Tag Archives: Construction equipment rentals

Things to keep in mind before renting heavy equipment

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Small construction companies often find it difficult to function due to non-availability of required heavy equipment. Heavy equipment being an expensive piece of metal, they often themselves to be incapable of buying it and therefore they try to use some alternative which falls within their means. For such companies, the advice that one can give is that they should start looking at heaving equipment which is available on rent. Buying heavy equipment can definitely be an expensive affair and no small construction company can afford to go with that as an option. So the next best option is to catch hold of a person who is willing to give the machine on lease. This means that you can own the heavy equipment for a temporary period and can make full use of it till the end of the project or till the time you require the machine. You certainly end up paying a small amount as rent but it is worth the stuff. You do not lose much from the deal. On the contrary you gain more than what you spend.

There are few things that one must consider before they start looking for heavy equipment on rent.

Check if the machine is in order:-

To check if the machine is in order is one of the most important criteria that the taker should consider before he signs on the dotted line. Many owners of heavy equipment lease out their age old machines thinking that they will get some takers for it. All that they do is they paint the machine and make it look new. Some are not even bothered to repair the machine as they feel that there is no much use of it as the machine will come to the same state as what it is now. If these things are not checked then the ultimate sufferer is the guy who takes the machine on rent. He has to call up a mechanic and get the machine checked and also spend money to replace vital parts which was in fact the responsibility of the owner.

Insist on an inspection:-

It is you who have to insist on an inspection of the heavy equipment. If you have been operating heavy equipment since years and you know the in and out of the machine, you can do the inspection yourself or it is recommended that you take along an expert or a mechanic who can inspect the machine for you and can advise your accordingly. This is quite important to be done as you know the actual state of the machine and if you have to make any further spending once you have taken it on rent.

Insist for a lease agreement:-

A lease agreement is a mandatory requirement for every rental contract. The contract speaks in volumes about the rights of both the owner and the taker. You should know your rights and also realize the steps that you can take in case you see yourself being cheated.

Rent your used heavy equipment

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It is pointless to acquire an asset and make no use of it. As long as the asset is of some use to you or generates some sort of income it can be called as an asset but the moment you keep the stuff without gaining any monetary benefits in return or do not use it at all it no longer remains an asset and has every chance to turn into a liability. Heavy equipment is a much needed requirement in the entire construction sector. However, you do not need one machine to do all types of work. This means that once your need is done with the heavy equipment it will remain idle for months. The best way to generate income of the idle machine is rent it out to people who will make good use of it and will also pay you money for using the machine. You will come across lot many people who will be ready to pay you handsomely for using the heavy equipment. It is because no one wants to spend a fortune in buying a machine and then keep it idle once they see the use of it is over.

The market to rent used heavy equipment is big. You have multiple avenues through which you rent your heavy equipment. You can catch hold of a broker or a company that deals with renting heavy equipment, list it online on heavy equipment portal or simply check out on your own and see if you get hold of someone who is interested to use heavy equipment on rental basis.

Heavy equipment broking companies:-

These companies deal with buying dilapidated heavy equipment and then refurnish it by changing its vital parts and once that is done they either sell it off to new customers or let-it out. They buy those old heavy equipment at a comparatively lower price and give it a new life by changing the entire look of the machine and adding few additional features thus also increase the price of a completely junk item. Once that is done they do not see hassle in letting it out to small construction companies. These guys can be approached if you want to let out your heavy equipment. The machine need not be with them but you can hand over the pictures of the stuff to them and they in turn will find the guy who wants it on rental basis.

List the heavy equipment online:-

There are plenty of online portals available that deal with letting out heavy construction machineries. They charge a nominal fee to provide the online service. All you have to do is list the machine after putting some pictures of it on the portal. Provide your contact details so that interested prospects can reach you and come to inspect the machine at a time convenient to you. If they like to go with it, you should prepare an agreement that would state all the necessary clauses and should be signed by all the parties.

