Pride in power by the hour News Story - 11 Aug 2005 ( #221 ) - SYDNEY, Australia 1 min read A Sydney forklift dealer has developed a new forklift hire program to meet the needs of very small Australian businesses.Pride Forklifts has developed the "power by the hour" program in which clients are charged A$2 (USD1.50) per hour of usage.Company owner Darrin Pride said each forklift was fitted with an hour meter and clients were visited monthly to record machine usage."A traditional hire will cost between A$160 (USD122) and A$200 (USD152) a week whereas our "power by the hour" charge, on average, is $109 (USD83) a week. There is a minimum charge of five hours a week," Pride said.He said Pride Forklifts had identified a large market of small Australian businesses that employed less than three people."This type of business may only use the machine for a few hours a week and on the whole has been penalised by other forklift companies by being charged a fixed rate based on a 40-hour week," Pride said.All brands of forklifts, with lift capacities ranging from 1.5 tonnes to 2.5 tonnes, were available, he said."We use late model machines that are OH&S compliant and mechanically reliable."