If you are in the heavy equipment rental business or rent out your heavy equipment for extra cash, chances are you are not only concerned with maximizing profit but also concerned about where and how your customers are using your equipment. This is a legitimate concern and a good reason to implement asset tracking solutions into your business. In this blog post, we explore how asset tracking can help you know where and how your customers are using your heavy equipment.
Equipment safety and theft prevention
If you are renting your heavy equipment, the last thing you want is your customer losing your equipment. You may think losing your heavy equipment is unlikely, especially because of its size, but it is not as uncommon as you may think. In fact, National Equipment Register (NER) estimates that the value of heavy equipment stolen each year ranges from $300 million to $1 billion. Unfortunately less than 25% of stolen equipment is recovered.
Although, you might have a contractual agreement with your customers that ensures the safety of your equipment; it is always a good idea to have a contingency plan that will help you find your heavy equipment if it is stolen. Your customer might tell you they have a fence around their construction site, but it is difficult to assess how protected your heavy equipment really is.. Furthermore, in some cases your customers might not be able to fence their construction sites because of the size or location.
Having an asset tracking solution as a contingency plan can save you from replacing your heavy equipment. If your heavy equipment goes missing, a real time location system will help you to track it by giving you its current location. Additionally, the presence of an asset tracking tag on your heavy equipment is sometimes enough to deter thieves.
Read: 3 Huge Benefits of Heavy Equipment Tracking for Rental Companies
Equipment usage and Customer service
Knowing where and how your customers are using your heavy equipment can help you provide exceptional customer service. Sam Walton said, “the goal of a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary.” Building a legendary customer service takes a lot of work and foresight, nevertheless this process becomes easier with the aid of asset tracking.
Asset tracking helps you build trust with your customers. For example, if you have a rental request, a real time location system will let you know:
- Whether the equipment requested is at your facility or not
- Can help ensure that the right equipment is in the right location
- Eliminate the guesswork of whether your equipment will be ready for rental or not
Having knowledge of the current location of your equipment can help you build trust with your customers because you can consistently rent out equipment when you say you will.
Another way you can create a legendary customer service experience is by sharing your tracking information with them. For example, if your customer rented five tractors but only used three of them consistently, you can use your tracking information to show them that renting only three tractors will be more cost effective. Doing this will build trust with your customers because they know you care about their business. While it may mean you’re not renting as many pieces of equipment to them today, it builds trust long-term and increases their loyalty to you because they know you care about their business as well.
Read: 16 Strategic Benefits of Asset Management and Asset Tracking Software
Visibility
Knowing where all your assets are located gives you more visibility which increases efficiency for your rental business operations. For example, if you are using an asset tracking system on all your heavy equipment, you can easily see what is being rented, how often, and for how long. Having this information can help you decide if you need to engage in more marketing or buy additional equipment to reach your financial goals.
Visibility helps you locate your assets when the customer says they’ve returned the equipment, but you can’t find it. You can determine when the equipment was actually returned, and if they accidentally dropped it off at another location or if the driver hasn’t actually dropped it off yet. Instead of your employees searching through the yard for the equipment, they can easily identify and verify the location, saving valuable time and resources.
Furthermore, more visibility can help you assess late fees and enforce contractual agreements. If you have an asset tracking tag on all your heavy equipment, your asset tracking solution will provide you with information on the exact time and location your customers returned your equipment. This information can help you easily determine if you need to enforce late fees.
Investing in asset tracking adds a lot of benefits to your rental business. Link-labs has years of experience in asset tracking technology. Reach out to us at Link-Labs to find the best tracking solution for your rental business.
And, to see how Link-Labs has made it possible to track all your assets indoors, outdoors, or anywhere in-between, download our eBook today.
