Would a disruptive influence benefit cranes and transport in 2025?

‘And we’re off’ – so the rollercoaster starts again, with the new year upon us.

Looking at some of our recent stories in International Cranes and Specialized Transport and on craneandtransportbriefing.com, including the rental confidence feature, things have been going pretty well for crane owners, at least in North America, much of Europe and some of Asia (other than China).

Let’s hope that continues in 2025 and beyond, even if there is now more uncertainty in the world than what already seemed like a lot over the last four years or more. Some of this will turn out to be what will be better labelled as unpredictable and-or disruptive change.

Lots of talk of disruptive behaviour and actions can be exciting and interesting – and even perhaps “just what the doctor ordered.” By way of analogy, in the world of popular music, I am old enough to remember first becoming aware of punk rock.

Wow, the first waves of that – loud, fast and often angry – in the 1970s and then the softened and more commercialised (more palatable?) New Wave of the early 1980s, really made an impression.

It genuinely seemed different – new and challenging – exactly the shock and disruption that was needed to shake off some of the dreadful schlock we were being subjected to in the world of music at the time.

Looking back on it now, it couldn’t have come at a better time and it did a lot of good, at least to make people sit up and take notice, perhaps to think and start asking questions, even to take some action. Natural curiosity and championing potential disruptors has remained a constant.

Anyway, enough reminiscing, let’s get back to what is a more serious situation in the world today. While there may be greater direct risk or consequence to some of the likely disruption the world will probably experience this year, it seems we might be approaching a point where some different things just need to be tried out. Let’s hope they have a positive impact on our industry and the wider world.

In the meantime, see the latest issue of International Cranes and Specialized Transport.