Joint Checks with Heavy Equipment Rental House and Construction Companies

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Construction companies are often of the opinion of taking heavy equipment on rent rather than buying them as it may prove to be very expensive for them. However, they also find it difficult to gather information of people who are willing to rent their machines. They may do a search on internet but the results are not always encouraging. Most of the times, they do not get what they are been searching for. It is quite obvious to not get the machine they want as the guys who want to rent their machine do not know what the other party wants.

They just put up the ad based on what they have and this what makes things difficult. The taker needs are not necessarily met by searching for machines over the net and therefore they need someone to help them meet their requirements. This is where a heavy equipment rental house comes into play. They are the ones who act as a bridge between the giver and the taker and they do this quite successfully. The modus operandi is pretty simple. Since both the parties know about the existence of a rental house, they turn up to them and give them their requirements. The giver’s requirement is usually the rental amount that needs to coincide with the comfort level of the taker.

If the taker feels that the rental amount is well within the budget of the company, then he asks the rental house to show the machines. The rental house in turn contacts the giver and asks him to come down with the machine or arranges a meeting of both the parties in his office or at a place that is convenient to both the parties. The taker can then inspect the machine and if he finds everything satisfactory, then he goes for the deal and just in case if he does not find the machine worth for his project, he lets the rental house owner knows about it.

In the entire process, one thing that is very crucial is that both the heavy equipment rental house and the construction companies should stay in close contact with each other as there may be always a need to procure machines on rent or give it on rent. Either ways, being in close contact will help both the parties know the requirements and what the rental house can offer. There have been scenarios where the big construction companies could not get good machines as they were rented out to some other small companies. This mainly happened due to lack of joint checks between the heavy equipment rental house and the construction companies.

The party who wants to rent out their machine should also stay in close contact with the heavy equipment rental house as it will be easier for them to rent their machines quickly. They can just walk in to their office and check if there is any party who is interested in taking a particular machine on rent. If they find a taker, the transaction can happen quickly.

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Heavy equipment rentals

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Few decades ago, it was quite a difficult task to get heavy equipments on rent. It was firstly not easy to identify the giver and once the giver was located, some or the other issue used to crop up which tarnished the deal. However, that was the story which is not at all relevant in the current scenario. Today things are quite simple and are also quickly processed. No one has to wait for the newspaper classifieds to search for rental heavy equipments. All they have to do is turn on the internet and check things on google. It provides you with array of machines, some are expensive and some may fit in to your budget. However, what is more important is to understand the right heavy equipment for your project. Though the rental price matters a lot but to make the right choice is rather more imperative.

Inspecting the heavy equipment is important:-

Remember that you are dealing with stuff that you will not be able to see or feel in front of you. It is all there inside the computer and therefore merely going by the description of the equipment may not prove to be enough. What make sense is to inspect the machine personally. Once you are convinced with the description given on the listing and are confident that this is what you need for the project, you better call the party and fix a meeting. Go to his place and check the equipment that he has put up on the listing. Only when you are convinced with the quality of the equipment you should go ahead with negotiation. If you feel that the equipment is for some reason not apt to your requirement or does not have certain features that you were specifically looking for, you should refrain from any sort of negotiation. Talk it out to the giver and walk away.

Do not bug givers who are not ready to negotiate:-

Not all givers are willing to negotiate the rental price. Some may specifically mention that on the listing and if they do mention it, it is better that you take the machine at that price or leave it. It does not make any sense to bug the person to reduce the price. You may ask him for once and check if he is ready to negotiate but if he is not, then better leave it there and you take a call on what you want to do.

Agreement papers are important:-

If you decide to go for the deal, please make sure that you ask the giver to prepare necessary agreement papers which states all the points that you both have agreed upon. The guy who rents his machine for obvious reason wants to stay clean by preparing the agreement and getting it signed in front of his attorney. Have one copy of the agreement with you so that if there is any confusion in the future, you can just pull it out for reference.

