Toyota's UK operation claims contract hire accounts for 70 per cent of the country's materials handling equipment acquisitions.

Toyota Industrial Equipment national sales manager Andrew Morley said that, based on the company's own annual figures for rentals, the figure was a fair indication of the national trend.

Keith Stewart, sales director for Locators, Toyota's distributor for central and southern England, said the south of the country, according to Locators' figures, acquired forklifts and materials handling equipment through contract hire.

"The decision as to how a company acquires its trucks is and should be entirely personal to the business," he said. "It is the role of the forklift supplier to offer rounded, sensible advice that helps it make this decision."

Stewart said companies' attitudes to rentals differed, depending on their application.

"Customers operating in the frozen and chilled industry prefer to be on a long-term contract hire [because they] understand the trucks are working in a pretty arduous environment and it may be unreasonable to consider them assets after five years," he said.

Toyota sales and marketing director Terry Stephens said seasonal demand and "unplanned" contracts made it difficult to predict the contract hire market.

"Naturally we are aware of seasonal demands and the Christmas rush is the busiest time. In general, 80 per cent of short term requests in the run up to Christmas are made by regional distribution centres for retail companies, such as large supermarket chains," he said.