Increased market competition and competitive rental rates are major challenges for rental companies. One of the ways rental companies manage to stay ahead of the competition is by embracing new technology.
Driving the technological changes of current machines is necessary to increase productivity, as well as to increase utilization and improve fleet management. One tool that many rental companies currently use to manage their fleets of mobile aerial work platforms (MEWPs) is telematics, which can provide information ranging from machine location tracking to proactive maintenance scheduling and optimization. of the use of the equipment.
Here are five tips for using a telematics program to help maintain a MEWP rental fleet:
Tip 1: Telematics programs should focus on providing information that enables equipment owners to take action.
Fleet management belongs to the day-to-day of any rental company, regardless of the size of the fleet, be it 10 or 10,000 machines. Having data is of great importance, but the value is created when the data is transformed into actionable information. From knowing how each machine is performing or how often it is used to knowing where each unit is or when it is ready for maintenance, the right data can provide a wealth of relevant information to rental companies.
With dashboards and alert notifications, telematics systems can help rental fleet managers understand the information their machines are providing, allowing them to not only react to what is happening at the moment with their equipment, but also proactively manage what It will happen to your fleet.
Tip 2: Telematics systems play a decisive role in enabling rental companies to be able to proactively manage machine uptime, scheduling maintenance when needed based on usage, not calendar.
With telematics systems, rental companies can know:
- When was the last scheduled maintenance performed? Should another one be done?
- How many hours has the machine already worked?
- How long was the machine used per day?
- How many hours has the engine worked during this particular rental?
Knowing the answers to these questions means that telematics systems will change the way machines are serviced. Telematics systems can also help rental companies schedule preventative maintenance needs based on time tracking remotely, which can translate into big savings because customers can proactively perform these tasks, even during a busy period. long term rental.
Tip 3: Telematics systems can help reduce one of the biggest challenges in today's industry which is the lack of enough service technicians in our industry.
Telematics programs provide "descriptive" data, allowing rental companies to know what is happening with the machine. When a user at the rental office sees a critical fault code, they can, for example, analyze the urgency and contact the customer to proactively discuss a solution, saving costly transport of the machine and valuable travel time for the service technician. service.
Think of it this way: Descriptive data provides answers to today's questions: "What's happening?"
- Hours
- Location
- Machine idle times
- failures
Tip 4: Telematics services can also help troubleshoot equipment remotely at your point of use.
This means that if a PEMP operator has a problem with a machine during use, the rental company can use the information provided through the telematics system to potentially identify the problem and possible parts needed before dispatching a technician, which saves time and money.
Using telematics systems for remote troubleshooting gives rental fleet managers the ability to track equipment and proactively respond to issues in the field, which can make all the difference in both securing the rental and building relationships. stronger with customers.
Tip 5: Data from telematics systems can be leveraged on a larger scale and used for "predictive" and "prescriptive" activities, such as predicting workplace failures, based on actual equipment usage, and proactively prescribing maintenance and service tasks.
In order to understand it, predictive data provides answers to tomorrow's questions: "What will happen next?"
- Predict failures before they occur.
- An example would be predicting a battery or charger failure so that it can be replaced before the failure actually occurs.
And prescriptive data provides answers to the question: "What should I do?"
- Recommend actions to be taken.
- An example would be knowing that the machine needs immediate maintenance because of the way it is being used, and then scheduling maintenance on another machine of the same type for later based on its usage pattern.
Technology continues to transform the rental industry and today rental companies have tools at their disposal, such as telematics systems, that allow them to operate their businesses with greater efficiency and profitability than ever before.