How to successfully manage your equipment rental fleet

The rental department of equipment dealers contributes heavily to the business results, but at the same time it is also one of the most challenging departments to manage successfully. Only with the right business processes, supported by complete rental management software, you can get the most out of your rental department.

Your customers demand flexibility

With equipment rental there are little certainties. The rental period, for what purposes the equipment is being used and the required configuration: it can all be unclear or change over time. But only if you can handle those uncertainties and are flexible enough to adapt to unique customer needs and changing circumstances, you will be able to remain competitive with your rental offering. A few practical examples:

  • A customer thinks he wants to rent a tower crane for two months, but his project is delayed and it turns out to take four months.
  • A customer wants to rent a forklift truck with a lifting capacity of 8 tons. You do not have the forklifts that meet this requirement, but you do have heavy forklifts available that can lift more than 10 tons. Does your system give you this insight, so that you can offer this option to the customer?
  • A customer expects to only use an excavator on easy accessible terrain. During the rental period, the customer also wants to use the excavator on rough and difficult terrain and therefore needs additional attributes. Can you adjust the rental contract and make sure processes such as transport and invoicing are handled flawlessly?

And there are plenty of other examples where the flexibility and adaptability of your rental department are tested. Therefore, excellent software is a must have.

"You need a dealer management system, specially developed to support equipment dealers in managing all their business processes."

Rental software that includes all you need

Excellent rental software helps you with:

  • Planning: Which objects are available for rent? Which ones have been rented out and when will they return? Do you need to hire from a third party? Are the assortment and capacity of the rental fleet optimal?
  • Pricing and invoicing: What do you charge per day, per week and per month? Do you have extra charges, for example for insurance? Do you apply different rates for specific days, customers or objects? And how and when do you invoice all this? Do you have to make corrections to invoices? Can you send a periodic invoice? And to which location?
  • Transport: Do you take care of the delivery and return of the rental objects? Or does a transportation company do this for you? And what do you charge the customer for this?
  • Service: Do you carry out inspections and services before and / or after the rental period? Do you have to clean the objects? What do you do with damage and repairs? Have you got a service level agreement? Have you coordinated the service planning with the rental planning?
  • History: What happened to the rental object in the past? What are the revenues and costs? Which parts have been replaced? Where has the object been?

If your rental manager gets stressed out when reading these questions, then it is time to take your business processes and automation to the next level.

Rental software as part of your dealer management system

All these facets of rental software show how closely this department is connected to the rest of the organization. Planning, finance, transport, service, administration, but also parts and sales. You need a dealer management system, specially developed to support equipment dealers in managing all their business processes. By focusing on the equipment and gaining insight into the complete life cycle of your objects, you get a complete picture of your equipment and your company, enabling you to make the best decisions.