Technology is key to staying ahead of the curve in a competitive market like the equipment rental industry.
It’s what transforms the way rental businesses operate and make things easier for everyone—from increasing operational efficiency to enhancing customer satisfaction.
That said, businesses need to move with the latest advancements so they don’t get lost in the competition. This means keeping an eye out for the innovative hire technology trends and leaving behind legacy systems.
For contemporary rental businesses, this means preparing for new technologies like mobile solutions, centralising their telematics data management, and meeting the standards of sustainable business culture.
Using telematics and fleet management
Rental businesses looking for new ways to increase rental fleet uptime now have a solution in the form of telematics technology.
Equipment hire businesses can use telematics to track information about their machines—locations, temperatures, hours used—which will improve the safety of the assets and asset utilisation.
Having in-depth insights into each piece of equipment in your fleet will not only be crucial for safety but also help with upkeep and maintenance, enabling businesses to be more proactive about repairing and maximising the lifespan of machines.
Innovative software solutions that view all of your telematics data in a single location enhance the visibility of telematics data too, improving the efficiency and productivity of your hire fleet greatly.
Making the most of your tracking data means:
- Locating your assets with ease and knowing their exact location
- Saving time on collections, repairs, and services
- Speeding up response times
- Tracking unauthorised equipment usage
- Managing on-site breakdowns
As hire businesses migrate their operations to the cloud, syncing telematics data with equipment management software will be easier than ever.
Adopting mobile solutions
Most businesses aren’t new to using mobile devices in their operations, and moving beyond 2022, it’s forecasted to dominate the equipment rental industry.
The benefit of mobile hire software is that it allows both business owners and teams to always be in the know about business processes from wherever they are.
Take, for example, the management of your customer relationships. Easy access to customer information on your mobile device ensures that you won’t ever miss a client meeting or let a sales opportunity slip past your fingers.
Mobile applications are also an attractive tool for your teams on the road. You can immediately let drivers know about changes in routes or optimised route plans and get real-time delivery updates from drivers on the field.
Adopting mobile solutions also improves the efficiency of your teams managing your inventory. With mobile apps easily communicating data about bookings and upcoming deliveries, your warehouse staff can immediately know which equipment is on demand and plan assets accordingly.
Going green
Sustainability and green solutions aren’t just marketing buzzwords anymore. As more and more millennials and Gen Z audiences become conscious of their impact on the environment, they expect the brands they work with to do the same.
This is no different in the equipment rental sector.
As businesses go digital, it’s only a matter of time before they leave their hoards of paper usage behind and minimise their carbon footprint.
Hire businesses aiming for sustainability are increasingly adopting digital technologies that help them manage their operations and build profitability with a minimal negative impact on the environment. Enter innovations like electronic documentation and digital data storage.
By adopting electronic signature capture tools, hire businesses can process contracts and store them in one central system; there’s zero need to print them out and store them manually, reducing the stacks of paper which lead to a significant paper trail.
In addition, integrated hire software solutions also help reduce the fuel consumption of businesses significantly.
While constant transport and going back-and-forth between the site and back office is a vital operation in the hire industry, optimised route planning and effective communication with drivers, enabled by hire software, help increase driver productivity and decrease fuel consumption.
Hire businesses need to rethink the way they do business as they move forward
While digitalisation is not new to businesses in 2022, staying ahead of the curve means keeping up with the latest changes that happen in digital operations. Adopting technology or dealing with big data is never just enough if you’re not making the best use of it or if you’re not taking the steps to improve your operations.
As your experienced rental management solutions partner, MCS can help you overcome this feat. We make sure you don’t get just any solution—we ensure you get innovative technologies and tools that help you reinvent your hire process and deliver a sophisticated service.