Case studies / Heavy Equipment Rental
Case studyPreventive maintenance for an equipment rental fleet
An Australian equipment rental company moved from repairing breakdowns to servicing by engine hours, found idle machines across its depots and redeployed them to where demand was.
Overview
A privately owned earthmoving and access equipment rental company with depots across Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, hiring wet and dry to civil contractors, mines and local councils.
Scale. Around 2,600 machines from mini excavators to 40-tonne excavators, graders, rollers and elevating work platforms, 23 depots, and a field service team of about 90 mechanics, delivered as a phased, multi-location programme.
The challenge
Breakdowns interrupted rentals. A hydraulic hose would burst on an excavator halfway through a bulk earthworks job, the contractor would stand a crew down, and a mechanic would drive three hours to fix it. The customer often asked for a credit, and sometimes moved their next job to a competitor.
Maintenance was largely reactive. Depots were supposed to service machines every 250 or 500 engine hours, but hour readings came from operators' day sheets, which arrived late or not at all. Machines on long-term hire at remote mine sites could go well past their service interval before anyone noticed.
Utilisation was low and nobody knew exactly why. Each depot managed its own fleet and was reluctant to release machines to other depots in case a local customer called. A depot in Brisbane might be turning away work for 20-tonne excavators while two sat unused in Townsville.
Operator allocation for wet hire was handled by phone and whiteboard, with tickets and inductions tracked on paper.
The solution
Every machine now has a service schedule driven by its actual engine hours, reported automatically by telematics or, for older units, entered by the operator in a mobile application. When a machine approaches its interval, a work order is raised, parts are reserved and a field mechanic is booked, ideally at a time agreed with the customer so the service does not interrupt work. Fault codes trigger an inspection before a minor problem becomes a breakdown.
One fleet view shows every machine across all 23 depots, whether on hire, available, in service or idle, with its location and days since last hire. Hire desks can request a transfer from another depot, and idle machines appear on a weekly list for regional managers to redeploy.
Operators for wet hire are allocated from one schedule that checks tickets, inductions and site requirements before confirming. Shared master data for machines, depots, customers and operators supports group reporting and management dashboards.
The engagement
- Seven months
- Five specialists, with workshop, field service, hire desk and finance leads
- Process mapping, preventive maintenance by hours and condition, utilisation tracking, operator and site allocation, shared master data, pilot and phased rollout.
Integrations
- Hire contracts and document systems
- Machine telematics and payment services
- Field service and mobile applications
- Management dashboards
How we delivered it
- 01
Map the work with the people who do it
Five weeks
We spent time on hire desks, in workshops and in field service vehicles at six depots, and with the operators who run machines on wet hire. With the managing director we agreed the scope: preventive maintenance, utilisation, and operator and site allocation.
- 02
Design common processes and integrations
Ten weeks
Workshop managers agreed service schedules by machine type, driven by engine hours and fault codes reported directly by on-board telematics. Hire desks agreed one fleet view across all depots with transfer rules. Operator tickets, inductions and site requirements were recorded in one place.
- 03
Pilot in one region
Seven weeks
Four depots in south-east Queensland piloted the processes. The pilot exposed older machines without telematics, duplicated asset numbers after an acquisition and service kits missing from stock. All three were sorted out while only four depots were affected.
- 04
Roll out in waves and track results
Ten weeks
The remaining depots followed in three waves. Leadership reviewed breakdowns, utilisation and service compliance monthly.
Results
- Breakdowns on hire fell
- Services completed on time by engine hours
- Idle machines found and redeployed
- Teams worked from the same data across 23 depots
Breakdowns fell. Servicing machines on time and responding to fault codes cut breakdowns on hire sharply. Customer credits for downtime dropped accordingly, and the field service team spends more of its time on planned work instead of emergency call-outs.
The company found idle machines and redeployed them. The fleet view revealed many units that had sat unhired for more than a month, mostly in regional depots. Moving them to busier depots raised utilisation and allowed the company to defer a planned fleet purchase.
Teams across every depot now work from the same data, and leadership reviews results monthly.
We were about to buy forty new excavators. It turned out we already owned most of them; they were just in the wrong towns.
What made the difference
The rental firm found idle machines and redeployed them. A small pilot exposed problems, such as duplicated asset numbers, while they were cheap to fix.
