UP FRONT / ACTIVE CRANE DECK
GAME CHANGER FOR CRANE DECKS Active Crane Hire celebrates its 21st birthday with the launch of a range hydraulic loading decks. ACTIVE CRANE HIRE STARTED IN 2001 hiring Potain self-erecting cranes. Hermann Buchberger has had various business partnerships over the years but streamlining the decision-making process enabled the business to grow with the fleet including both self-erecting and tower cranes. Again, the brand was mainly Potain. In 2011, Buchberger solely took over the helm of Active Crane Hire and continued to build the business adding more cranes to the fleet. The construction industry experienced a considerable up turn at the time and the fleet quickly grew to 150 cranes. In 2019, he was planning the next stage of the Active Crane Hire’s evolution, and decided he needed a partner back in the business, one which knew and understood the crane sector inside and out. He sold 50 per cent of the business to Shawn and Nathan Borger from Borger Cranes and Rigging Services. “Since then, we have increased the fleet further and we now have 160 cranes. Both the Borger’s and I like to take an innovative approach to the crane sector and our business, and so we have taken a slightly direction by introducing electric luffing cranes to the fleet,” said Buchberger. 10 / CAL November 2021
Active Crane Hire specialises in supplying cranes to the small to medium size section of the construction market including the construction of luxury housing in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and medium high rise residential construction projects, up to 18 floors. Operations have been focused on New South Wales but over the last two years, there has been a gradual and successful expansion into Queensland. “Approximately 10 Potain cranes were purchased from MSCR (Matt Savage Crane and Rigging) as they exited the industry and this provided an immediate
presence in the market,” said Buchberger. “We are following the Borger expansion in the state where they are having plenty of success in South-East Queensland and also the Sunshine Coast. We now have 45 staff on our books, and we continue to specialise on the dry hire market. We will provide cranes with operators for some of the larger builders on major projects, but dry hire is in our DNA. “We currently have 100 projects on the go and forward bookings are looking very solid. The highest number of cranes we had on projects was 140 and this www.cranesandlifting.com.au
