Ingo Schiller Reflects on Challenges and Strengths in the Growing Tower Crane Market
By Seth Skydel
In January of this year, when Uperio Group named Ingo Schiller the new president of Uperio North America, Sébastien Desreumaux, CEO, referred to his“ deep industry knowledge.” It was an apt statement about someone whose resume shows a more than three-decade long career in the crane and lifting industry.
Over the years, Schiller has served as an executive with crane manufacturers and as an advisor to equipment suppliers. With a father who worked for a global tower crane manufacturer in the 1960s and 1970s, he was familiar with the industry long before entering it professionally.
Schiller’ s focus at Uperio North America reflects that broad experience, which gives him the ability to reflect on past experiences and apply lessons learned, as well as identify today’ s challenges and work to find solutions.
Addressing Challenges
“ Tower crane rental companies face several ongoing challenges and some of the biggest are access to and the cost of insurance and contract management,” Schiller said.
“ The cost of coverage is high and rising, and even getting the right coverage in place when contracting for jobs is a daily challenge.”
General contractors often have their own coverage and standard contracts that are used for trade subcontractors, Schiller explained. Pairing and syncing insurance coverage with contract terms is critical to ensure that the work can be done with a clear understanding of who is responsible for what and when.
“ However, these standard contracts do not always fit the work that is provided by tower crane companies,” Schiller continued.“ In a perfect world, contractors would have or accept contracts that are specific to the lifting industry, but until that time we continue to clarify contract terms and insurance coverage requirements with each job.”
Contractual activities are an essential part of the tower crane rental process, Schiller noted, but they only account for a small part of the activities that surround ensuring that the right crane is placed properly in the right spot to meet a customer’ s needs.“ The bulk
Ingo Schiller brings three decades of industry experience to Uperio North America as the company’ s new president.
of the work involves engineering and logistics,” he said.“ On tower crane rental jobsites that involve a number of parties.
“ The complexity of planning for a tower crane deployment is much more involved and often involves more parties than for a mobile crane job,” Schiller explained further.“ Before you can transport and assemble a tower crane there’ s a significant amount of work that has to be done.”
For example, Schiller pointed to the need to work with engineers on the tower crane’ s foundation. He advised closely inspecting anchor placement
12 May 9, 2025 www. contractorshotline. com