Equipment rental companies have a vast and complex set of logistics — preparing, assembling, delivering, tracking, picking up, and maintaining the rental equipment. With multiple operations running parallel across different locations, not having your rental logistics streamlined can be a big mistake.
A quick and straightforward way to increase the efficiency of your equipment rental logistics is by introducing mobility (or mobile access) with a scanning solution in your business.
At To-Increase, we often interact with rental companies who think rental software is enough to upgrade their technology game. However, adding mobile access to your logistics is necessary to ensure quicker and shorter processes.
This article shares the benefits of adding mobile access to your equipment rental logistics so you can learn how it will be helpful to your business.
Why do equipment rental companies need mobile access in logistics?
Logistics is a huge part of the equipment rental business, especially when you consider the range of equipment that enterprises rent, the locations of the rental company, and customers.
With several types of machinery that customers rent, you must deal with many logistics activities:
- Pick the equipment from the depot where it is stored
- Prepare the asset for movement (take it apart, assemble it, remove some parts, etc.)
- Deliver the equipment to the customer's location
- Attend to repairs or breakdown of the rental equipment if required
- Locate the asset after the completed rental period
- Use suitable means of transport to pick up equipment
- Prepare for picking up the rental equipment
- Transport the equipment back to the depot
- Carry out post-rental equipment maintenance in the workshop
- Prepare the equipment to be rental ready
- Deliver the equipment to the next client who requests the asset
As seen above, there are extensive activities that different equipment rental teams are involved with. Dealing with mass processes and logistics with multiple people involved can become much more manageable when every team can access the correct information at the right time.
A solution that can quicken logistical processes with scan-and-check capabilities and mobile access is the way you can achieve this.
What are the key benefits of a mobile-access scanning solution in equipment rental operations?
Maintain a complete equipment overview
There are many points of contact that your customers may touch while doing business with you. These points of contact can be defined as the rental shop. The rental shop includes your front office, the rental depot, online portals (if any), and when the customers connect with your teams during equipment delivery or pick-ups.
Mobile access with scanning features will make the process easier, providing the teams with a real-time equipment overview and reducing the lag that would occur otherwise. It eliminates paper-based manual data entry and related costs.
Your teams can meet customer orders quickly with a 360-degree view of the equipment rental inventory and process ad-hoc and planned returns with proper quality checks.
Manage to process equipment rental returns
Return of the equipment, whether at your company's premises or the customer site, requires a series of actions. For instance, the machinery may need to be inspected for damages and usage (as per the agreed terms), taken for service, checked as per safety regulations, or need replacement of some parts.
When the pick-up team working on collecting the equipment back has access to the equipment rental software on mobile, all the updates and actions can occur in real time. With the information being updated at once, the logistic operations become smoother.
You can also manage mass returns of your rental equipment by scanning each item to its serial number. With such a solution, you can automatically split the line items into relevant rental projects, speeding up the return process.
Simplify equipment delivery and pick up for customers
During the equipment rental lifecycle, each piece of equipment requires specific treatment and preparation for movement to the customer's site or delivery back to the equipment rental depot.
A scanning solution with mobile access makes the entire delivery and pick-up process smooth. It tracks, informs, and updates all the teams concerned with the transport of the equipment and ensures that none of the information lies in silos.
The teams can quickly and accurately pick and ship rental orders using the scanning mobile app with access to the latest updates and changes. This eases the decision-making process and ensures timely delivery of equipment.
Keep track of the equipment rental inventory
As an equipment rental company, your business depends on being able to provide customers with access to the kind of machinery they want to rent. However, with no immediate and real-time update, it can be challenging to access information about what equipment is available and what is out on rent.
Often, the coordination between the front office and the team at the rental depot is delayed due to a lack of updates. A mobile scanning solution ensures you can accurately track your rental inventory.
You can allow users to sign each delivery document digitally, enabling better tracking and monitoring of the rental fleet. This prevents you from missing logging entries of equipment pick-ups, deliveries, and returns.
How can we help you add mobile access to rental logistics?
As explained above, the logistics of your equipment rental business can be complicated, and a scanning solution with mobile access can significantly boost productivity and operational efficiency.
If you are interested in a scanning solution that supports all the above rental logistics and more, you can explore our solution, Anywhere for Rental.
With an experience of almost two decades, we help equipment rental companies streamline their rental logistics with our mobile scanning solution, among other offerings. (Please note that 'Anywhere for Rental' is an add-on to our rental software embedded in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain Management.)
Anywhere for Rental is a cloud-based solution allowing you to optimize logistical operations with mobile access anytime. It can identify assets and obtain accurate data using RFID and barcode scanners, including GTIN and GS1-128.
From warehouse and client sites to the rental counter for dispatch and return of equipment, the solution helps optimize your scanning, picking, and delivery processes.
You can learn more about our scanning mobile solution by reviewing the factsheet linked below, which offers insights into:
- Benefits of the solution
- Processes supported by the solution
- Key features of the solution
