The next big area that we need to take a look at with regards to process that helps support the Rent-to-Rent Fleet primarily has to do with our IT system and how easy is it for us to see information in our system. And honestly, there's not a lot of dealer systems out there that are very good at rental process because that's not what they were really designed for. Rental was somewhat of an afterthought and some of the expertise that went into building that particular module was maybe by people that don't have a lot of rental experience, so they didn't really know all the ins and outs of rental and what information might be needed and they didn't understand the urgency. So I'm going to describe the process to you and hopefully if your system accommodates all this, wonderful. If not, maybe there's a way that you can get some modifications done because urgency is the name of the game and being able to put your hand on information. If we have to hang up on a customer to go find information, potentially he'll go somewhere else. So ultimately, if you follow the chart from the left side, we have customers call us or they walk in and they're asking about what do we have. So it's a new inquiry. If it's yes, then we've got to talk to that person and determine what is it that they really need. So we've got to have some skill in this position. We've got to have people that are answering the telephone or at the rental counter that actually have an understanding of basic construction phases and what happens next. They need to understand scale. When somebody's talking about moving truckloads of dirt or a few thousand yards of dirt, they need to understand some sense of how big of equipment is involved in this thing or they need to be able to ask questions that might have to do with access. Can we actually get a machine in that particular space that you're talking about? So we talk to the customer and we identify their needs. The very next thing we need to do is figure out if they have an existing account with us, yes or no. And so if it's no, then we've got to go through a process of qualifying that customer. And so how do we do that? Again, there needs to be a process and a procedure in place by which we can come up with a pretty quick decision as to whether we're going to rent to this person or not or this company or not. And so we've got to get a certain amount of information from them to make that judgment. So again, most software programs don't have anything related to this. So this is going to be an internal process, probably an internal document, a form maybe that a customer has to fill out, or at least your rental coordinator is going to have to ask the following questions so that we can obtain this information and then somebody, either that person or somebody in higher authority than them, can actually decide whether or not we're going to rent to them. And then that may lead into whether you decide to accept cash or credit card or whether they actually have to apply for an account to do business with your company. But either way, there's got to be a process in place so that we're consistent in the questions that we ask and that we get all the pertinent information as soon as we can get the information so that somebody can render a decision. And so then let's just say we've obtained all that information. Somebody's got to be available to be able to say yes or no. And so let's just assume that they are approved. Now we come back and we've got them in the system. And now we're looking to see, do we have the equipment available? What kind of rates? We're going to have to come up with a quote for the customer. So if this is done out in the field, does your salesman have access to all the rental rates? Can they potentially do a quote off of their phone or a tablet, something like that? Is it something that can be emailed or do they have to more or less do a manual quote? And then can that quote stay in your system in case the customer doesn't act upon it right now? Maybe they call us back in three weeks and they say, we're ready to do business. We've got to be able to find that quote quickly. And then hopefully that quote could then turn into a rental contract without having to go back and reenter all the information. So we've searched the inventory. We've given the customer a quote. And then we need to see if we have it available or not. So do we have the screens readily available that we can quickly see, I've got 14 of these machines in my inventory. Six of them are out on rent. Three of them are in my service department. Two of them are in transportation and they're due back in the yard any minute now. That's the kind of information that's going to help us secure every rental opportunity that comes our way. If we can't put our finger on that and all we know is I've got three machines here in the yard. I don't know when the others are coming back. I've got two of them that I can't account for. That's not going to help you make money with your rent to rent fleet. So the things I'm describing here are the need for information and it's got to be readily available. Ultimately, we have quoted the customer, they said yes, and hey, we can't deliver it. Guess what? We now have a missed rental. We need to be able to record this. And the reason that we need to be able to record this is because for us to get better, this is like in baseball, we had an at bat and we struck out. And so not only do we need to count all of our hits, but we need to count all of our strikeouts. And we also need to understand why did we miss? Was it that we didn't have it available? Was it that we didn't have the right size or model? Maybe they didn't like our price, and price can be broken down into two components. It can be rental rate or it could be the transportation cost. Either of those things could potentially make a customer make another choice. So we need to record the missed rental. And the way we record that is not that we missed a front end loader rental. What we need to know is we missed a front end loader rental for three weeks, and that rental rate was about $2,400. And here's the customer that we missed it