These figures show an increase of 12.8% of people IPAF trained in 2013 compared to 2012. The majority (almost three quarters) of those trained were still from the UK, a clear legacy of IPAF's origin.
Looking in greater detail at the figures proved even more revealing. The UK figure for candidates training on static boom (1b) lifts (including truck and van mounts) show an even bigger increase. Smart Platform Rental took a particular interest in this since they are the biggest rental company of light truck mounted powered access platforms and the fourth largest provider of vehicle mounted powered access training in the UK.
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This category showed an even greater leap of 15%. "The reasons for this are part of the overall trend towards client's getting their staff to be formerly trained," observed Smart Platform's Commercial Director Guy Willett. "However, we believe this also shows a greater adoption of self-drive rental of 3.5t truck mounts over relying on the traditional model of operated hires coming with the rental company’s own operator with frequently larger truck mounts."
The observation is not without further evidence. "Our business has experienced record growth over the past five years combined with a growth in the number of new locations including Birmingham, Manchester and Dartford. This has been in part due to our clientele both appreciating the ease of using our vehicle mounts for themselves, along with them attending ever more tailored IPAF courses for their needs including PAL+ and MEWPs for Managers. These courses not only teach safe operation, but also more efficient ways of using access platforms," commented Willett.
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