Spiderlift access platforms are more common in the market place than they have ever been. Whilst many powered access platform providers have gone down the path of having these machines in their fleet, others have found to their cost that mixing 'specialist' platforms with booms and scissors can be a recipe for disaster...
As spiderlifts have become increasingly popular more and more providers have requests for them. At first glance it looks very appealing to have them in the fleet but when they sit around for a while the premium rates that they hoped to get look less attractive due to the low utilisation and this causes hire desks to use the technique so often adopted when machinery stands idle. They drop the rates just to get it out. This is despite the cost and complexity of hiring out this type of access platform.
Now we have made it a mainstream product. In the eyes of the customer its a narrow, lightweight boom with outriggers. Maybe you also transported it cheaply as well. These two components lead to problems. The machines get treated less well by both customer and hirer alike, delivery is without a proper familiarisation, operators have problems using them and this leads to frustration on all sides. Before you know it customers are unhappy, leading them to not wanting to pay and hirers and their staff start to treat the machines as more of a nuisance factor.
As the market matures what will transpire is that prices will be pushed down, service levels will drop, equipment will deteriorate, and the return on investment will be eroded. This will make mainstream hirers think again whether to incorporate spiderlifts into their business. Only time will tell...
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