TMHUK is growing its short-term hire fleet to meet customer demand.

Short-term hire is in demand in the UK, with Toyota Material Handling UK (TMHUK) following the lead of Impact Handling, Jungheinrich and Linde in expanding its forklift rental fleet.

TMHUK says it is meeting customer demand by pouring GBP7 million (USD11.7 million) into its short-term hire fleet, with a further 500 trucks planned for this year.

The forklift supplier now has a fleet of over 3,500 trucks to help customers with emergency replacement, unexpected demand and also to support seasonal peak periods.

Trucks added to the fleet include over 120 Toyota Tonero engine-powered counterbalance forklifts and 180 Toyota Traigo electric-powered forklifts, including over 20 Toyota Traigo 80-volt forklifts launched in the UK last May (Forkliftaction.com News #621).

Rental operations manager Rachel Thomas says: "By understanding our customers' requirements, we have increased our fleet in the areas where we have the most demand. We want to provide our customers with the highest quality trucks and that is why nearly 40% of the whole fleet and 62% of the counterbalance fleet is less than three years old."

Thomas adds that TMUK is also looking into supporting niche industries by ordering industry-tailored trucks.

"An example of this is within the local farming industry, where we have a dedicated fleet of 'farming spec' Toyota Tonero forklifts, allowing us to provide delivery within 24 hours," she says.

Toyota Material Handling Europe has also continued to see increased demand for its short-term rental forklifts over the last three years. Director of business solutions Jaroslav Antene says that his company will expand the rental business as customer demand grows.

"It seems that a traditional, seasonal peak trend has been less visible in the European market. Short-term rental is an option for those who are looking for (a) more flexible solution," he says.

He will not reveal the size of the TMHE rental fleet, but claims it is among the largest in Europe and "we have all our models available for short-term rental" (Forkliftaction.com News #612).

Impact Handling was the first forklift supplier Forkliftaction.com News reported on this year that is growing its fleet by 100 new Cat Lift Truck machines and not ruling out more additions for 2014 (Forkliftaction.com News #653).

In the third quarter of 2013, Jungheinrich invested GBP6 million (USD9.7 million) in forklifts and other handling products for its UK short-term rental fleet. It now has over 4,000 models in its short-term rental fleet, most less than 24 months old (Forkliftaction.com News #636).

Linde Material Handling of Basingstoke, UK added 200-plus trucks to its short-term hire fleet in 2013 and claims to be the UK's largest supplier of short-term hire trucks with around 10,000 machines in the UK (Forkliftaction.com News #626). Linde also invested GBP2.9 million (USD4.6 million) in its forklift hire fleet at the end of 2012 (Forkliftaction.com News #592).