Tools 4 Hire

Background information

Tools 4 Hire is the #1 locally owned and operated equipment rental and equipment sales firms in the New England area. Tools 4 Hire’s inventory includes new and late model equipment from America's best equipment manufacturers. Also serves as dealer for a number of equipment lines. This allows Tools 4 Hire to provide sales, parts, and maintenance as well as rental services.

Technology Challenges

Tools 4 Hire’s overall challenge was to improve their business productivity through better management of their rental equipment assets (e.g. mobile generators, bulldozers, excavators, loaders, tractors, etc.). Tools 4 Hire was looking for a solution that could monitor assets’ location and usage (e.g. fuel level, usage time, mileage) while the asset is being rented.

In the rental industry, a common practice is to wait until a rented asset is returned, before invoicing the full amount. In prolonged projects this situation could lead to many problems, such as late payments, bad debts, or simply the customer not paying the balance in full. A major advantage for the rental business is being able to monitor equipment usage remotely, and to bill customers with periodic invoices (e.g. monthly) while the asset is still in the customer’s possession. Ideally, the rental company would like to remotely disable the rental equipment on site in case the customer doesn’t pay for the service. This would enforce timely payments, which accelerates the business cash flow and improves overall financial results.

Technology Challenges:

Monitor rental equipment usage (e.g. fuel level, usage time, mileage) while the asset is being rented.
Invoice the customer accordingly and on a regular basis (e.g. monthly).
If the renter does not pay and still has control of the asset, the asset can be rendered “unable to start” until the matter is resolved.
Monitor equipment location to improve rental asset security. This averts theft or misplacement.
Many rental contracts allow 8 hours of asset usage per day. If the renter uses the unit for 4 days and runs it solid for 2 days straight and sits idle for 2 days, the rental company receives 4 days worth of rental income, whereas usage monitoring in real time allows the rental company to charge the first 8 hours at the regular rate, the second 8 hours at time-and-a-half and the last 8 hours at double time, yielding better revenue for the same period of time and covering the additional equipment wear and increased maintenance.
Many of the assets being leased are floor planned or financed by the manufacturer (e.g. GE Capital); knowing where the assets are located at any given time allows the rental company to get a discount on the floor plan interest.
All equipment requires maintenance; by monitoring the runtime hours, the rental company has a higher degree of confidence that the rented asset will perform as needed, saving costly unscheduled service calls or equipment swaps.

Successful solution

Value Chain Detailed Solution

ELUTIONS: Software, middleware and hardware providers.
• Hardware: ELUTIONS iR1600 modem.
• Software: Rental Equipment Management System (REMS) with ALERT software.

Sprint Nextel: Cellular network provider. Sprint provides the cellular network, and coverage for voice and data transmission.

Tools 4 Hire’s overall challenge was to improve business productivity through better management of their rental equipment assets with a solution to monitor asset location and usage during asset rental. Sprint Nextel and ELUTIONS provided the successful Rental Equipment Management System (REMS) solution.

The REMS solution enables real-time remote monitoring and control over the rental assets for the purpose of asset security and faster billing cycles. REMS provided Tools 4 Hire with the complete solution which includes hardware, software and cellular network. REMS is a complete end-to-end solution designed for the Rental Business. The complete deployment consisted of the hardware installation, network activation and software access that are completely handled by ELUTIONS, from start to on-going support:

Hardware: The hardware consists of ELUTIONS iR1600 wireless modems with store-and-forward capabilities for GPS location and asset usage data:

For each asset, REMS has an iR1600 GPS-enabled wireless modem with onboard I/O, ignition control hardware, and fuel level monitoring
Hardware is mounted in a rugged enclosure and connects to the asset’s electrical system; it periodically reports information back to the hosted server (e.g. position, fuel level, usage hours).

Network: Information is transmitted back and forth over the Sprint/Nextel cellular network to the ELUTIONS application server, which:

Monitors, alarms and presents the information in a browser-accessible form
Makes appropriate decisions based on user requirements to perform actions including alarming, notification, and control actions.

REMS software: The software consists of the ALERT® web-based software with real-time mapping, usage reports and asset control screens:

Secure Web-based application
Includes features for mapping, geo-fencing and dispatching, as well as management features for asset monitoring and control
Any authorized user can log in from an Internet browser to manage rental assets, view locations, view alarms, monitor key parameters, usage monitoring, customer billing, customized reports and take control if needed.

Solution benefits:

Accelerated billing via real-time usage monitoring for monthly or weekly invoicing cycles.
Improved customer service levels by quickly locating and assigning assets that are ready (fueled and serviced) from different yards.
Asset Performance Management - Tracking and monitoring assets during the rental deployment to:
Minimize asset exposure to theft, unauthorized movement, and tampering
Determine accurate per-day usage to enable over-use surcharges
Read usage meter remotely for accurate invoicing without costly manual intervention
Plan scheduled maintenance based on actual monitored usage, rather than when the asset unexpectedly fails
Disable use of the asset upon rental contract breach (payment, location, usage) or upon unauthorized third party intervention (tampering, theft).

Additional benefits:

Facilitate financing the sale of used equipment – asset location is always known (bank and insurance company risk is curtailed).
Build a “fuel services” business – remote fuel level monitoring enables a new service to replenish assets during off hours (e.g. at night).
Provide monitoring services to customers – so larger rental customers who are renting many assets can view REMS information for themselves.