HAWKE’S BAY CRANE & PLATFORM HIRE RECENTLY ROLLED OUT TWO OF OUR SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS TO OPTIMISE THEIR WORKFLOW AND THEY’RE THRILLED WITH THE RESULTS.

Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire has a long history of providing comprehensive and cost-effective crane and platform hire services in New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay Region.

When Hawke’s Bay Crane Hire and Hawke’s Bay Platform Hire joined forces in May 2020, they brought together more than 30 years of crane hire and 15 years of platform hire experience under one roof. The merger propelled Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire to the forefront of the local industry.

“We now have an extensive fleet of 12 cranes and 60 platforms that allows us to take on projects of all sizes and adapt to the needs of our clients,” says Office Manager Kirsty Holford. “We offer both wet hire and dry hire services, so we needed a software solution that could help us streamline our processes to become more productive and efficient.”

A FALSE START WITH AN OVERSEAS SOFTWARE SOLUTION

With many of their competitors still using paper-based systems until the pandemic forced many of them to go mobile, Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire was one step ahead.

“We used a Belgium-based equipment management software solution called Cheqroom for a couple of years,” says Holford. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right fit for us. The major issue was that it was a ‘party hire’ type software where everything was dry-hired without an operator which didn’t work for the crane side of our business.”

The geographical location of the company was also a problem. “Whenever we had an urgent issue, we couldn’t get immediate assistance because it was usually the middle of the night in Belgium,” says Holford. “We needed a local company that could respond to queries in a more timely way.”

ENTER EQUIPR’S INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE SUITE

In search of a better solution, Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire turned to Google and found EQUIPR Software’s cutting-edge asset management software.

“We were thrilled to find a company that was based in Australia because that meant we would get support when we needed it,” says Holford. “We knew right away that Allocate and Operator would be the right fit for us because they could integrate our wet hire and dry hire operations and they had several advanced features that would help our business.”

In July 2021, Hawke’s Bay Crane & Platform Hire rolled out Allocate and Operator across the company and they haven’t looked back.

“The EQUIPR team was always on hand to answer our questions and address any issues we had during the roll-out,” says Holford. “We’ve been using Allocate and Operator for more than six months now and we’re very happy with the result. They’ve made our processes faster and more efficient, from collecting dockets and invoicing to making sure we’re on top of our compliance. We’d recommend EQUIPR Software to anyone.”