Fleet management for equipment rental and hire companies
Know where every piece of plant is on hire, 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 hire sites
When a customer needs a mini digger today, you need to know which one is nearest and free, not which customer had it last.
Equipment idle while on hire
Plant can sit unused on site for days. Without usage data, you can’t tell which machines earn their keep or price your hires to match.
Damage disputes at off-hire
Kit 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.
Off-hired but not ready to collect
Customers off-hire by phone, but the kit has been moved to the far side of the site or is still being used. Your driver turns up and can’t find it.
Inspections slipping between hires
Access platforms, telehandlers and lifting gear need thorough examinations at set intervals under LOLER. When kit goes straight from one hire to the next, inspection schedules are easy to miss.
Plant stolen from customer sites
Plant left on an unsecured site over a weekend is an easy target, and by Monday it could be miles away.
Fleet management for equipment rental businesses
Equipment rental fleet management brings together three things hire companies usually manage separately: where the plant is, the vehicles that deliver it, and the bookings, inspections and condition records behind every hire.
Plant and equipment tracking for hire
A customer off-hires an excavator on Friday morning. Plant 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 customer site each piece of plant is on
- Geofence alerts when equipment leaves a customer site or the yard unexpectedly
- Usage data showing how often plant actually runs on hire
- Journey history proving when equipment was delivered and collected
Dash cams for equipment hire transport
Your drivers deliver plant on low-loaders and beavertails to 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 plant on the back
- 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 hire runs on a booking, a delivery, an off-hire and a collection, 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 hire and service history attached
- Get customers to sign at delivery that they’ve had the operating instructions and safety briefing
- Complete off-hire inspections on mobile, logging damage, missing attachments or fuel levels before the kit leaves site
- Flag returned kit for servicing or a thorough examination before it shows as available again
Benefits for equipment rental companies
See real utilisation
Usage data shows which plant earns its keep and which sits idle on hire, so you can adjust pricing, fleet mix and where kit is stocked.
Reduce time between hire jobs
Track when kit is back and checked over, so you can book the next hire straight away instead of leaving plant in the yard.
Find plant across customer sites
Check which customer site has your equipment when you need it for another urgent hire job.
Bill every hire day
Hire start and end times are recorded on every job and backed up by delivery and collection times from tracking, so invoices match the days kit was actually out.
Never send out overdue kit
Service and thorough examination jobs are created as soon as kit comes back, so nothing goes back out on hire overdue an inspection.
Recover stolen plant quickly
Live location on the vehicle tracking app helps police find high-value equipment taken from customer sites fast.
Why equipment rental companies choose RAM?
Rugged trackers built for harsh use
Twenty years of experience
Long battery life for idle equipment
Track plant 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 plant, non-powered kit and delivery vehicles across customer sites.
It combines plant and asset tracking, connected dash cams and job management, so you can see utilisation, bill every hire 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.
Hire end dates sit on each job in RAM Job Management, and GPS tracking shows whether the plant is still on the customer’s site. Together, they show which hires 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 thorough examination jobs are created when they’re due. The office can see which kit is on hire, 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 plant and reduce off-hire periods
Join 600+ equipment rental companies using RAM for fleet management to track plant across hire sites and reduce off-hire periods.