If you own a business that requires moving heavy materials from time to time, you might feel uncertain about whether you should buy a forklift or rent one instead. Although it wouldn’t hurt to have your own equipment, there are several cases where forklift rental is the better option.
When you rent a forklift, you get the convenience of flexibility with the make or model, hire type, length of rental, and maintenance package. You can also reduce your operational expenses if you take this route.
Read on to find out why you should rent a forklift for your business:
1. Cost-Effectiveness
There’s a right time for you to buy large equipment, especially if it involves a high cost. A forklift, in particular, can have a price tag of tens of thousands of dollars. Thus, it would make sense to look into other more cost-effective options first before acquiring one.
Buying capital equipment may drain your funds if you don’t plan for it well. You can only compensate for the cost if you manage to keep the equipment for a long time and maximize its use.
On the other hand, forklift leasing in Toronto or anywhere else can spare you from spending a significant amount of money. Unless you’ll use the forklift for your day-to-day business operations, your investment may end up just sitting in a corner waiting to be utilized. Instead of letting that happen, you can use your capital for other aspects of your business that require financial attention.
2. Flexibility
Aside from saving money, you get to enjoy the flexibility of terms if you decide to rent a forklift. Since you can hire a forklift depending on the demand and needs of your business, you can rent it for a day, a month, a year, or an indefinite period.
Although there’ll be a hire contract when you rent a forklift, it shouldn’t be a big concern since it would contain your preferred terms.
If you intend to use a forklift only for a short period, forklift rental is the better option. After all, there’s nothing practical about buying a new forklift for short-term use.
3. Maintenance
Even if you don’t use it every single day, the time will come when you’ll need to have your forklift repaired or maintained. Maintenance and repairs on any equipment can be costly, depending on the damage or amount of wear and tear on it.
When you own a forklift and it breaks down, you have to spend on the labor and parts and consider the amount of time the repairs would take. You cannot forget the possible losses for your business, too. When your forklift breaks down, downtime can occur in your business operations.
However, when you rent a forklift, expert technicians from the rental company can do immediate repair. Forklift rental is the most cost-efficient option should unit failure occur because you’ll get a backup if there are mechanical problems. The repair team can quickly address the issue, and if they can’t, the company can provide you with a replacement unit.
Moreover, renting a forklift can help you avoid the recurring expenses associated with the periodic maintenance of the vehicle. When you choose to own a forklift, one of your responsibilities is to regularly send it for servicing and maintenance to ensure that it’s in perfect condition and keep your forklift drivers safe.
4. Scalability
Aside from the length of the rental period, you can easily decide on the number of forklifts you’ll rent depending on your needs. There may be times when you have to get more vehicles to meet your operational demands. Renting allows you to use any number of forklifts without spending too much.
On the other hand, buying your own forklifts may be a waste if you won’t be using some of them on lean seasons. By renting, you can decrease or increase the number of forklifts you’re using anytime.
5. Trouble-Free Compliance
There’s another issue you may encounter once you own a forklift: passing strict air quality standards. You don’t want to lose your reputation if you’re found violating air quality standards since that can be inconvenient and costly to resolve.
If you rent a forklift, you can prevent yourself from taking on the burden of following the regulations. Since reliable rental companies would want to save themselves from the issue of noncompliance, you can be confident that the forklift you’re about to rent meets all safety standards.
6. Operational Efficiency
Besides complying with safety standards, most forklift rental companies offer forklifts that are not more than two years old. Thus, you’ll likely get relatively new equipment with the latest features when you rent a forklift. This gives your business the advantage of completing various tasks more quickly because you’re not using an outdated model or version of the forklift.
As mentioned, you have to keep up with maintenance when you own a forklift. If the vehicle you have is outdated, you may have to purchase a newer model to ensure employee efficiency and safety.
A forklift rental company can help you conquer those challenges as they provide some of the most recent forklift models. There’ll be no downtime due to the malfunctioning of older models, which means your operational efficiency will stay intact.
7. Improved Productivity
As mentioned, owning a forklift would be impractical in the long run if you don’t use it every day. If you familiarize yourself with your daily operations, you’ll know when the busiest time of the day is for your business. Once you obtain solid data determining the most hectic periods for your business within a year, you can determine when to work with a rental company for a short-term forklift rental.
For instance, the busiest periods of your business may be during holidays such as Black Friday and the Christmas season. You can arrange the forklift rental for those particular periods only. As a result, you can boost your business’ productivity during those peak seasons and make good use of the vehicle as well.
Conclusion
Now you know how beneficial forklift rental can be for your business. While this article doesn’t aim to discourage you from buying and owning a forklift, there’s a perfect time for acquiring that kind of vehicle. Before anything else, you have to figure out how often your business would need a forklift. If you want to use a forklift without the hassles mentioned above, go ahead and look for a credible rental company in your area.
Jason is the Marketing Manager at a local advertising company in Australia. He moved to Australia 10 years back for his passion for advertising. Jason recently joined BFA as a volunteer writer and contributes by sharing his valuable experience and knowledge.
Charlotte Fleet says
It was cool to learn the many benefits that you mentioned of renting a forklift for your business. I like how you said that the most cost-effective option would be to rent a forklift since you don’t have to cover maintenance costs. I would check the quality of the equipment before you rent it to make sure that it will work properly.