It was in the late 70’s that I accidentally had my first experience with powered access. Whilst sitting in a New York bar on holiday an electrician skilfully guided a small scissor lift into a corner to change a light, job done in minutes, no carrying steps, no climbing – effortless.

At this point in my career I was managing a scaffolding business, co-incidentally Stephens & Carter (part of the BET Group) had decided to enter the hire business as they had stock from a failed distribution deal. So, with a range of mainly trailer mounted platforms and rather large electric scissor lifts I was persuaded to head up this new division. Powered Access then were associated more with height, in other words what a scaffolding tower couldn’t reach they would use a MEWP.

Convincing customers proved challenging at first, however the labour-saving costs outweighed the £250.00 per week for a MEWP compared to the historic £30.00 per week for Scaffolding. It proved to be a very interesting time, as the platforms became more popular the range from manufacturers increased and this led to smaller scissor and boom lifts.

The Powered Access Rental Business was born