The Benefits of Getting Rental Equipment Delivered

Transporting equipment can be challenging, whether you're hauling it over a long distance or moving it just a few miles locally. Workers must load and secure the equipment correctly to keep it safe, prevent accidents and avoid costly fines. When you transport rental equipment yourself, these responsibilities increase exponentially because another company owns the cargo.

Rental equipment delivery saves your operation innumerable hassles. Without having to worry about the logistics of getting your equipment where you need it on time, you can focus on what matters most — getting the job done. When you choose a company like The Cat® Rental Store for your rental needs, you also have peace of mind knowing that you'll receive fast and secure delivery to your location.

Jump to a section:

• No Need for a Driver
• Reduced Risk
• Eliminate Logistics Issues
• Transportation Time Does Not Add to the Rental Period
• Avoid Equipment Disposal Issues

17 Benefits of Getting Your Rental Equipment Delivered to Your Job Site

Hauling equipment can be incredibly complex if you move heavy machines like bulldozers, excavators or aerial lifts. These shipments typically require highly trained personnel with experience in rigging and heavy haul. Equipment transport demands specific shipping solutions and attention to detail, like acquiring special permits and securing the appropriate types of insurance.

Selecting a company that offers delivery removes the burden and inconvenience of performing extra work like rigging, loading and unloading. If your rental provider can deliver your machinery directly to your job site exactly when you need it, you'll benefit from significant cost savings over having to transport it yourself.

Take advantage of the rental delivery policy to enjoy the following benefits of renting equipment and having it brought to you.

1. No Need for a Driver

When renting equipment for your job site, delivery allows you to skip the need to hire and pay for a driver. Depending on the size of your company and the amount of equipment you use, the cost you save could equate to what you'd pay a full-time employee. Reducing the number of employees your company relies on helps mitigate the impact of driver shortages. For example, finding a truck driver for your company may be more difficult and costly than ever.

At the beginning of 2021, the trucking industry had 80,000 fewer available drivers than the previous year. Throughout the year, available drivers were in higher demand and able to acquire much higher pay than before. One company increased pay up to 35% for its drivers from 2020 to 2021 and predicted it might need up to 30% higher wages to retain existing employees. If your business cannot afford to pay higher prices to keep its driver, you may lose them to another company that will.

By paying higher wages for a delivery driver to move your company’s equipment, you will cut into your bottom line, impacting profits over time.

2. Skip Extra Coverage for Auto Liability

Since the person delivering your equipment is not an employee, you also do not need to pay auto liability insurance. When using your company’s vehicles to carry rental equipment, you need to have extra insurance. However, if you don’t use your company’s vehicles to move rental equipment to your job site, you can save on this added cost.

Rental delivery fees often contribute to the necessary insurance coverage for the vehicle. Instead of paying for an entire policy, you only have to pay for part of it as a component of the delivery fee.

3. No Need to Obtain Permits for Moving Equipment

If you transport your company’s rental equipment instead of relying on delivery, you could incur additional fees and the hassle of obtaining permits. For instance, if you have a project that requires moving goods on a commercial vehicle in Texas and don’t have registration in the state, you need a temporary permit to engage in intrastate driving. These permits require the vehicle to pass the state’s safety inspection and only allow up to 144 hours of operation. Other states may have similar requirements for permitting.

Using your company’s vehicles to haul trailers with rented or owned equipment can require more planning and time to ensure you have the necessary permits to legally operate the vehicle in the states it will drive through, make deliveries in or pick up equipment in. When you get delivery with rented equipment, the rental provider covers all these steps, saving you another chore.

4. Don’t Need to Pay for Company Trucks for Equipment

Owning company vehicles for moving equipment comes with a significant amount of overhead. You need to hire drivers, insure the vehicles and pay for their upkeep. Additionally, you must spend money on monthly payments to buy the vehicles or lease them. These general costs, even for one or two company vehicles, can add to your bottom line.

Even if you choose to rent trucks for hauling equipment, you still need to have the right amount of auto liability insurance and pay the rent costs. By adding a vendor for renting hauling trucks, you may complicate budgets and increase overhead. You also still have to pay for fuel for the rented vehicle and have a qualified driver for it.

Rental delivery eliminates the need to own or rent trucks for hauling your equipment. Since you don’t have additional costs of truck maintenance, fuel or ownership, your company can save money.

5. Reduced Risk

Hauling owned or rented equipment yourself requires you to carry additional auto liability insurance. This additional coverage reflects the higher risk that you bear when moving equipment.

Incidents can happen to the truck, driver or vehicle — all of which you might have to pay for if you skip delivery. A truck hauling equipment could get into an accident, causing damage to the equipment and truck and harming the driver. Your insurance coverage would hopefully pay for the damages. If it does, it can raise your rates. If it does not pay, you will need to cover repairs to the rented equipment and your company’s vehicle. Rented equipment protection does not cover the equipment during transit, so you cannot rely on this policy for damages en route to your job site.

Rental companies and rented equipment protection provide ways to reduce your liability risk when you opt to have the rented equipment delivered to your site.

6. Equipment Will Arrive When You Need It

With rental delivery, you can get equipment when you need it. While you may need to plan out routes and pickup times to get your company’s vehicles to move gear, when you choose rental delivery, you simply let the company know when you need the equipment, and it will arrive on time. They take care of the timing side to get the equipment to you at your request.

