If you attended The Rental Show or Conexpo this spring, you're likely still feeling the warm, positive vibes of optimism floating through the atmosphere. One area where this feeling is particularly palpable is within the aerial market, one of the sectors hardest hit by the recession, which is currently bouncing back with the promise of a continued upward trend.
This issue of Rental contains a special report on the aerial market (see page 16), providing you with insight from leading manufacturers into the factors affecting change. From all accounts, rental companies are buying aerial equipment again, mostly to replace their drastically aging fleets, but there's a hint to something more as well.
Dave Baxter, director of strategic business planning at JLG, noted the aerial market is anything but mature, that there are still many potential users out there whose attention suppliers have yet to capture. The key to realizing this potential, he says, is for manufacturers to develop products at a lower price point to ease the entry of these would-be customers.
Low-level access is one area that shows promise. In fact, David Smith, president at Snorkel North America, predicts this will be the year that small, push-around scissors and similar products will take hold in a big way. Likewise, products like the Liftpod from JLG are already catching the interest of professionals who once relied strictly on ladders and scaffolding.
The advent of low-level access presents positive opportunities for aerial manufacturers, while it also offers great potential for rental businesses. There is perhaps no better time than now to test the waters. It might just open up a new stream of revenue for you, and who couldn't use that?
