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Rental Roundtable Highlights
Rental Companies' "Wish List" to Manufacturers: Internet Assistance, Equipment Disposal Top Concerns
 With large rental companies increasingly the biggest and most important customers for many construction equipment makers, meeting their wants and needs is a priority for many manufacturers.
According to the CIMA Rental Roundtable discussion, here's a "wish list" of what rental companies want from manufacturers.
More Internet Utilization
Rental companies want equipment makers to help them take advantage of the Internet's potential to improve everything from business and transaction processes to marketing opportunities. This would include using the Internet to provide pricing information and to automate business processes such as order input, confirmation and tracking; and purchase authorization.
Equipment makers could also provide rental companies with valuable fleet performance information via the Internet. A rental customer could compare its equipment's performance to the entire fleet performance, and if their equipment is underperforming, the customer could learn what upgrades, maintenance or improvements will boost performance.
Service Support
Construction equipment makers could also use the Internet to help rental company service technicians perform equipment maintenance, including improving the format of technical information on their websites.
For example, the information is now often presented by part number; schematics might be more user-friendly for rental company service technicians. Rental companies say links from manufacturers' websites to their own home pages would also be useful.
A Shared Dilemma
Equipment disposal, much discussed during the 1999 rental roundtable, remains a shared dilemma for equipment makers and rental companies.
If rental companies sell large amounts of a specific type of equipment, it can affect the price manufacturers can get for new equipment, and rental companies say some equipment makers have the global reach, financial resources, and brand strength to help alleviate the problem.
A suggestion is for equipment makers to take back some of rental companies' used equipment, then use the Internet to help dispose of it. In exchange for taking used equipment off their hands, rental companies could commit to new product orders from manufacturers.
Manufacturer Buybacks
As in the 1999 rental roundtable, rental companies proposed manufacturers return used equipment to their own dealers, as automobile manufacturers have done. But many remain skeptical that this is a viable solution, because though it would be a great service for the rental companies, the financial hit manufacturers would take on such buybacks might be too high.
It was noted that equipment makers are the only construction industry players that have a net worth comparable to automobile makers. So when it comes to equipment disposal, the bigger equipment makers have an advantage.
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