Rental fleets

Know where each item is,
and when it will be ready

Your fleet goes out to your customers, comes back, goes out again. Between two rentals it has to be checked, sometimes repaired. And real availability is pieced together by hand, from the schedule, the delivery notes and a phone call to the depot. I design how your fleet is tracked, then build the tools for it.

Talk about your fleet → What it covers

The starting point

The contract says where the equipment is.
The field says otherwise

At a rental company, the contract schedule is usually well kept. What is less well kept is what happens between two contracts: equipment that is back but not yet checked, equipment waiting for a part, equipment still at a customer's site although the contract is closed.

The consequences look alike. An item that was promised is not ready on the day it should go out. Damage found on return cannot be proven, for lack of a condition report at check-out. A machine stuck in the workshop still shows as available. And nobody can say what each category of the fleet really earns.

It is solved by deciding what a unit of your fleet is, which states it goes through and who changes them — then building the tools around that decision.

Availability is not a date in a contract. It is a state of the equipment.

Uses

Four moments
in the life of a rental

Each one can be handled on its own. Together, they give the real availability of the fleet, and the history of each item.

Availability
The fleet schedule by category and by unit, based on the real condition of the equipment and not only on contract dates: what is rented out, what is coming back, what is being checked or is in the workshop.
Check-out and return
A condition report at check-out and on return, filled in on site from a phone: template form, photos, customer signature. Damage is recorded, dated and attached to the contract.
Between two rentals
Checks and servicing become work orders on the unit: what was done, by whom, with which parts. The equipment becomes available again when the work order is closed, not before.
Fleet map
Where each unit is: at the depot, at which customer, on which site. A delivery or a collection is prepared by looking at an area rather than rereading contracts.

Who it is for

Rental companies whose fleet
goes out to their customers

Tracking pays off as soon as equipment leaves your depots and people work on it between two contracts.

Profiles

  • Construction equipment and plant hire.
  • Technical equipment rental: power, lifting, signage.
  • Commercial vehicle rental.
  • Companies that rent out part of their own fleet.

Where the tool stands

  • An extension of the asset management software I publish: same units, same work orders, same map.
  • Under construction; a first prototype is available for demonstration.
  • Condition reports rely on Field Forms, the field forms I am developing.

Questions

What I am asked about rental fleets

Not yet as a published release. Rental fleet tracking is under construction, as an extension of the asset management software I publish, and a prototype is available for demonstration. A precise need can steer the rest of the development.
No. It builds on Odoo's rental management, in its Enterprise edition: contracts, customers and invoicing stay there. What it adds is the real condition of the equipment, condition reports and work orders, attached to each unit. If you rent with other software, I will tell you in our first conversation what is possible.
No. Location comes first from check-outs and returns: at the depot, at a given customer, on a given site. A tracker is only useful for some equipment, and is discussed case by case.
You do. It lives in your own system, on the hosting of your choice, and the modules are delivered as readable source code. Another provider can take over without me.

Let's talk about your fleet

Describe in a few lines what you rent out, the approximate size of the fleet and how you track check-outs and returns today. I reply within 48 hours.

Describe my fleet →