Ready for the holidays

Linde emphasises the size and strength of its forklift hire fleet in the run up to Christmas. Linde has a short term hire fleet comprising over 10,000 machines in the UK.

Linde Material Handling (UK) has invested £2.9m into strengthening its forklift truck hire offering throughout the UK, including its heavy trucks fleet.

The investment will further enhance Linde as the largest supplier of short term hire trucks, now totalling over 10,000 machines across its UK network.

Linde is the leading supplier of short term hire materials handling equipment in the industry, with more than three times the amount of trucks available for hire compared to its nearest competitor.

Mark Sullivan, Head of Used Trucks and Short Term Rental at Linde (UK) said: "The addition of these new trucks, to our already 10,000 strong fleet, ensures that we can provide our customers with a complete range of equipment from a 1 tonne powered pallet truck, right through to a container handling truck.

"This time of year is particularly busy for us as industries from all sectors require rental trucks to meet their peak demands during the Christmas period." Frenchay Forestry, wholesalers of Christmas trees, knows they can depend on Linde Forklift Truck Hire during this busy time of year. Based in Bristol, it has a long tradition of involvement in sourcing the finest quality trees at competitive prices.

In the run up to Christmas, the company hires two engine counterbalance trucks which move in the region of 40,000 palletised Christmas trees. The trees are delivered from the growers and are distributed to garden centres across the UK.

Richard Whittle, Partner at Frenchay Forestry explained: "We have used Linde Forklift Truck Hire for many years now and know we can rely on them to provide us with reliable machines for as long as we need." The two and a half tonne engine powered counterbalance forklifts are used for loading and unloading the Christmas trees onto lorries. These H25 models, as with all the engine trucks in the Linde range, are fitted with the renowned Linde hydrostatic transmission which requires no differential, no conventional service brake and no clutch. With a reduced level of moving parts, there is a reduced level of maintenance costs incurred making these trucks ideal for use in busy applications like this.

Richard continued: "The bulk of our business is completed in a three week period, working round the clock to timed deliveries, so we can't afford any downtime." Mark Sullivan from Linde concluded: "Having the largest capability of trucks in the industry means we can react to situations where equipment is required at short notice and deliver a high specification, bespoke solution to meet our customers' needs, whether they are looking for extra capacity for a week or several months." Linde Material Handling has been developing its fork lift truck hire service over the last 20 years. The fleet comprises the widest range of trucks in the UK supported by a comprehensive National Network of 20 support centres to ensure peak customer demands are met.