IN FOCUS / UAA AND YOU HIRE
YOU HIRE FLOODING WITH PRAISE FOR UAA
You Hire is a Brisbane-based specialist hirer of heavy lift materials handling equipment. Based in Rocklea, the business was unfortunately inundated during the recent floods and a number of the fleet of heavy lift forklifts, including large trye handlers and container handling forklifts, were severely damaged. UAA was on hand to help. MATT ‘YAPPIE’ YAPP, DIRECTOR AND OWNER of You Hire, explained to Cranes and Lifting magazine how Underwriting Agencies of Australia (UAA) responded to flooding events and why he has been insured with UAA for many years. “We were in cranes and haulage for over 20 years, and we were employing over 100 people in the business, but we were getting tired of the issues that went with managing a big business. The unions were making it hard, so we decided to get out of cranes and haulage and focus on the rental side of the business, which includes our heavy lift forklifts,” said Yappie. You Hire specialises in the hire of large tyre handling attachments used for changing tyres in the mining sector, container handling forklifts, reach stackers and forklifts from 16t capacity upwards. You Hire services the mining, rail, and shipping industries, and anyone who requires heavy capacity forklifts. “We have always been insured by UAA, both when we had the crane and transport business and now with the forklift hire business. We have always had a good claims history with minimal claims. We have always found UAA to be a great company to be insured with,” said Yappie. “We used to conduct all the major recoveries for UAA. These were the results of mishaps from other businesses. UAA would send me numbers of these jobs simply because we got stuck in and made the jobs happen.” Unfortunately, You Hire has been inundated with flooding on a number of occasions, and Yappie discussed how responsive UAA have been during these crises. “We had some notice that conditions were not going to be good, and we were lucky enough to get 95 per cent of our fleet www.cranesandlifting.com.au
out. The problem we have with this facility is that the street floods first, making it impossible to move the equipment. “We had a lot of gear damaged in that flood, including flys and hook blocks which were left behind, and a lot of work was required to rehabilitate the equipment. “After the 2011 flood, George Grasso, UAA’s chief claims and services officer, and assessors came straight up from Newcastle to help. UAA were here to help us make the right decisions and get the equipment back to work as soon as possible. Together we mitigated a lot of loss with that flood. “UAA has always provided a very professional service and I’ve found them to be fair, just, and good people. They understand our business, which makes so
much difference when there is a disaster like these floods,” said Yappie. There was another flood in 2013 and Yappie and his team had to think quickly. “The street started flooding again and it looked like the yard was going under, we had to do whatever we could to get the gear out. Our neighbour is a business called Cascade Forklift Attachments and we are a big customer of their tyre handlers. We asked if we could exit our gear through their premises and they said ‘come on through’. “We had to take some panels off one of their large sheds and drive the machines through and to safe ground. We also helped them get some of their gear to safe ground and together we did everything we could to mitigate loss,” he said.
A number You Hire’s heavy lift forklifts, tyre handlers and container handling forklifts were severely damaged when the recent floods inundated the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea. May/June 2022 CAL / 109
