Makers deny ROPS scam

by Keren Sall



Manufacturers have reacted angrily to claims by plant hirers that they are cashing in on the European law which requires rollers and dumpers to be fitted with roll-over protection structures (ROPS) from 5 December.

They have denied that their ROPS prices have shot up since the crisis came to light in mid September.

One manufacturer told CJ that they were doing customers a favour. "There is no legal requirement for us to retro-fit ROPS to older machines. We are only legally required to fit ROPS on new machines from 5 December. We are trying to help out our customers by offering ROPS for older machines," said David Brumby, manager at Mortimer Manufacturing.

Ian Brown, director at Thwaites was equally aggrieved that plant hirers had criticised his firm's pricing policy: "We did have a special promotion on ROPS but that has now ended. It is easy for plant hirers to whine that we are not selling them more cheaply."

Bomag is also refuting suggestions that it has doubled its ROPS prices. "Our pricing policy has been to pass on cost reductions to the market achieved through volume orders. The heavy duty ROPS installations suitable for heavy self-propelled rollers and tandem rollers have come down in price by up to 33 per cent in response to demand," said Alex Ferris, general manager at Bomag. "We are in discussion with our suppliers to continuously reduce costs."

One manufacturer did admit to seeing opportunism in the ROPS crisis. John Carnall, sales and marketing director at Barford, claimed his company's pricing of ROPS had been "a bit rich" following the breakout of the ROPS crisis.

However, he did reveal that since then the reaction of plant hirers had forced his company to rescind price increases announced on 14 September.

"It is correct to state that the level of pricing caused some concern and as a result we decided to revise the price to a level which has existed since March 1997. Our pricing is now defendable and shows we are not gouging the customer," he explained.

Robert Brown, managing director at Benford, said: "Even though adding ROPS is very labour-intensive business we have not put up our prices in the last three years as we take the long term view that our customers are being forced to spend extra money they wouldn't otherwise."

l Manufacturers are warning hirers that if their equipment is fitted with ROPS by cowboy outfits they cannot be held liable if anything goes wrong with their machines.

"If there is an accident and the ROPS is not certified by the manufacturer then the hirer responsible could be sent to prison," said one manufacturer.