Passionate about people and safety, Select Plant Hire is redefining the standards of sustainable plant solutions
Providing the highest standards of safety and the best people development opportunities in the market, Select Plant Hire (Select) is leading the industry with complex, full-service plant solutions. Select initially began its operations as a part of O’Rourke & Sons, internally delivering innovative plant and equipment solutions. When O’Rourke’s acquired Laing’s in 2001 – establishing its new identity as Laing O’Rourke – Select grew significantly, and more so with its later acquisition of Delta Cranes. 
Soon, what started as an internal business supplying excavation equipment and tippers transformed into a plant equipment powerhouse. Select grew to have its own fleet of crawler and tower cranes and established its own tool and modular accommodation business, whilst supplying piling rigs and concrete pumps to Expanded Piling – another of Laing O’Rourke’s acquisitions – and externally to the wider market. Since then, Select has been proud to provide full-scope technical solutions and plant hire capabilities to the UK’s largest, most complex construction and civil engineering projects. Alongside the exceptional quality and diversity of its solutions however, what truly sets Select apart in the market is its commitment to safety and to its people – which it emphasises as its two greatest priorities.
Eddie Carr, Select’s Operations Leader, elaborates: “We provide almost every item of plant and equipment that Laing O’Rourke could need, but we also supply a range of equipment to an external client base. We don’t want to just be a commodity plant company hiring out assets; we want to offer a differentiator for our customers, be it safety, sustainability, technology, or the high quality of products and services that we can offer.
“Anyone can hire assets, but it’s the people who make a real difference. We want to make sure that we can attract and retain the best people and offer them an exciting career in the industry, and a large part of that comes down to keeping our people safe. We work in a high-risk environment and it’s our number one priority to ensure that that culture is ingrained throughout our business and that everyone is able to challenge our performance if they need to; our teams are the best people to help us identify problems and areas for improvement.”
In line with this ethos, Select champions its three core pillars of engineered safety, delivery excellence, and human performance. These values permeate every facet of Select’s culture and operations, acting as a baseline for its service delivery and wider investment program. Complementary to that, sustainability is a key focus for Select’s investments – an area where the company has always stayed ahead of the curve.
Select’s technical solutions are designed to meet the demands of the most complex construction environments, supporting landmark projects such as Battersea Power Station and The Shard. From early-stage planning through to delivery, Select provides tailored crane schemes that prioritise safety, efficiency, and programme certainty. By integrating site-specific constraints, logistics, and lifting requirements, these technical solutions help project teams make informed decisions that reduce risk and optimise performance. Working closely with Terex in terms of engineered safety, Select’s tower crane technical team strive to improve the safety in design of tower cranes. Whether supporting Laing O’Rourke or external clients, Select’s technical offering ensures smarter and safer lifting strategies that drive construction success.
“All of our products and services have sustainability as an intrinsic part of their offering because we’re a part of a Tier 1 with net-zero ambitions,” Mark Herlihy, Business Unit Leader, explains. “Because of that, we often take the lead and invest in sustainability before the market even demands it, demonstrated by being the first to add electric crawler cranes to our fleet within the UK. We have net-zero strategies across each of our seven main business streams and consistently work to engineer sustainability into the solutions that we offer to our customers. For example, we manufacture our own modular site accommodation, where we’ve integrated intelligent building management systems to track energy use and see how we can use it more efficiently.”
Eddie adds: “In our temporary electrics and power business, we’ve invested in a fleet of battery solutions to replace our diesel generators where possible, and we’ve also trialled electric and hybrid piling rigs and electric concrete pumps in our specialist plant. On top of that, we now have a lot of electric battery-operated equipment, such as electric excavators, telehandlers, and rollers, and we’ve invested in battery charging infrastructure alongside that, to provide a total solution.”
Such investments have been integral in securing successful projects and partnerships for Select, further amplifying its market-leading position. “We’re going through a really exciting period; we’re starting a large number of data centre, hospital, and grid upgrade projects, and supporting some nuclear and small modular reactor projects,” Mark explains. “To support this large pipeline, we’re investing back into our fleet, working with Terex and Liebherr on heavy crane solutions to support the requirements of future nuclear and modular projects.
“Additionally, we’re working on sustainable solutions for modular accommodation, such as solar power, which will work alongside our building management systems to ensure that it’s running efficiently. In our plant business, we’re investing in the newest technology available, particularly around machine control for our engineering and surveying departments. When it comes to safety, productivity, and sustainability, we’re always investing in technology that supports the aims of our project teams.”
Looking ahead, Select is well-positioned for continued growth and success. With an abundance of exciting projects on the horizon, 2026 is set to be another highly profitable year for the company, driven by ambition, further investments, and sustained operational excellence. As Select embarks on its next chapter, however, one thing will always remain constant: its passion for people and an unwavering commitment to safety. As Mark and Eddie reaffirm, these two qualities lie at the very heart of Select and will remain to be core differentiators in the market for many more decades to come.
“We’ll be looking to make big investments into our fleet, but our main priority for the future remains focused on our safety strategy and people engagement; they’re the two things that really differentiate us, and we’re always receiving feedback from our workforce. Each of our business streams have ambitious plans for the future with target areas underpinned for major growth,” Mark reveals.
“The delivery of these business plans, however, is going to be dependent on our people,” Eddie adds, concluding our conversation. “We’ve got a big focus on ensuring that we retain the best talent in the industry to help us with these exciting times ahead. The construction industry – particularly in terms of the sectors we are focused on – is forecasting significant growth, and when that comes, we need to be sure that we’re in a position to support and accelerate that, with the right people in place and the right products and equipment in tow. We’re passionate about people and safety and we want to be known for fostering an environment where our people can flourish and succeed.”