| 
|
|
 |
Farming is in Tim Hall’s blood. As far back as he can remember his family has farmed The Birches, a hill farm in the Peak District, Derbyshire, where traditional agriculture struggles to make a living profit. His entrepreneurial foresight and skills mean he is now a successful farmer and one of the most respected names in the plant hire business.
Tim is the founder and developer of Hall Plant Hire and, more specifically, PlantSafe – a simple and practical answer to the problems of on-site theft of plant and equipment.
Theft and damage by vandalism of construction machines and equipment is a constant concern for builders, contractors and the companies that hire diggers, dumpers and the plethora of vehicles and tools that are used on sites.
Removing this plant and equipment to a place of safety after every working day and week is time-consuming and very expensive. Tim Hall recognised that if the plant and all the tools and equipment could be left on site, safely, then the contractor and builder could realise significantly lower costs and pass these on to the customer, making them much more competitive in a highly competitive market.
He devised the concept of a large reinforced steel container – very similar in appearance to a shipping container. Diggers and dumpers, supplied on hire by Hall Plant Hire, drive into the container, which also has the space for other tools and equipment. The complete container is then transported to the working site, the door opened, and everything the contractor needs is then immediately available for the work force waiting on site.
When the job is completed, the contractor simply drives the equipment back into the container, locks it and leaves it: safe and sound for Hall Plant Hire to pick it up again.
The remaining problem was that, while he could use trucks to haul on roads, he needed a tractor for the final stage of the journey – getting the full container off the road and onto the construction site. The all-terrain Mercedes-Benz Unimog U500 provides him with the ideal solution to operate the trailer’s hooklift and provide haulage from the Hall Plant Hire yard direct to the working site.
The immediate result is a big saving on fuel costs – 7.2mpg instead of the 3.8mpg of a fast tractor he used to use. He is also able to achieve much faster on-road speeds and a significantly more comfortable driving and working environment for the operators. The most important element is that he can haul anywhere, anytime, safe in the knowledge that his operation is legal.
Hall Plant Hire began life as a way of turning a struggling farm into profit. The Birches is a typical Derbyshire Peak District hill farm: 200 acres of steep hillsides with attractive millstone grit walls – very much the romantic, picture postcard ideal of an English farm.
“When I took over the farm from my parents it was always going to be a struggle to keep it working and profitable. I ended up hiring myself and other people out with a backhoe for small construction and building jobs in the area,” Tim says.
“That was when I got the site safety idea. Pick up any of the construction magazines and you will read about expensive and vital vehicles and plant being stolen from working sites, and the problem seemed to be worst in the most remote areas.
“We devised a system that involved a simple steel container that could be used to store plant and then left on site until we could pick it up. It meant that we could stick to our timetable of operations rather than be dictated to by the customer, and the customer could just pack up and go without having to wait for us.” |
The operation – now named PlantSafe – has grown and expanded. While The Birches farm is still the headquarters, a separate, large depot in Chesterfield is used for storage. There are 150 containers, each 25ft by 10ft by 10ft, and Tim Hall delivers as far as the North East of England. He has also designed and had built a special trailer with a hydraulic hooklift that is powered direct from the host vehicle. The power unit then tows the trailer, weighing about 20 tonnes with the container aboard, to and from the sites.
The containers have also been designed specifically for the task with reinforcements and in some cases, concrete lining for additional security. The doors are hydraulically operated because of their size and weight and the containers have built-in ramps for easy loading and unloading of plant vehicles. The heavy duty locks are operated automatically using RFID or key fob technology, so there are no external mechanisms that could be tampered with.
“The main criteria for selecting a host vehicle to haul the containers and the trailer is power,” Tim Hall says. “We need to be able to quickly and smoothly hooklift the container onto the trailer, even when it has a full load of, perhaps, a digger/backhoe and dump truck.
“The vast majority of driving time is spent on roads so a road-going truck is ideal because it can travel happily and economically at 56mph. The problems arise when we have to deliver the container off-road: 98% of the travel could be on road, but if there is just 2% or less off road then we need a traction unit with off-road capability, as well as power.
“With the Unimog U500 we have found a vehicle that has the power and road-going ability of a normal commercial vehicle, and also off-road capability when it gets to site.”
“The business is growing and so we need to be in control of all our costs,” Tim Hall adds. “If we can be competitive as a plant hire businesses, and add exceptional levels of plant and equipment safety, we can help our customers grow as well as our own business.”
At heart, Tim Hall is still a farmer. It’s in his blood and his families and he will continue to cultivate a living from his 200 acres – alongside the livery stables he runs from the farm. But in terms of a comfortable wage for his family to live on, Hall Plant Hire and his own PlantSafe is the source of his business success.
|
| The power of the Mercedes-Benz Unimog U500 provides Hall Plant Hire with savings of more than £32,000 a year and makes sure the operation is within the law. |
| | |
Model ranges