to, and the reason that we missed it is ours was in the service shop and we weren't sure when it was going to come out. So that's all part of this taking the rental order process. So going back to the other direction, if we did have it available, we'd create the rental contract or maybe a future reservation. And so our system has got to be able to record reservations so that as other salesmen or an hour from now when somebody else calls in and they're looking for that same machine during the same time period, we don't make the mistake of overbooking because everyone can see that this machine is already spoken for. And so those are critical components of being able to take a rental order in the rent-to-rent fleet. Now let's take a look at the process for equipment being returned. So equipment is coming back into our yard or potentially we have sent our truck to go pick up the machine, and while we're out on the job site, our driver is picking up the machine. So looking at balloon number one, we want to inspect the machine for damages while we're at the job site before we put it on the truck and before we kind of leave any type of receipt with the customer. Why? Because we want to document whatever condition this machine is in before we pick it up. Therefore, if there's an issue with whether the damages occurred on the job site or on the way back to our shop, we'll know where that occurred, and the customer will also be aware of the damages. I can assure you after being in the rental business for many years that an operator typically is not going to come forth to his supervisor and say, I put a ding in the machine over there. He might even strategically park it over there so that the ding can't be seen from the construction office. So then the truck driver goes out there, picks up the machine, brings it back to the shop. We go through it, and we discover the damage. And then the customer says, no, that's not how it was. It didn't leave here that way. And so we want to protect ourselves and our quality control by inspecting the machine when we pick it up at the job. Then when we get that machine back to our shop, one of the things we want to do is put a quality control tag on that immediately because we want to make sure that everybody in our operation knows that this machine just came back from rent, it is not available for rent, and we know when it came back and who it was rented from while we're doing the inspection and the servicing and the processing. In case we find any problem, we're going to know exactly who to go back and talk to. So we're going to do an inspection on the machine as soon as we put a tag on it. I'm in favor of refueling the machine once it gets unloaded, and we need to put the fuel amount on the rental contract. And then I'm in favor of cleaning the machine before we tend to service it as opposed to after. And we're looking for all types of the common damages you can see on the list. So the tagging process, I'd like you to really understand how this tag works. It's one that's been used in the industry for decades, and the reason it's still being used is because it's effective. And it's a three-part tag, and so the entire tag gets put on the machine, and the yellow tab suggests that that thing has just been checked in, and we're able to put the customer's name, if there's any issue on the machine that we're aware of, and who is it that checked it in. That could potentially be your truck driver. You could potentially have a yard man, or it may be your rental coordinator that actually checks it in, and he puts the time and date. And now we've got somebody that's accountable for knowing when this thing showed up in the yard and in what condition. So then we go through the process of inspecting the machine. And so if we inspect the machine and everything is in order, then what we're going to end up doing is removing the yellow and the red, and the machine will then just have the white and the green tag portions, and it will have somebody's initials up here as to who inspected that machine. So it creates real accountability. We don't need a computer out in the yard to try to figure out, I can walk a rental-ready line, I can walk a rental-ready line, and I can see literally how long this machine has been sitting here, because there will be a date from when that thing was inspected. And I'll know who said it was ready. So if I find any inconsistencies in the way that the machine looks, or I spot a malfunction or something that's not in order, I'll know exactly who to go back and talk to, because someone signed that tag and said it was okay. So sometimes during the inspection process, we come up with damaged equipment, and we need to take action on this immediately. And so there really does need to be a very defined process at your dealership about what do we do, who do we get involved, and how do we communicate to the customer? Really critical. And this is time sensitive as well. So we've inspected the damages, and if you are a progressive dealership, most people are using photos today of how it went out and how it came back in. And so you're easy to be able to make a comparison and say, this is not how it went out. And so now we've got documentation. So we do need to go talk to the rental manager, because the rental manager in most cases is the person that is responsible for protecting the rental fleet against the damages, and they've got a relationship probably with the customer. It may be that they have to then talk to the sales manager potentially. Maybe there's a better relationship with a salesman or a sales manager. But the rental manager now knows about the damages, and they've got to determine, does this customer, are they paying damage waiver, or some dealers now call it a rental protection plan. Is the damages, are they covered by this rental protection plan? Or does the customer have their own insurance policy? And then the key thing is that we've got to notify the customer ASAP. So let's just say it comes back in on Friday afternoon, and we actually don't get to inspect the machine until Monday morning. So there's a three-day period there that we've got. Now