The dehumidifiers nobody needed in March
A hire invoice lands for a pair of dehumidifiers, a tower, a site safe and a disabled-access welfare unit on a job that finished its internal works weeks ago. The site manager remembers the tower going back. The hire company has no off-hire number on record. The dehumidifiers are still in a store room behind a door that got locked when the decorators left.
Hired items are cheap per week and easy to forget. Over a year, across every site, forgotten hire is a real line in your costs, and one of the easiest to fix.
Why hire runs on
Hiring is quick: a call to the hire desk and the item arrives the next morning. Off-hiring takes the same call, plus remembering, plus getting and recording an off-hire number, plus making sure the item is ready for collection. Only the first step is urgent, so the rest slips.
- Items are hired by phone by several people on the same site.
- There is no single list of what is on hire on each project.
- Off-hire numbers are written on a scrap of paper, or not taken.
- Items move between sites without the hire company knowing.
- Hire invoices are approved without checking the dates against the job.
What forgotten hire costs
The direct cost is hire charges for items nobody is using, and disputes about when things went back when there is no off-hire number to prove it. There are knock-on costs too: lost or damaged items charged at replacement value, collection charges for failed collections because the item was locked away, and time spent by accounts querying invoices that should have been checked on site.
The hire register we build
- Every hire order, whether raised through your order system, emailed to the hire desk or confirmed on the hire company's portal, is recorded against the project, with the item, start date and rate.
- Hire company delivery and collection notes are photographed at the gate and matched to the register.
- Each week the site manager gets a short list on their phone: these items are on hire here. Keep, move to another site, or off-hire.
- Off-hire requests are sent to the hire company by email or their portal, and the off-hire number is recorded when it comes back.
- Items not confirmed as needed for a set period are flagged to the project manager.
- Transfers between sites are recorded, so the item's hire moves with it.
- Hire invoices are checked against the register: dates, rates and items. Charges after the off-hire date are flagged for query.
| Item | On hire since | Site manager's weekly answer |
|---|---|---|
| Tower scaffold | Start of internals | Off-hire |
| Dehumidifiers x2 | Plastering | Off-hire |
| Welfare unit | Site set-up | Keep until handover |
| Site safe | Site set-up | Move to next project |
| Breaker | Two weeks ago | Keep, one more week |
What the weekly check changes
Nothing stays on hire because nobody noticed it. Site managers spend a minute a week answering a list rather than trying to remember what they hired. Off-hire numbers are recorded, so disputes are quick. Accounts approve hire invoices that have already been checked, and queries go back to the hire company with dates attached.
Your plant and hire managers can see what is out across the business, which also helps when one site needs something another has finished with.
Is hire running on across your sites?
- You find items on hire long after they were needed.
- Off-hire numbers are not recorded consistently.
- Nobody can list what is on hire on a given project.
- Hire invoices are approved without checking dates.
- Items move between sites without the hire record moving.