James Clark is not surprised if forklift rentals are increasing.

Some UK forklift suppliers are noticing an increase in short-term forklift rentals that could be a result of the credit crunch impacting the forklift industry.

Jungheinrich UK Ltd's short-term rental director, Neil Warren, says his company has seen a "noticeable increase" in demand for forklifts on short-term deals.

"Traditionally, forklift users have turned to short-term deals to cover peaks like Christmas or Easter, but we are experiencing a growing number of enquiries from companies seeking short-term rental machines because they need a truck but a permanent addition to the fleet is not in the budget," he explains.

Jungheinrich operates an extensive short-term rental fleet from the manufacturer's entire range. Forklifts are usually delivered within 24 hours and forklifts not in the UK fleet are sourced from Europe.

"Users are seeking agile solutions for their handling requirements and short-term deals are one of the options we can offer to help companies to budget more easily during the current climate," Warren says.

Doosan Infracore UK Ltd dealer manager Jason Jordan says his company is also seeing an increase in short-term rentals.

"Doosan operates a dealer network in the UK and different parts of the country are affected by different things at different times," he says, also pointing to the traditional year-end peak demand for rentals.

"At the moment, there are a lot of companies unable to commit to five-year deals and as such, when their existing long-term contracts are due for renewal, there is a tendency to roll on the contract," Jordan says.

He explains that most forklift suppliers then leave the existing forklifts on site for as long as the customer wants them and will internally transfer the truck from the long-term contract onto the short-term hire fleet, after fulfilling the financing requirements for the forklift.

"This will increase the number of trucks on the short-term hire fleet for the forklift supplier and so the trend will show an increase in short-term hire," Jordan adds.

James Clark, secretary general of the British Industrial Truck Association, says the association does not collect figures on rentals but he is not surprised if forklift rentals are increasing.

"Firms are understandably taking the 'short view' and are unwilling to commit to longer-term investments, such as buying and maintaining a forklift. This is where the flexibility of renting is an advantage. However, at some stage even rental fleets must be replaced by new vehicles and that is an indeterminate factor at this stage."