we know there's a problem. But typically you're trying to do it faster than that. Maybe in a 24- or 48-hour period you've notified the customer that I think we're going to have a problem here. And then the pressure starts to get on the service department to try to come up with a repair estimate. And I know this is really challenging because to take someone and try to come up with all the parts that's going to be necessary to repair the machine and get that into somewhat of a formalized quote and be able to get to the customer is very time-consuming. And in some cases you have the time to be very detailed, and others I'll suggest to you that time is more of an urgency than trying to make sure that you've got every $50 part identified. So sometimes if you're going to have to come up with an estimate, a guess high, and just put a bad number out there so that the customer, I mean, he's going to get over the shock, but it would be much better for the actual repair bill to come in less than what the estimate was rather than you estimated $600 and it came in at $1,700. Now you've got a real fight on your hands with the customer. So we do need to have urgency behind this, as much accuracy as the time will allow. And then we've got to notify the customer of these final charges because in some cases they're trying to close out projects or put the cost against something. And so do not wait until you get your work completed to drive an invoice to the customer. You need to get a bill in their hands as soon as possible, and then whenever you get around to fixing it, that'll be just fine. One of the biggest choke points that I find in a dealer facility today is in the cleaning of the equipment. Oftentimes the dealers have a wash pad that is way, way insufficient for the size and volume of the machines that they have to clean and support. And so sometimes the guy that's doing the work isn't even equipped with the right kind of cleaning equipment. So, you know, most people have a typical hot water washer or, worst case scenario, just cold water washer. But in some cases, like you can see in the picture there, sometimes you need volume as much as you do pressure. If you're cleaning out tracks on an excavator or a dozer or something of that nature, you need almost like a fire hose. And so what does that mean? That means you're gonna have to have a volume of water. You gotta have a water supply that'll support something like that. You're gonna have to have some type of nozzle and pump and hoses to match up with that. And then you've gotta collect that water. And so it's a big deal for you to really think hard about your cleaning area because you can get equipment unloaded quickly, you can get it serviced quickly, and if the choke point is at the wash pad, we're still not done yet. And I will say that this is probably one of the most overlooked areas in a dealership. People don't give much consideration to this place. In some cases, they may have the same wash pad that they had 15 years ago, and yet the size of the fleet has tripled. So we need resources there, and we need manpower to be able to move the equipment through the process. So we've talked about damaged equipment. We've talked about catching the damages in the process. We've talked about cleaning the equipment. Now we're to the point of inspecting the equipment, and again, it's process-driven. And so we have got to have some type of checklist by model or type of machine. So, for instance, if you've got wheel loaders, I probably do not need a separate checklist for 2-yard wheel loaders versus 3-yard wheel loaders. Probably a generic checklist for wheel loaders in general would be sufficient for the routine maintenance or for dozers or for excavators. And again, this is something that I find missing in most dealerships is they do not have a defined checklist. And this needs to be something that, because we have repetition in service, this should be a key component coming from the service department of what do we want the technician to make sure that he inspects. And so we need a checklist that they will go through and they will do the following, and it becomes second nature to them. But we can teach a new person what to do with a 2-yard wheel loader or a 40,000 pound excavator that just came off a rent because we've got a checklist. So I encourage you, if you don't already, you need to go through and have something like this for each and every major group of equipment. You can't have one that pertains to excavators and track skid steer loaders and mini excavators and telehandlers. It's not possible. You need something that is a little bit more detailed than that. And so someone's got to sit down and create these documents that can become checklists that ultimately help us with our quality control. In addition to our regular routine maintenance, now we have machines that are scheduled for periodic maintenance according to the original equipment manufacturer guidelines. So maybe that's every 250 hours. Maybe that's 500-hour intervals. Maybe it's 1,000-hour intervals. But somewhere in our process, we've got to have our system recognize that it's time for this scheduled maintenance service, and now what is it that we need to do? What we really don't want to do is say, okay, it's 1,000 hours. I need to go find the manual and open that up and see what it is I'm supposed to do. If you're going to have these machines in your rental fleet for potentially three, four, or five years, you're going to exceed each one of these service levels, intervals, and so we need to have that documentation. What is it that we need to do? We need to have that taken out of those books, somehow get it into our system or at least a manual process so that we can anticipate it coming, we've got the right parts on hand so that when we come into the rent-to-rent fleet and one of our machines has passed that interval, that we can do that service right away and we don't have to let it sit there for days on end while we order the parts because we didn't see it coming.

rental processes

fleet industry

skilled staff

inventory management

equipment returns

scheduled maintenance