Buy or rent heavy equipment?

5. Fleet management and inventory control

Managing your equipment is also something to consider. If you have the skills and the time, you can save money over the long haul by buying some or all of your equipment and taking care of insurance, maintenance, etc yourself; if you don’t, you may want to pay a little extra to rent. You’ll know where it is, who’s running it, and you can schedule jobs and equipment accordingly. For shorter term jobs, you may want to consider renting, but buying gives you added flexibility. Let’s say you project that you’ll need a piece of equipment for three months. If the job extends for another two months, you have the machine at your disposal. If the job ends and you decide you don’t need it, we can help, you sell it again at another upcoming auction and recoup some of your investment. The frequency of our unreserved auctions in different locations gives you a great ability to control your inventory, and even profit from equipment you don’t need anymore.

Pros and cons: buying versus renting equipment and trucks

Cost calculator: buying versus renting equipment or trucks

First, determine what you need to buy or rent, then create your free account and check auction results to get a sense of the price of used equipment. Check with your local rental store to determine rental and delivery costs.

Next, figure out your expected period of use (in years, months or days) and the amount of use the equipment will get (expected hours of use).