Alwardi adds key mobile cranes to range
01 July 2016
Alwardi Transport, one of the biggest transport and plant hire companies in Bahrain, has recently expanded its rental fleet with the addition of a 250-tonne Grove mobile crane and a 200-tonne Liebherr mobile crane.
The company now intends to expand its fleet further with the purchase of more trucks, trailers and bulldozers in line with the needs of the market, according to Turki Alwardi, managing director of the company.
Alwardi Transport’s current rental fleet comprises 250 trucks and 100 units of various plant equipment offered to the GCC market on a rental/lease basis, he says. These represent a number of renowned brands such as Mercedes, MAN, Iveco, Liebherr, Caterpillar, Hyundai, Hiab and Grove, with the average age of its equipment being about seven years.
Its fleet comprises trailers, tippers, dumpers, cement tankers, car carriers, water and diesel tankers, cranes of various sizes, bulldozers, excavators, wheel loaders, rollers, graders, forklifts and shovels.
“The most popular machines in our fleet include trucks and cranes,” he remarks, adding that from the company’s head office in Bahrain, the trucks travel to and from all areas of the GCC.
Its trucks incorporate GPS (global positioning systems) to enable tracking them.
“The equipment is leased to customers on a contract basis – either on a cost per trip or per hour/day basis. As we provide drivers/operators, this eliminates the need to train our customers in the use of our machines,” Alwardi points out.
Alwardi Transport is the main division of the Alwardi Group and is a specialist company for the transportation of industrial cargo and consumer products throughout the region and to the rest of the world.
It claims to be the first transport company in Bahrain to achieve ISO 9001:2008 certification.
Its large and diversified fleet of vehicles is operated by experienced and safety-conscious drivers, supervised by a team of experienced foremen for loading, lashing and offloading of industrial cargo.
Alwardi has an advanced vehicle maintenance section with a highly skilled mechanical team. Frequent preventive maintenance is carried out on all equipment to ensure they remain in excellent working order, he adds.
Commenting on business, Alwardi says: “While sales in the first half of 2016 have been similar to that achieved in the second half of 2015, there are signs of an upturn in business for the second half of 2016, especially for heavy plant hire. In fact, our truck rental business is almost working to full capacity. This is due to projects to expand Bahrain International Airport and Diyar Al Muharraq.”
Alwardi says that business has improved compared to five years ago, when the market for equipment rentals was badly hit by political unrest in the region.
“These problems are not affecting the market in 2016,” he says.
Some of Alwardi’s ongoing projects are with Alba and Sulb for trucks; heavy plant hire with Abu Dhabi Marine Dredging and with the contractors for Diyar Al Muharraq.
Alwardi’s loyal customers list includes Alba, Midal Cables, Zayani Motors, Gulf Closures, Euro Motors, Bahrain Building Materials Company, Sika Gulf, YK Almoayyed and Sons, Almoayyed Airconditioning and Contracting, EK Kanoo, National Motors Company, Al Ma’wdah Establishment, Airmech, Al Komed Engineering, Cybarco, KAR Group, Coil Tech, Kooheji Contractors, and Mercury Contracting, among others.
Alwardi has also established long-term business relationships with many multinational companies operating in Bahrain for various projects including Boskalis Westminster, Great Lakes Dredging, Wade Adams, Dredging International, Saudi Cables, Kajima Corporation, Daewoo Corporation, Kobe Steel, Ballast Nedam and others.
