The Idea

Merlo has been thinking about access equipment for some time, partly because as many as 60% of its Roto telehandler modelsare now sold with a personnel basket attachment.

In fact, the larger the Roto the bigger the demand for a basket – around 80% of +25 m Rotos are sold with access platforms. Merlo's director of export sales, Maurizio Ganio–Mego, also reports that its dealers are finding that it is the basket attachment that is most commonly used by many customers. Around a third of Merlo's total 2006 production of 5000 handlers were Rotos.

Amilcare Merlo, Merlo's CEO, tells AI that it I started to develop the access platforms four years ago and had even at one time considered showing them at Bauma 2004, when it had already prepared prototype models. “We were not prepared then”, he says, “This time we are prepared.”

However, with this being such a new product, the company has decided on a conservative approach, waiting until Bauma earlier this year to show pre–series models, with 30 of these machines now being distributed to a number of dealers in Europe by the end of the year. Feedback on these models will result in thefinal production launch in Spring next year.