Starting a Heavy Equipment Rental Company

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People who have possessed a lot of heavy equipment which are at present not in use and want to get rid of it by either selling it off or putting them on rent find it extremely difficult to find a suitable buyer/taker. It is pretty obvious that they may be engrossed with their work and hence may not find the time to do these things on their own. They are ideally looking for someone who can help them out in getting their heavy equipment rented to someone. In other words, they want their work to be outsourced to a third party who will take care of the renting or selling the item. This give birth to the need of a heavy equipment rental company who will take the responsibility to rent the equipment to a person who is ready to pay the rent on timely basis as mentioned in the rental agreement. It also becomes the responsibility of the person working in the rental company to ensure that all the documents are in place and no party can create any problem for the other party. If necessary, they should also come forward to mitigate and resolve any issues.

Few important pointers are discussed that are necessary to understand before one sets up heavy equipment rental company.

Kind of equipment you want to deal with:-

It will not be practically possible for anybody to understand all kinds of heavy equipment and therefore it is important to segregate the type of equipment one like to deal with. Either he can opt for small and medium range equipment or can directly go for large range heavy equipment or if he wants he can further differentiate it with the type of equipment he likes to deal with. For instance, if he wants to deal with just bulldozers and back hoe loaders, he will restrict his business to that. A concrete plan is of utter importance when one has decided to open a heavy equipment rental company.

Disclose your plans on your website:-

Whatever plans you have made for your business, make sure that you disclose them on your website. When you are new to this industry and people do not know you, they will refer to your website to know more about you and if they do not find anything there that speaks about your business or your plans, they won’t be much interested to use your service. If possible, also give a glimpse of how you are better than your competitors. You can state what additional features you are providing that is not given by your competitors. This will draw people’s attention towards you and in this process you may get some business from them.

Get your business registered if it needs to:-

Whatever you are doing, it got to be legal. Therefore, please make sure that you get your business registered or do things that let the government of your place know that you are involved in a legal business.

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Some of the biggest problems running a Heavy Equipment Rental Business

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Heavy equipment are not so easy to get especially for people who are budding entrepreneurs and do not have much experience in the construction segment. Unlike the big players who can afford to buy variety of equipments as and when they are needed, small construction companies have to struggle to even get a used one on rent. For the ones who have a project in hand but no equipment, situations become a lot harsher to such individuals. Knowing the fact that how expensive heavy equipment can be and how hard it may hit their finances, it become almost impossible for them to buy a brand new one. They have the option to buy a used machine but what after the ongoing project gets over. In case, they run out of projects, the one they have bought will stay idle. Therefore, it makes more sense to take it on rent.

There are people who understand the needs of such upcoming construction companies and have started their own business where they act as a middleman and try to meet the requirement of both the giver as well as the taker. However, many see this business in deep trouble as they are not getting customers directly walking in their offices and opting for other modes to take care of their business requirements.

The web provides it all:-  With the advent of internet, there are many things that took a change in their way of working. Internet was undoubtedly helpful to many but at the same time, it also became the reason for some to lose their business. People who were in the business of providing heavy equipment on rent are finding it hard to get customers as the customer manages to directly get in touch with the giver and makes a headway. This is in turn giving a hard time to people involved in these businesses and many had to shut their offices.

Now, we also have a smart bunch of people who have used the internet to develop their business. They simply put in an Ad stating people who are in need of heavy equipment on rent can contact them. They design a flashy website which incites customers to call them up or visit them and they in turn meet up with their needs.

Big fish swallows small fish:-  We all know the rule of the jungle. The smartest and the fittest survive. Same is applicable in this business. There are some guys who are in this business for the last many years and have strong contacts with their clients (with both the giver and the taker). These guys ensure that they swallow the business of any new entrant in their arena. When they see a new chap making an entry, they begin giving gifts and freebies at their cost which motivates the customer to stay with them. This makes business impossible for the new entrant and he eventually has to shut his business.