The main bodies in the UK, who purchase or hire roads sweepers are the Environmental Departments within local Councils. Councils have a legal responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the streets and roads within their region. A tendering process is often used when purchasing or hiring expensive equipment. The process has to consider in addition to the costs, the performance record of the equipment and any maintenance or after sales support.
The sweeper machines are designed around the required health and safety features. Compliance with statutory regulations is necessary in the manufacture and sale of these machines. The package will include training for operators and competence based certificates for those who have been trained.
Sweepers need to be versatile and adapt to any type of road surface safely. Many of the routes will be over uneven surfaces or steep hills and the machine must be able to traverse these. A really versatile machine, the MC50 can be adapted to rake up snow and grit roads as well as cut grass. These particular activities are ones which the Councils need to do in order to meet their statutory duties.
After sales support must be efficient and responsive to customer queries. Any plan for ongoing maintenance should be easy to adopt. Machines do break down and even with the best maintenance possible, parts can still break. So it is crucial to have a supply of parts available as quickly as possible, but usually in hours rather than days.
Supplying equipment for use in roads maintenance and sweeping is a huge market, that has multiple suppliers. Finding one that can provide equipment that exactly meets the specification, is reliable and willing to give the benefit of their experience, can be the hard part.
Not every customer will be able to afford to buy a machine outright. Having several payment options as well as some financial incentives can help to close the deal. Maintenance should be included in the purchase price. But for contracts to hire or lease, the responsibility and ownership of the machine remains with the supplier. The advantage to the buyer is they do not need to pay out a large sum of money at once, the costs are spread.
Councils are possibly the largest users of roads sweepers and as such are responsible for the spending of Council funds. In today’s economic situation with the emphasis on financial restraint, there is still the expectation that they will meet their statutory duties by maintaining and cleaning the roads and streets to an acceptable standard.
Street sweepers help keep those roadways clean. When purchasing roads sweepers, there are some things you will need to consider. Let us help you decide on the best one for you.
