Case studies / Equipment rental
Case studyUtilisation and maintenance for an equipment rental fleet
An equipment rental business with thousands of machines across depots brought assets, rental contracts and maintenance into Odoo, making utilisation visible and cutting breakdowns and billing errors.
Overview
A plant and equipment rental company serving construction, events and industrial customers from a network of depots. Its fleet ranges from small powered access and compaction equipment to excavators, generators and telehandlers.
Scale. About 6,000 machines across twelve depots, daily short-term rentals alongside long-term contracts, and a maintenance schedule for every asset based on hours, calendar and inspection rules.
The challenge
In equipment rental, every machine sitting in a yard is capital earning nothing. The business knew this well, but could not say with any confidence which machines were working and which were not.
Machines, rentals and maintenance were tracked on separate sheets. The asset list sat with finance, rental bookings with each depot and maintenance records with the workshops, and the three rarely agreed on how many machines there were, let alone where they were.
Utilisation was unknown. Buying decisions were made on depot managers' impressions of demand, so some categories were overstocked while customers were turned away for others.
Breakdowns interrupted contracts. Services were done when a fitter remembered or a machine came back with a warning light, and a machine failing on a customer's site meant a lost day for the customer, a callout for the business and often a credit note.
Billing errors were common. Off-hire dates were recorded late, damage and fuel charges were missed and long-term contracts were invoiced from spreadsheets, which led to disputes and slow payment from some of the largest customers.
The owners were planning a significant fleet investment and wanted to make it on evidence. They needed to know which categories earned their keep before committing more capital to them.
The solution
Every machine now has a single record in the Odoo asset register, covering purchase, location, rental history, maintenance, inspections and eventual disposal. Finance, depots and workshops all work from the same list.
Rental contracts are created from the counter or the customer booking portal. On-hire and off-hire dates, fuel, damage and transport charges are recorded against the contract, and billing runs from those records for both daily rentals and long-term hires.
Preventive maintenance plans are set by machine type using hours, calendar and statutory inspection rules. Telematics hours trigger service orders automatically, and a machine due for service is flagged before it can be sent out again.
Workshop teams use a mobile app to receive jobs, record work and parts and close orders. Depot inventory and parts are managed in the same system, with reorder rules and purchases from parts suppliers.
Utilisation is reported by asset, category and depot, using rental days and telematics hours. Management reviews it monthly to decide where machines should move, which categories need investment and which machines should be sold.
The engagement
- Seven months
- Six specialists
- Rental and maintenance process mapping, Odoo asset register, rental contracts and billing, preventive maintenance, depot inventory and parts, telematics integration, history migration and a depot-by-depot rollout.
Integrations
- Telematics from machines
- Customer portal for bookings
- Parts suppliers
- Accounting
- Mobile workshop app
How we delivered it
- 01
Map depot routines
Five weeks
We mapped rental, return, inspection and maintenance routines with depot managers and workshop leads, including the informal workarounds that kept the business running.
- 02
Configure and connect telematics
Nine weeks
We configured assets, rental contracts and maintenance plans in Odoo and connected telematics from the machines, so engine hours and locations update automatically rather than being reported by phone.
- 03
Load and verify history
Six weeks
Asset and maintenance history was loaded for every machine and verified against physical checks in each depot. Machines that could not be found were investigated before go-live.
- 04
Depot rollout
Eight weeks
Depots went live one at a time, with workshop training on the mobile app and counter training on the rental workflow. The first depot's lessons shaped the rest.
Results
- Utilisation by asset, category and depot
- Fewer breakdowns with planned maintenance
- Fewer billing errors on rentals
- Fleet investment directed by evidence
Utilisation is now visible by asset and depot. The business has moved under-used machines to depots with demand and has deferred purchases in categories that turned out to have spare capacity.
Breakdowns fell as maintenance followed plans. Machines go out serviced and inspected, and the number of site callouts for avoidable faults has dropped noticeably.
Billing errors fell. Off-hire dates come from the system, charges are captured on the contract and long-term hires bill on schedule, so customers dispute fewer invoices and pay sooner.
The planned fleet investment went ahead, but in a different shape. Money went to the categories with proven demand, and several ageing machines that utilisation showed were rarely hired were sold instead of replaced.
Our fitters trusted the service plans from day one because they could see their own history behind them.
What made the difference
Maintenance history was loaded for each asset, which made the first plans credible.
