To Buy Or To Hire? What’s Best?
It’s an age-old question in business – should you buy your equipment or hire it on an ‘as and when’ basis? As your business grows and thrives, it’s likely that you will need to have more equipment and tools in order to get all the work done quickly and efficiently. It may seem like an easier option just to hire in what you need when you need it, but that can be a short term solution, and buying certain items such as pallet trucks and other trolleys can be a much better idea.
Why?
If you own a pallet truck – or any kind of trolley – then it is always going to be on hand when you need it. You won’t run the risk of attempting to hire one and not being able to find one in stock. That could mean you lose out on business. Keeping one in the warehouse at all times means you can start working on an order as soon as it comes in with no delays at all. You’ll be able to meet your customers’ needs and gain a good reputation.
Secondly, owning the equipment means you know exactly how it has been used and maintained. Hiring a trolley can mean taking on something that has been damaged or used incorrectly in the past, and this can have an impact on your work. Knowing the entire service history for a piece of equipment will give you the confidence to us it more.
Odd as it may sound, buying a piece of equipment like a pallet truck can be more cost effective than hiring one, even if the initial price is a lot higher. After you have bought one, the more you use the truck, the less it costs ‘per use’. It doesn’t work that way when you hire something – you pay the same each time, and it will soon add up. Hiring can cost a lot more over time.
Buying a piece of equipment means you buy exactly what you want. Sometimes when hiring a trolley you might have to stick to whatever the hire company has in stock at the time, especially if you need to use something urgently.
Buying from a reputable company could even mean that you can purchase a maintenance package too – these are like an insurance policy for your truck so that if it does need repair at any time, you’re already covered.