Founded in the Brisbane suburb of Geebung by current managing director Rod Leech in 1994 and set to turn 30 in May, Skyreach is a true pioneer of Australia’s access equipment hire industry.
When it first started, access equipment providers were thin on the ground in Australia, and the vast majority of the machines in the rental market at the time were second hand units from the USA.
Skyreach product and training specialist James Nightingale says the company set out to be different, purchasing brand new machines that provided customers with the latest safety features, offered simplicity of use, versatility on site and also increased productivity for the operators.
Today Skyreach is one of Australia’s largest rental providers of access and material handling equipment such as telehandlers, forklifts and elevated work platforms – including manlifts, scissorlifts and boomlifts.
It has branches all along Australia’s East Coast, in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane (with branches in Caboolture and Yatala), Mackay, Townsville and Cairns.
The company provides equipment to a broad cross section of industries and sectors including construction, civil, industrial, manufacturing, mining, defence and film and entertainment.
Skyreach’s Elevating Work Platform range encompasses:
- Single Manlifts from 12ft (3.6m) to 26ft (8m),
- Scissorlifts from 13ft (3.8m) up to 105ft (32.2m),
- Boomlifts from 45ft (13.7m) to 156ft (47.7m),
- Knuckle Booms from 34ft (10.6m) to 156ft (47.7m).
The company also offers
- Track Mounted Scissors/Booms – some able to operate on slopes up to 16 degrees
- Speed Level Scissors – which can operate and drive on slopes up to 14 degrees
- Xtra Capacity Booms – able to carry 450kg or three people and operate on slopes up to 7 degrees.
- Hybrid Booms & Scissors – can operate as fully electric machines and can be recharged from the machine’s own onboard generator during operation
- Light Weight Boomlifts – specialised light weight machines for suspended slab jobs
- Outrigger Boomlifts – Boomlifts with outriggers working on slopes up to 19 degrees
- Spider Lifts – Light weight Boomlifts running on rubber non-marking tracks for indoorapplications and also utilising outriggers to operate on uneven ground outside (thesemachines also have the ability to switch between diesel and electric modes)
Nightingale says Skyreach has a simple philosophy when it comes to the equipment it purchases.
“We have been successful because we stock the brands and types of equipment that we consider to be the best in each particular product segment,” he says.
“We ensure our equipment is fitted with the latest up-to-date safety features and we will even source specific machines to provide solutions for our customer’s specific project requirements.”
A good example of this principle in action is when the company was approached by Aus-Rack Installations to provide safe access for them to build the racking for two major supermarket warehouse construction projects (one in Brisbane and one in Sydney).
The extreme height of the racking, the weight they needed to lift and the limited width between racks meant that Aus-Rack needed special narrow electric scissorlifts that would reach 31 metres high.
“No one had machines like these in Australia,” Nightingale says.
“We then investigated what products were available internationally and were able to source electric scissorlifts from a specialist German manufacturer that provided the reach, weight lifting ability and narrow footprint that our customer required.
“We provided the customer with a 1.4m wide machine and a 2.4m wide machine, both of which were able to lift 750kg up to the required working height.
“Over the course of both projects, these machines remained on site for over two years – to this customer and to other subcontractors.”
Skyreach can also offer Yellow Card training and Verification Of Competence (VOC) training on its equipment on site.
“This ensures that our customers are correctly qualified to operate our equipment and the VOC training provides make and model specific training on each machine they are using on site,” Nightingale says.
To find out more, contact Skyreach on 1800 457 145 or visit www.skyreach.com.au