Fleet and depot investments for GAP despite Covid-19

UK rental company GAP Hire Solutions has invested in fleet and depot network, with Kubota excavators, Wacker Neuson Dual View dumpers and AJC EasyCabin welfare units, many of them Stage V compliant, a key element of the purchases.

Chris Parr, GAP Group COO, said the investments were a response to customer demand, adding, “despite the pandemic capex most definitely has not stopped.”

GAP’s recent investment includes the new Stage V Kubota U50-5 5t excavator.

“If demand and utilisation levels support it, we will invest,” Parr said. “Construction and infrastructure will be areas specifically targeted by the Government to stimulate the economy and it is vital that we are fully prepared and able to respond to resultant increased levels of demand.”

Depots across the UK will be receiving cabbed dumpers, rollers, compressors, excavators, and welfare units by the first quarter of 2021. The new Stage V Kubota U50-5 5t excavator and KX080-4a2 8t excavator are included, along with two-tool compressors from Atlas Copco.

In 2020, the company invested £13.5 million (€15.4 million) in upgrading and expanding its premises, reconfiguring its depot network to ensure the best locations for local markets.

GAP’s purpose-built “super depot” opened in March 2020 in Tilbury near Essex.

GAP’s purpose-built “super depot” opened in March 2020 in Tilbury near Essex, housing seven of the company’s 10 divisions: Plant, Tools, Non-Mechanical, Trenching & Shoring, Welfare Services, Tanker Services and Lifting Hire & Sales. Also in March, three of GAP’s depots to the west of London were relocated from Hatton Cross to larger premises at Heathrow.

GAP’s Tanker Services division was launched in 2020 and by the end of June 2021, will have thirty 26t effluent and water tankers in its fleet.

Meanwhile the Group has also invested in its Technical and Environmental Services divisions, which include Lifting &TIC, Survey & Safety, Trenching & Shoring, Event Services and Tanker Services.

GAP’s Vehicle Hire division has grown over the past five years to a £24 million (€27 million) turnover business with over 4,000 Light Commercial Vehicles in its fleet.

In December, GAP also relocated its Cornwall depot in the south west of England to a new, two-acre site in Bodmin, Cornwall. The new is site a Plant, Tools, Non-Mechanical, Welfare and Survey & Safety depot to service Cornwall.

The independent, privately owned company employs around 1,700 people across 146 locations in the UK. Its equipment fleet is understood to be valued at £500 million (€570 million.)