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00:00 14 Jul 1994
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HOW MANY
UTILISATION
You may by now get the feeling that if a machine is popular with hirers it's bad news for the accountants. The mini is different, rates may have become compressed, but people are still buying for hire fleets and making money.
Without doubt the 1t to 3t class has proved the most popular with customers and while the muckshifting side of the industry sank into the doldrums the mini picked up business in the demolition and utilities sectors.
ECONOMICS
Considering the numbers of machines available for hire, the utilisation has remained very high. The tool hire sector realised the potential early on and took hundreds of machines into their fleets to satisfy the DIY market. The cost and scarcity of manual labour convinced contractors and builders that a mini was a better trencher and the demolition brigade worked out that a mini with a boom mounted breaker was faster than a whole gang of men with picks.
Take any component from an early mini and compare it with the same from the latest machine and the difference is clear. Progress has added proper steel crawler tracks, with many models offering a no-modification-necessary rubber option. Three pump systems have become the norm so that dozing in a straight line is possible and increased digging speed a fact.
Sophistication has moved onto the operator's platform in the shape of servo controls, weatherproof cabs and silence. The machines have become more and more reliable.
Like a bushfire. The mini excavator has taken off in a bigger way than anybody could have predicted back at SED 79 when just 37 machines were sold. In 14 years the number of units sold topped 19,000 and the park is estimated at no less than 16,000 active machines and sales still continue to rise.
Last year just over 2,000 units were sold, roughly the same number as in 1990 with the two intervening years returning figures in the low 1200s. The real surprise is that figures for 1994 are expected to go above 3,000 units.
TRACK RECORD
UTILISATION
You may by now get the feeling that if a machine is popular with hirers it's bad news for the accountants. The mini is different, rates may have become compressed, but people are still buying for hire fleets and making money.
Without doubt the 1t to 3t class has proved the most popular with customers and while the muckshifting side of the industry sank into the doldrums the mini picked up business in the demolition and utilities sectors.
ECONOMICS
Considering the numbers of machines available for hire, the utilisation has remained very high. The tool hire sector realised the potential early on and took hundreds of machines into their fleets to satisfy the DIY market. The cost and scarcity of manual labour convinced contractors and builders that a mini was a better trencher and the demolition brigade worked out that a mini with a boom mounted breaker was faster than a whole gang of men with picks.
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Take any component from an early mini and compare it with the same from the latest machine and the difference is clear. Progress has added proper steel crawler tracks, with many models offering a no-modification-necessary rubber option. Three pump systems have become the norm so that dozing in a straight line is possible and increased digging speed a fact.
Sophistication has moved onto the operator's platform in the shape of servo controls, weatherproof cabs and silence. The machines have become more and more reliable.
Like a bushfire. The mini excavator has taken off in a bigger way than anybody could have predicted back at SED 79 when just 37 machines were sold. In 14 years the number of units sold topped 19,000 and the park is estimated at no less than 16,000 active machines and sales still continue to rise.
Last year just over 2,000 units were sold, roughly the same number as in 1990 with the two intervening years returning figures in the low 1200s. The real surprise is that figures for 1994 are expected to go above 3,000 units.
TRACK RECORD
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