Benefits of a Peer-to-Peer Rental Model in Equipment Rental

As many of us are aware that the concept of equipment rental came about because companies realized that ownership of equipment may not be the only option. Businesses began to see the value of not buying a piece of equipment outright but instead renting it out for a smaller period. While they did not have the advantage of owning all the rights to the equipment and thereby unlimited usage, they did save on the capital investment. What is more, they also saved on storage, maintenance, service, spare parts, insurance, disposal, and other costs. An even more in-depth look showed them that renting equipment instead of outright purchase allowed them to use the latest technology at a lesser price.

Over the years, we have witnessed many changes in the equipment rental business. The advent of technology enabled better management, IoT, mobility, business intelligence, among other changes. At present, the equipment rental is going through another change in the way business is done—the evolution of the peer-to-peer or P2P rental model.

What does the P2P rental sharing model mean? Under the P2P concept, the equipment rental company or a contractor would be renting equipment from another entity instead of the customer renting it. The entity can be another equipment rental company, a contractor, or any other such business.

Why P2P, and how can it help?

Renting out as a package: Imagine a scenario when you are working with a customer who wants a complete package of equipment that they require for a complex project from your company. They would rather deal with one entity rather than go to several equipment rental companies for all the machinery they need. In such instances, P2P rental is the best way forward. As an equipment rental company, you can work to put together a kit that will have all the equipment your customer needs that includes your machinery and the ones you have rented out from your peer companies. Features like rental kits and intercompany rental or sub-rental in your equipment rental solution can help you in such situations.

Making your idle equipment pay: In the same way, when a peer company is looking for equipment you own in your portfolio to rent out to their customer as a package or individually, you can enter into an agreement with them. This way you can make your equipment pay instead of letting it stay idle. While this is not an ideal situation, it can make your cashflow healthier. Once again, features like intercompany or sub-rental features can help you manage this.

Build up customer satisfaction: The ultimate aim of any business is to stay in the green, and one of the best ways to do that is to work towards customer satisfaction. When you consider P2P rental, you get closer to this goal as you are offering the customer what they want without additional efforts on their part.

The peer-to-peer rental concept is here to stay. While it puts a new spin on the way companies compete for the same slice of the business, it does offer a lot of advantages. P2P rental not only has the benefits mentioned above, it also helps you save on operational, storage, transportation costs, due to the sharing concept. An optimum rental solution is the way forward when you consider the dynamic changes that the equipment rental industry is going through.