fleet, which it claims is one of the UK’s largest. It is now seeing demand across all sectors of industry from customers wanting to supplement their core fleet to cope with peak times.

Besides 1.5-5 T forklifts, Barloworld has large capacity 7, 12 and 18 T Hyster forklifts for port operations and heavy industry. It also has a range of electric warehouse equipment, including pallet trucks, low-level order pickers and high-level reach trucks for logistics and warehousing operations.

Barloworld believes the profile and condition of its fleet, and its service are the reasons for its popularity in the short-term hire segment.

"Our ongoing investment ensures the age profile and condition of equipment in our fleet is one of the best in the industry," Ward says.

As part of its short-term hire fleet, Barloworld also stocks specialist equipment like sideloaders, rough-terrain and ATEX-compliant Pyroban protected equipment.