Preston Hire Group is an Australian group of companies that supply specialised materials handling equipment hire to the construction and industrial sectors. Preston Hire Group's range of equipment hire includes mini cranes, steel props and cantilevered retractable crane loading platforms, an innovation that was designed by the Group's founder, John Preston. Equipment is supplied either ‘wet’ or ‘dry’. Preston Hire Group's branch network spans four Australian states including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, as well as North America and now New Zealand.
In 2000, John Preston's son, Markus Preston, took over responsibility for the day-to-day operations of Preston Group, subsequently acquiring the Group from his father in 2004. Preston Group has a longstanding affiliation with Jeans for Genes, an Australian national fundraiser for Children's Medical Research Institute, with Markus Preston serving on the organisation's Executive Committee in 2010.
Products
Preston Group is widely recognised for its cantilevered retractable crane loading platform system, the Superdeck, and its extensive fleet of mini cranes. The Group also hires steel props, which are used as temporary supports during building repair or alteration work.
Superdeck
In 1997, Preston Group developed and patented the Superdeck, a cantilevered retractable crane loading platform system designed to simplify materials handling efficiencies for multi-storey and high-rise construction sites. The Superdeck superseded the Group's earlier non-retractable design, which performed the same function but could not be extended or retracted. The Superdeck mainly co-operates with a tower crane to transport large construction objects vertically between building floors on a construction site. The ability of the Superdeck to be ‘rolled in and out’ allows multiple loading platforms to be positioned vertically above one other for fast delivery of building materials directly to the designated floor of a multi-storey building. The design of the Superdeck consists of both a stationary support structure and a movable deck. The stationary support structure fixes securely to a floor of a building and cantilevers beyond an edge of the floor to a free-end space from the edge of the floor to a predetermined maximum extent. The movable deck, which is mounted on the stationary support structure, can be moved between an extended position as a cantilever beyond the free-end of the support structure and a retracted position inboard of the free-end of the support structure. Loading platforms can carry anywhere between 2-5t cargoes at one time. Preston Group currently supplies cantilevered retractable crane loading platforms in 2.2m, 2.6m, 3.2m, 3.4m and 4.2m varieties. The product is patented to the Group in Australia, New Zealand and North America.
July 2016, Preston Hire have taken delivery of the first Sennebogen 673E crane to arrive into Australia. Preston Hire Managing Director Markus Preston & Group General Manager David Serg witnessed the 673 being tested at the Sennebogen facility in Staubing, Germany. Preston took delivery of the 673 during the official opening of their new Brisbane premises located at Underwood, QLD. At the opening Preston Hire displayed their Loading Platforms, Storage containers, a large display of Maeda mini crawler cranes, one of their Kato MR130 city class cranes, various crawler based Elevating Work Platforms and the Preston Hire Racing V8 Super Car team complete with the transporter and V8 supercars. The 673 has been added to Preston's growing fleet of Sennebogen telescopic crawler cranes which range from 15 tonne to 70 tonne capacities. The 673 has a transport width of 3m and is fitted with a 36m main boom and a 15m fly jib.
