Equipment rental and hire fleet management
Know where every piece of equipment is on rent, how it’s being used, and when it’s available for the next job with digital fleet management.
The challenge of running equipment hire operations
Equipment hire companies have plant, power and access kit spread across dozens of customer sites, plus the vehicles that deliver and collect it. Every machine earns money on hire and costs money sitting in the yard.
From booking to off-hire, these are the fleet management problems that cost you hire days:
Finding equipment across job sites
When a customer needs a mini excavator today, you need to know which one is nearest and available, not which customer had it last.
Equipment idle while on rent
Equipment can sit unused on a job site for days. Without usage data, you can’t tell which machines earn their keep or price your rentals to match.
Damage disputes at off-rent
Equipment comes back with a cracked bucket or a missing attachment, and the customer insists it left that way. Without condition photos at on-hire and off-hire, it’s your word against theirs.
Called off but not ready to pickup
Customers call off a rental, but the machine has been moved to the far side of the site or is still being used. Your driver shows up and can’t find it.
Inspections slipping between rentals
Aerial work platforms, telehandlers and lifting equipment need annual inspections under CSA B354 and provincial rules. When equipment goes straight from one rental to the next, inspection schedules are easy to miss.
Equipment stolen from job sites
Equipment left on an unsecured site over a weekend is an easy target, and by Monday it could be hundreds of kilometres away.
Fleet management for equipment rental businesses
Equipment rental fleet management brings together three things rental companies usually manage separately: where the equipment is, the trucks that deliver it, and the bookings, inspections and condition records behind every rental.
Heavy equipment tracking for rental companies
A customer calls off an excavator on Friday morning. Heavy equipment tracking shows it was still running at 3pm and has moved to the far side of the site, so your driver knows before setting off.
What you get:
- Real-time locations showing which job site each machine is on
- Geofence alerts when equipment leaves a job site or the yard unexpectedly
- Usage data showing how often equipment actually runs on rent
- Trip history proving when equipment was delivered and collected
Dash cams for equipment hire transport
Your drivers deliver equipment on lowboys and tilt trailers to job sites with tight gates and soft ground. Dash cam footage protects them when something gets clipped on the way in.
What this provides:
- Evidence when customers claim your driver damaged their property during delivery
- Real-time speeding and harsh braking alerts when there’s equipment on the trailer
- AI dash cams that flag phone use on the road
- Footage from difficult deliveries to plan safer access for the next job
Job management software for equipment rental
Every rental runs on a booking, a delivery, a call-off and a pickup, with inspections in between. Job management software keeps the whole hire in one place.
What you can do:
- Keep every machine in a digital asset register, with its full rental and service history attached
- Get customers to sign at delivery that they’ve had the operating instructions and safety briefing
- Complete off-rent inspections on mobile, logging damage, missing attachments or fuel levels before the equipment leaves site
- Flag returned equipment for servicing or an annual inspection before it shows as available again
Benefits for equipment rental companies
See real utilization
Usage data shows which machines earns their keep and which sits idle on rent, so you can adjust pricing, fleet mix and where equipment is stocked.
Reduce time between rentals
Track when equipment is back and checked over, so you can book the next rental straight away instead of leaving it in the yard.
Find equipment across job sites
Check which job site has your equipment when you need it for another urgent rental.
Bill every rental day
Rental start and end times are recorded on every job and backed up by delivery and pickup times from tracking, so invoices match the days equipment was actually out.
Never send out overdue equipment
Service and annual inspection jobs are created as soon as equipment comes back, so nothing goes back out on rent overdue an inspection.
Recover stolen equipment quickly
Live location on the vehicle tracking app helps police find high-value equipment taken from job sites fast.
See what others say about us
Why equipment rental companies choose RAM?
Rugged trackers built for harsh use
Twenty years of experience
Long battery life for idle equipment
Track equipment and vehicles together
Easy depot yard management
98% customer retention rate
Over 600 equipment hire companies use RAM to see where every machine is, how hard it’s working and when it’s due back.
Common questions from equipment rental companies
Equipment rental fleet management is how hire companies keep track of their heavy equipment, non-powered assets and delivery trucks across customer sites.
It combines equipment and asset tracking, connected dash cams and job management, so you can see utilization, bill every rental day, keep inspections on schedule and recover stolen equipment.
Check the live map to see where each piece of tracked plant is right now. It shows the customer site address and how long equipment has been there.
Rental end dates sit on each job in Klipboard Job Management, and tracking shows whether the equipment is still on the customer’s site. Together, they show which rentals have run over, so you can contact the customer about extra charges.
Yes. Fleet tracking shows where drivers are, helping you give customers accurate delivery times when they call asking when equipment will arrive.
Set inspection intervals for each machine, and service or annual inspection jobs are created when they’re due. The office can see which equipment is on rent, in the yard or overdue before it’s booked out again.
Journey history shows exactly when your vehicle arrived at the customer address, providing proof of delivery timing.
Track equipment rental and reduce off-hire periods
Join 600+ equipment rental companies using RAM for fleet management to track heavy equipment across hire sites and reduce off-hire periods.