Original Article by TechSling Weblog:

The Equipment industry has a compound annual growth rate of 6.12% from 2023 to 2030. This exponential growth of the heavy equipment industry is because most construction businesses prefer to rent heavy equipment instead of buying it. The US Market is expected to reach a price of USD 280.13 billion by 2030.

The heavy equipment Rental industry is also on the rise because of consumer demands, especially for residential or commercial infrastructure development processes. Types of equipment such as excavators, loaders, cranes, wheel loaders, etc. are required whenever there is a big commercial building project. These types of equipment tend to have a heavy cost thus most of the businesses prefer to rent them for a brief rental period. This creates an opportunity for businesses to launch their rental marketplace fret-free.

Benefits of Renting equipment over buying

Better Utilization of Capital

Renting equipment leads to better utilization of business capital because surplus capital can be utilized elsewhere, such as in warehousing, logistics, marketing, or business promotions. Equipment rentals are a cost-effective alternative to purchasing and storing heavy equipment. Thus, many equipment businesses prefer to rent equipment like stone crushers, excavators, pelters, wheel loaders, forklifts, trenchers, etc. rather than buy it.

Low Tax Liability

Renting out heavy equipment comes with low tax liability as business owners don’t have to pay road tax and registration fees on rental equipment. Some countries even allow businesses to count the rental fee as a deductible expense. On the other hand, purchasing equipment includes various taxes. While selling the equipment, business owners are also required to disclose them in earnings.

Low Maintenance

The rental equipment has low maintenance costs because it has to be returned after the rental period. The owner legally maintains the ownership of the rented equipment. Thus, it is not the responsibility of the renter to pay the maintenance cost of the rented equipment.

Requires Less Storage Space

Rental equipment requires less storage space and storing the rented equipment is usually for a temporary period. Whereas, the purchased equipment requires a permanent storage space and the storage requirement tends to increase with every purchase. Thus, it is more convenient to rent heavy equipment rather than buy it.

Business Model of a Rental Equipment Marketplace

The business framework of a multi-vendor rental equipment marketplace is as follows:-

• Business owners sign up on the marketplace to list their equipment
• After the approval of the marketplace owner, the equipment is displayed on the website
• Customers place equipment orders and pay the rental fee and rental security
• The business owner delivers the equipment according to the standard delivery procedure
• The customer returns the equipment and in case of any damages, the amount gets reimbursed from the rental security amount. The remaining rental security gets refunded to the customer.

Features of an Online Equipment Rental Marketplace

Booking Calendar

The booking calendar is required to display product availability, accept rental date inputs, prevent double booking,  product invoicing, etc.

Rental Security Management

It is an important feature on online rental websites to manage rental security money. This security amount can be used to reimburse any equipment damages   A rental security amount is necessary to ensure the safety of the equipment that is supposed to be rented.

Document Verification

It is necessary to have a document verification feature to verify important documents of the customers i.e. address proofs, identity proofs, operator licenses, etc. This feature is also used to verify the worksite address for the equipment.

Tiered Rental Pricing

The heavy equipment business owners rent out their heavy equipment for a specific period, for instance, months, weeks, or a few days. In such cases, there is a tiered renting module that provides customers with daily, weekly, or monthly prices.

Rental Agreement Management

The business owner has rental policies such as the terms and conditions of rental agreements that are signed before renting any product. The online rental website has features for efficient rental agreement management.

RFQ Module

As the equipment is usually costly it is often difficult for the business owner to put a rental price on the equipment. However, some rental websites have a request for quote functionality. Under this functionality, the customer can quote the rental price and the business owner can accommodate these rental price negotiations to come to a final rental price.

How does readymade software help?

Readymade rental software is available with all the necessary features that are required to build a highly efficient online rental business. The software automates operations such as inventory management, order management, catalog, or admin functions. It also allows rental business owners to accept 24/7 online bookings.

Using readymade equipment rental software is also a tried and tested method to launch an online rental business. It is developed after in-depth market research to provide efficient solutions to rental business owners.

Conclusion

The heavy equipment rental industry is important for big commercial projects and is expected to grow rapidly. Equipment rentals are gradually becoming a part of consumer trends because of their increasing demands in the building industry.
There are numerous rental software solutions available to launch an online rental business easily.

The post How to Build an Online Equipment Rental Marketplace first appeared on TechSling Weblog.