The benefit of having equipment delivered to you on demand is the ability to become more flexible on your job site. Change orders are a fact of life with construction projects. By getting equipment delivered, your crews can respond more quickly to change orders because you can get new machinery or tools to the job site faster.

Increased flexibility can reduce delays in your work. For construction projects, cutting down delays prevents costly overruns. Other projects can benefit from the ability to access equipment when needed. For agricultural use, equipment can arrive just in time for harvest or planting. If your site experiences an unexpected snowstorm, you can rent snow removal equipment and have it brought to your site instead of worrying about the time delay of moving the equipment yourself.

Rental delivery adds flexibility to your projects by getting you the equipment you need on time without the lead time required if you were to move the equipment yourself.

7. Maintenance Comes Included

Renting equipment for your project ensures you always have quality equipment that professionals keep maintained. If your rental equipment needs servicing, most rental companies provide that on-site. Owning equipment can bring extra maintenance costs and concerns about moving equipment to an off-site repair or maintenance facility.

You also can avoid the costs of maintaining hauling vehicles when using delivery. Maintenance tasks for company trucks include providing storage space for them when not in use and covering the costs of maintenance and repair. Unless you use the vehicles for tasks other than moving equipment, you may not be able to justify the upkeep and cost of hiring mechanics for the vehicles. 

Delivery vehicles from rental companies have their own upkeep that you don’t need to pay for. Cutting out maintenance costs is another way that delivery of rental equipment elevates itself as a necessary, money-saving service.

8. Eliminate Logistics Issues

The logistics issues of getting equipment to multiple job sites can require that your business owns multiple vehicles for moving the machinery. Or, you may have to take extra time to allow the vehicles you own to make several deliveries. Establishing pickup and delivery routes for your company vehicles, factoring in mileage and timing, can require a full-time position. If someone in your company handles these logistics as part of another role, they may not spend the time necessary to get the work done well.

Instead of hiring another person to handle your company’s logistics, choose rental equipment delivery. Doing so allows you to leverage the company’s professional expertise in moving equipment. The logistics side of the deliveries falls into the responsibility of the experts at the rental company. They have professionals on staff to ensure customers have their equipment delivered where they need it and when scheduled.

9. More Cash Flow Available

Renting equipment and choosing delivery means you don’t have to sink as much capital in your company’s moving vehicles, drivers and equipment. By choosing to rent, you pay a smaller amount than you would if you purchased the equipment. Plus, the delivery fees cost less than the price of maintaining, owning and operating a fleet of company vehicles to move equipment and machinery.

Having more cash on hand provides a reserve to fall back on in case of emergencies. For instance, if your project experiences delays that require crews to work overtime, you can have the money to cover their paychecks. By planning rental periods and scheduling deliveries, you have more control over when you pay rental costs. The ability to have more agency in your operating costs can make it easier to stay within project budgets and avoid overhead costs.

10. Tax Breaks on Delivery Fees and Rental Costs

Many people know rental equipment fees are tax-deductible for businesses. However, not as many people realize that delivery fees for rentals also provide this tax break. If you have concerns about the costs of delivery fees for rental equipment, the ability to deduct these fees and rental rates can turn the balance in favor of renting.

If your company rents equipment but moves it to the site, you can only deduct the rental cost of the equipment. However, you may only be able to deduct depreciating costs on these vehicles over the years. Your deduction for rental delivery happens all at once in the same year you get delivery.

From a tax standpoint, rental delivery beats other options for getting equipment to your site. You can deduct rental payments and delivery fees the same year, which could reduce your company's tax liability.

11. Transportation Time Does Not Add to the Rental Period

Delivery times from the rental company typically do not add time to the rental period. In many cases, you won’t start the rental payment period until the equipment arrives on your site. Every facility can have variations in their rental and delivery policies, so always check this before finalizing the rental and delivery agreements.

Since the delivery time to your site and pickup time after you finish using the equipment does not add to the time you pay for rent, you can feel free to choose delivery as an option. Whether the rental period changes if you pick up the equipment and haul it yourself depends on the specific dealer’s rental agreement.

12. Avoid the Need for Extra Storage for Equipment

Storing equipment takes up space and generates extra costs. You need to keep the equipment secure as long as it remains on your site. For your company’s owned equipment, you must find a place to securely store it when not in use. For rented equipment, the company retrieves the item at the end of the rental period. You don’t need to store the equipment longer than you need to use it.

When renting equipment, if you need different tools for different parts of a project, you can use a smaller storage facility. Keep the first piece of equipment stored while using it. Choose delivery of the next piece of equipment for the same time as pickup of the first. Then, you can store the second piece of rented equipment in the same location on your site without the need for a second storage facility.

By reducing the amount of storage space you need through coordinated rental deliveries, you have more room for workers on your site or to keep your company-owned equipment secured.

Benefit From Rental Equipment Delivery With The Cat® Rental Store

Relax when it comes to acquiring equipment for your job site. At The Cat Rental Store, you will find equipment for multiple industries, from construction to agriculture. Plus, we offer delivery to wherever you are. Our dealers are experts in helping people find rental solutions to match their needs. 

With flexible rental agreements and an extensive range of high-performance equipment options, our professionals strive to make your renting experience as quick and hassle-free as possible. We understand that you need convenient and fast delivery to streamline your project. Whatever rental you're looking for, the entire Cat network will stand behind you to ensure you receive your equipment on time.

Get the right equipment for your job delivered by visiting a location near you. Rent whatever you need from the people who do whatever it takes.