Get the most out of your rentals

Illustration: Vic KulihinThe average landscape contractor spends about $4,500 a year on rental equipment – everything from trucks and skid-steer loaders to wood splitters and excavators. Whether you need a quick replacement or a specialized machine for a specific project, whatever you spend on your borrowed backhoes, it’s important to get your money’s worth. We spoke with Gary Lewis, merchant for Home Depot Tool Rentals, and Kevin Grieder, a national strategic account manager, Sunbelt Rentals, to find out how.

1. Reserve, pay for and return your equipment online. You won’t need to track down a sales rep, and can get off the payment clock sooner. “The more that he can stay off the phone, the more productive he’s going to be when it comes to that kind of thing,” Grieder says.
2. Figure out how you’re going to get it to your shop or job site. Ask if the rental place can truck it for you, or if they’ll rent you a trailer to haul it to the site yourself.
3. Make sure the equipment starts and runs the way you’ll need it to in the field. Don’t be afraid to ask if you can take it for a test drive. “Make sure the tool is tested out in front of you, make sure you use all the controls, start it up,” Lewis says. “So when you get out there, you’re not experimenting with it.”
4. If something doesn’t work right, call the rental shop immediately. It’s not your responsibility to fix a broken down skid-steer.
5. Consolidate your rental business and ask for volume or long-term use discounts. If you rent enough – Grieder says Sunbelt considers $50,000 to $100,000 a year a “big player” – you could be eligible for lower rates.