IN FOCUS / HUMMA PICK AND CARRY
Humma 55 and 35 have proven ideal for wind farm assembly.
WEST CRANES CELEBRATES 20 YEARS WITH HUMMA West Crane and Access Hire have been a long term supporter of the Humma pick and carry range. Gary West explains why they have been the backbone of the business for two decades. GARY WEST THE FOUNDER OF WEST Crane and Access Hire together with his son Chris operate the largest crane hire operation in the Western Districts of Victoria. West speaks of his involvement with Humma starting back in 2000 and how his business has developed from a Humma 20-25 to a fleet of Hummas.
Fast forward to 2020 and Humma 20 had completed over 20,000 hours of work. West reminisces about the start of his crane hire business and being located in the small country town of Stawell, there were a few businesses requiring crane hire like the meatworks, farm sheds, which depended on farmers cashflow
“To contain costs, I did all of the maintenance and servicing and added additional services. On a number of jobs, the client required access plant, boom lifts and scissor lifts so we added these units to our operations.” 22 / CAL November 2021
and some infrastructure projects. This made it necessary for West to travel long distances to other towns to get work, it was not uncommon to travel over a 100km to do a job. The margins were reasonable but continuity of work was a problem making it difficult to operate a profitable business. “Crane operators were not available and had to be trained and if there was no continuous flow of work you had to put your drivers on casual and if this continued for some time, they would leave chasing reliable permanent work,” said West. “This was a major obstacle to building the business. To contain costs, I did all of the maintenance and www.cranesandlifting.com.au
