Renting the Big Stuff: 5 Pro Tips for Heavy Equipment Rental

If you work in the contracting industry, then allow me to paint you what is probably a familiar picture. You’re hard at work at a construction site. You get to one stage of the project, and you suddenly realize that you’re missing a key piece of equipment to get the job done. You don’t have the budget to purchase this piece of equipment as a standalone. With a groan, you turn to the internet to search for heavy equipment rental options in the area. The reason why you groan? Simple: all of the past rentals you’ve had to do have been long, complicated processes that are painful from start to finish.

But the simple fact is that renting construction equipment doesn’t have to be hard. In this article, we’ll give you five quick tips that you can start implementing ASAP to ensure that construction equipment rental is a pain-free process for you and your company.

1. Ensure All Users Are Trained Appropriately

When you rent construction equipment, it’s of the highest importance that any user who touches the equipment is properly trained on how to use it. It’s not sufficient for a user to have general heavy equipment expertise. You don’t want anything to go wrong with this rental unit, resulting in you having to pay the damages on it or, worse yet, purchase it outright. So be sure to talk to the rental company about the training programs they offer alongside their rentals.

2. Pick a Rental Company with Great Customer Service

Heavy construction equipment are complicated beasts. They have complex electronic components and intricate mechanisms. Consequently, there’s a lot that could go wrong with a machine while you’re using it on the job. If machine failure holds up your job for a long period of time, then you could be looking at the loss of thousands of dollars. To avoid, that, be sure to pick a rental company that has a reputation for helpful, lightning-quick customer service that goes above and beyond to repair broken machines.

3. Ask About Maintenance Schedules

Equipment is only as good as it’s maintenance schedule. Minimize the risk of renting a piece of equipment that will break down on the job by ensuring that the rental company adheres to strict maintenance schedules recommended by the manufacturer.

4. Build Long-term Relationships

Whether it’s a forklift rental or any other kind of heavy equipment, make an effort to build a long-term relationship with the company that you rent from. This will often qualify you for frequent customer discounts.

5. Optimize Cost by Planning Rental Use

Last but not least, optimize your rental costs by planning out the use of the rented equipment in excruciating detail. Prepare for it before you rent the unit. That way, you can ensure that the equipment is never sitting around waiting for someone to figure out how to use it.

Heavy Equipment Rental Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

There you have it — with this guide to heavy equipment rental under your belt, you don’t have to worry about it being a painful process anymore in your construction projects. For more construction advice, check out the rest of the articles on our website!