1. MAINTENANCE return to top
Equipment rented on a day-to-day basis includes full maintenance. The user of such equipment needs no repair shop, no spare part supply, no mechanics, and no parts supply inventory or maintenance records for it. It is important that all these costs be added to the cost of owning when deciding whether to rent or buy.
2. BREAKDOWN return to top
There are costs related to breakdowns of owned equipment which are not applicable to rented equipment. Virtually all equipment is subject to occasional breakdown in use. When rented equipment breaks down, it is immediately replaced by A Rent-all Shop, Inc. at no cost to the user. Time losses on breakdown of owned equipment as well as the cost of the repairs themselves must be considered.
3. WAREHOUSING return to top
Warehousing facilities are seldom needed for rental equipment. This aspect of renting has made it possible for some contractors to operate successful construction businesses with little more overhead than the cost of a telephone answering service, by having equipment rental yards serve as their warehouses.
4. MOBILITY return to top
Equipment rentals offers the contractor or other user a mobility that could not exist with owned equipment. A contractor, for example, can bid on a job several hundred miles away, secure in the knowledge that he will find the equipment that he needs at a rental center near his job site. Before the rapid growth of equipment rental centers, a major argument in favor of owning equipment was availability and convenience. This has now become one of the strongest arguments against owning, since rental facilities are now almost universal.
5. COST CONTROL return to top
Better cost control is possible with rented equipment. Knowing the true costs of equipment owned is difficult. Rented equipment offers the user just one accountable cost figure-that shown on the rental invoice.
6. INVENTORY CONTROL return to top
Another advantage in renting is inventory control. Contractors in particular often find that they have less inventory shortage due to theft when equipment is rented rather than owned. The presence of continuous billing on any rented item tends to establish accountability for that item. The contractor who owns a great deal of miscellaneous equipment has a difficult time establishing personal responsibility for any of it. However, rented tools which must be returned are watched with sharper eyes.
7. DISPOSAL COSTS return to top
It is easy to overlook the cost of disposing owned equipment. It costs money to sell any type of used or obsolete equipment. Preparing the equipment for resale, advertising and selling time are cost factors of ownership that do not occur in renting.
8. OBSOLESCENCE return to top
Day-to-day renting eliminates equipment obsolescence for the user. Faster, safer, and better equipment is constantly appearing in today's market. Ownership involves the risk of being handicapped with equipment that is slow, unsafe and inefficient when compared with newer models.
9. CORRECT EQUIPMENT FOR THE JOB return to top
Ownership often forces another kind of inefficiency through use of the wrong size or type of equipment for a given job. Even though the equipment is not obsolete, this can also mean additional hidden costs. Renting insures the correct equipment for the job.
10. MINIMUM EQUIPMENT FOR THE JOB return to top
Equipment ownership is not cost effective when equipment is idle. When ownership, of basic equipment is combined with rental as needed equipment, idle time is minimized.
11. PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXES AND LICENSES return to top
There are no personal property taxes or license costs for the user of rented equipment. On owned equipment these are substantial costs, which must be added to the cost of owning rather than renting.
12. CONSERVATION OF CAPITAL return to top
Renting conserves capital. It frees capital for other, potentially more profitable uses than that of being tied up in equipment.
