SCOTTISH HIRER EXPANDS JCB FLEET WITH HUGE MACHINE DEAL

A leading Scottish plant hirer has bought 35 new JCB models worth nearly £2.5 million as it gears up to handle major projects.

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Kilmarnock-based Blackwood Plant Hire specialises in the hire of operated and self-drive plant to major infrastructure and utilities organisations throughout central Scotland and the UK.

The latest deal sees the company add a broad spectrum of JCB equipment including: 13-36 tonne tracked excavators, 3CX backhoe loaders, articulated dump trucks and Loadall telescopic handlers to its fleet. They join a Blackwood Plant Hire line-up of 200 machines – over 60% of which is JCB. Several of the machines have already been put to work on the prominent gas pipeline installation project on the M8 motorway in Glasgow on behalf of J Murphy & Son.

It brings to 80 the total number of JCB machines purchased by the company in the past 12 months.

Blackwood Plant Hire, Sales Director, Paul McCormack said: “We have continued to invest in our fleet as part of our ongoing expansion and some high profile contracts across Scotland. We continue to choose JCB machines for the performance and ease of use which proves popular with our customers.

“We would like to thank Scot JCB for their support over the last year. We have purchased nearly 80 new items of plant from them in this time with more to come. The support we receive from their depots and sales staff is second to none.

“The JCB LiveLink system is also a useful fleet management tool as we are able to easily stay on top of our machines’ service requirements. In addition it provides the ability to monitor machine activity with alerts flagging up when a machine has been off hired or stood down – enabling us to check if the customer is actually operating the machine.”

Established in 1960, Blackwood Plant Hire has traditionally offered a range of plant and equipment for hire to customers ranging from DIY to large-scale construction firms. With a fleet of excavators, backhoe loaders, site dumpers, articulated dump trucks and compaction equipment, it has built an impressive network of clients, supplying to major Scottish contractors such as: Land Engineering, Raynesway, Carillion and Scottish Water.