Stephen Smith Plant Hire bought the machine from his local dealer Taylor & Braithwaite.

The R125LCR-9A is a 12.5-tonne midi crawler excavator with short tail-swing. It was officially launched in the UK at the 2014 Hillhead exhibition but is only now finally working on site anywhere.

Stephen Smith is a ‘one man, one machine operator’ who works on building projects such as new-build housing developments. The new machine is being put to work on a small building project in Seascale.

He says the machine is good for sites where space is limited and manoeuvrability is tricky. The boom is not offset, which makes the machine more compact.

Stephen Smith said: “I have had two other machines from Taylor & Braithwaite – a Caterpillar and a Case – and I could not fault their customer service, which is why when I was looking to replace my old machine T&B was my first port of call. I saw the specification on the new Hyundai machine and was very impressed. The machine was not yet in the UK so I had to wait almost 12 months to get one!”

He added: “I did consider the R145LCR-9A (14.5 tonne) but it was a bit too big for what I wanted so I decided to hold out for the smaller 12.5 tonne machine.  The R125 machine is perfect for working on smaller sites where it’s difficult to manoeuvre. The short radius swung it for me, no pun intended!”