The past, present and future at SER
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Things are moving fast in the SER world with more new employees, new (temporary) offices and the first company seminar! As well as the usual hustle and bustle of peak season in Plant Hire, there’s been lots going on in the last quarter. Where to start? Well, let’s go with the company’s first ever seminar.
Held at the Greenhill Hotel near Wigton, 14 members of staff gathered to hear from Managing Director Andrew Stevens about the company history. Starting in 1975, Peter Stevens bought his first Dumptruck – a Scammell Himalayan, which he charged out at a rate of £4.50 per hour! The company became a limited entity in 1986 as Peter Stevens Dumptruck Hire Ltd and peaked at over 100 dumptrucks on the fleet. This included the truck below in a photo taken at Shap Quarry in 1988.
In the early 2000’s, the fleet dropped down to around 35 machines as two of Peter’s sons, Andrew and Michael, bought the business and took over the running of the company. The fleet began to grow again and expanded into wheeled loading shovels until the shovels ended up out numbering dumptrucks and there was a need to change the company name to Stevens Equipment Rental Ltd in 2013.
Roll on another few years and Andrew Stevens became the sole owner of the company in 2021. This instigated another growth phase and by responding to the changing customer demands excavators, dozers, crushers and screeners were all added to the SER fleet. Sitting at around 180 machines in 2024, the growth has been notable to say the least.
Moving on from the past and present, Operations Director Derek Pollock then presented the future vision of the company. This included adding more structure to the business, a recognition of the growing pains experienced by current staff members and how further additions to the team will help smooth the transition from a small company to a larger one. The current workforce sits at 23 members of staff with further roles identified to fill including a northern based Sales Manager and Compliance Engineer, Mobile Engineers and further workshop personnel.
To wrap up, there was feedback from the Investors in People survey that outlined the company strengths including the commitment of the workforce, sector knowledge, how employees trust each other and work well across the team plus the support provided by office-based staff to those out in the field. Finally, a nice meal was provided by Greenhill and a few beers were enjoyed.
In staff news, we’ve recently taken on a Compliance Engineer covering the Midlands and south. Tasked with carrying out off-site machine inspections and minor repairs, Ben Whittaker has taken to the job like a duck to water and has improved our customer service and internal record keeping. The company has also welcomed Georgia Savage as Finance Manager, Helen Ewart as Hire Desk Co-ordinator and Steven Carruthers in the workshop; new temporary offices have been installed in the workshop to accommodate all the new staff whilst plans are put together to build new, super smart offices with all the mod-cons… at least that what the office staff are hoping for!
In the meantime, as we rapidly head towards the festive period, we must remind you that we’re here to hire out mobile plant – if you have any requirements for dump trucks, loading shovels, excavators, dozers – or anything we haven’t thought of yet, then get in touch and we’ll aim to fulfil your requirements.
