Innovative services open up new options

Manufacturers of waste and environmental vehicles and equipment, specialist hire and rental companies, plus national and international finance and leasing groups, are providing a growing range of hire and financing options to waste and transport management in both the public and private sectors. LAWE reports on some of the latest developments.


Applied Sweepers, whose Green Machines from Edinburgh City Council Cleansing Department’s fleet, took pride of place leading the Edinburgh Festival’s opening parade this year, offers its range on either an outright purchase basis, or the equipment can be supplied through a comprehensive Contract Hire scheme.

For “ad hoc” requirements, the sweeper manufacturer’s Product Support operation can supply ex-fleet 400 Series Green Machines for short term hire (including maintenance cover) on a weekly or monthly basis at very competitive rates.

In Edinburgh, the city’s fleet of Applied Sweepers machines, including nine of the new Applied 525 HI-Speed Green Machine sweepers are kept busy during the three week Festival with the extra litter generated by approximately five million additional visitors to the city. The Edinburgh fleets are supported by the manufacturer’s contract service.

Calculating the cost

JCB Finance, the in-house finance arm of J C Bamford Excavators which produces a wide range of materials handlers aimed at the waste management and municipal markets, has launched a financial calculator on its website www.jcb-finance.com. Simple to use, it is designed to help potential customers calculate the monthly payments, and hence the potential benefit of spreading the costs of their next machinery acquisition.

The calculator also displays the weekly equivalent, particularly appropriate for those in the plant hire sector. The interest rates used in the calculation are updated every two weeks to taken into account any changes in money market rates.

JCB Finance says that the free to use calculator can be applied to all types of machinery and vehicle acquisitions, new or used, JCB or other. A simple drop down box lets the user select which type of asset along with a selection of different repayment periods from two to five years and an “Amount to be Borrowed” box. This latter free format box does not allow calculations of less than £10,000 over two years, and the results are stated to be instantaneous.

If the user would like to take matters further, a “Request Contact” button can be pressed, or alternatively, the “Locate Territory Manager” button will take the user to a section that uses a post code search system to display the contact details of the nearest JCB Finance Territory Manager.

Nigel Greenaway, JCB Finance’s Marketing Manager, commented: “It’s early days but, depending on usage, we would like to develop the system further. At the moment it is a very simple fixed rate Hire Purchase calculator which uses an average interest to give an indicative repayment. Many of our customers are surprised to learn that, with today’s low interest rates, the monthly payments they can afford generate a far higher borrowing amount than they thought possible. The end result is that they order a slightly better specification machine than they had previously contemplated.

“Everybody in the chain is happy and that is the art of good business,” he added.

Use of the calculator is free but some basic contact information is required at the outset. The user is then granted a password that allows instant future access.


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