Ingo Schiller, Uperio North America

tial part of the tower crane rental process, Schiller noted, but they only account for a small part of the activities that surround ensuring that the right crane is placed properly in the right spot to meet a customer’ s needs.“ The bulk of the work involves engineering and logistics,” he said.“ On tower crane rental jobsites that involve a number of parties.

“ The complexity of planning for a tower crane deployment is much more involved and often involves more parties than for a mobile crane job,” Schiller explained further.“ Before you can transport and assemble a tower crane there’ s a significant amount of work that has to be done.”

For example, Schiller pointed to the need to work with engineers on the tower crane’ s foundation. He advised closely inspecting anchor placement and rebar configuration before the concrete is poured.“ You have to be all in when it comes to minimizing risk by planning ahead and verifying everything for correct and safe operation based on the job specs, engineering plans and industry standards,” he said.

Positive Outlook

Schiller sees a number of positive things about the current tower crane rental business and the technology available to operators. The industry’ s productivity, efficiency and safety record, for example, have been elevated by the availability of advanced and effective training and certification programs.

“ Sustainability is one area where tower cranes are leading the industry because most equipment is electric and emissions are not an issue,” Schiller also said.“ Even if there’ s not enough electricity on the jobsite through the grid to run the crane, we’ re able to offer battery packs that can be continuously supplied with a low amp electrical source or a small generator that burns very little fuel.”

Looking ahead, Schiller said that new technology aimed at improving jobsite efficiency and productivity is always coming from manufacturers. On his wishlist as well are more applications of telematics that can offer a predictive maintenance capability, leading to greater reliability by

providing feedback and advanced warnings about componentry that needs service or replacement.

“ With a tower crane the goal is to leave the yard in perfect condition,” Schiller said.“ Our crews think of themselves like people who pack parachutes. There’ s no room for error. The product has to work flawlessly for the duration of a job.”

There are financial considerations as well.“ The best place for maintenance and to prepare a crane for work is at our facilities before it is dispatched to a job,” Schiller related.“ For every dollar it costs to address an issue on a crane at our facility, the cost goes up tenfold at every step down the path to the jobsite. That’ s $ 10 once it’ s disassembled for transport, $ 100 before it’ s erected on-site and $ 1,000 after the crane is assembled.

“ The quickest way to lose a customer is to have unreliable equipment,” Schiller added.“ Our goal is to ensure that our equipment is ready for work on arrival and fit to perform for the duration. At the same time, though, the average length of a tower

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