A machine that worked every weekend
A 20 tonne excavator went out on a standard weekly rate for a groundworks package. When it comes back, the hour meter shows far more than a normal working week would explain. The telematics portal, which nobody at the hire desk looks at, shows it running evenings and both days of most weekends. The contractor paid the weekly rate.
Nobody is sure whether extra hours should have been charged, because nobody checked the hire terms against the hours during the hire, and now it is weeks later and awkward to raise.
Why extra use goes unnoticed
Your hire terms, whether based on the CPA Model Conditions or your own, generally define the working day and week the rate covers. Applying that needs hours per machine per hire, and most hire desks don't have them in front of them.
- Hours are read on return, if at all, so extra use is only visible at the end.
- Telematics data is in manufacturers' portals, separate from the hire system.
- A reading at the end doesn't show when the hours were worked, only how many.
- The hire desk has no routine for comparing hours with the hire basis.
- Raising it after the hire feels like a dispute rather than a normal charge.
Whether and how extra hours are chargeable is set by your terms and your agreement with each customer. The system shows the hours; the commercial decision is yours.
What unbilled hours cost
The obvious cost is income you were entitled to ask for. The bigger one is wear: a machine doing double shifts wears faster, reaches service intervals sooner and loses value quicker, all at a single-shift rate. And customers who learn that extra use is never raised come to rely on it.
There is also a fairness point. Customers who work a normal week are effectively subsidising those who don't, which is hard to justify when rates are reviewed.
Hour tracking against the hire basis
- Hours per machine are read from telematics feeds using the AEMP or ISO 15143-3 standard where supported, and from manufacturers' APIs where they have them.
- For machines without telematics, hour meter readings are captured by drivers at delivery and collection, and by fitters on site visits.
- Each hire's basis is read from your hire system: rate type, hours per day or week covered, and any agreed extended hours.
- Hours used are compared with the hire basis weekly during the hire, so extra use is seen while the machine is still on site.
- The hire desk gets a list of hires with extra use, showing the hours by day where telematics provides them, and can raise it with the customer while the job is live.
- Agreed extra-hours charges are added to the invoice in your hire system, with the hours report attached.
| Source of hours | What it shows | When it is seen |
|---|---|---|
| Telematics | Hours by day and time | Weekly, during the hire |
| Driver readings | Total at delivery and collection | At the end of the hire |
| Fitter site readings | Total at a point in the hire | When a fitter visits |
What the hire desk has now
A weekly list shows which hires are being worked beyond their basis, with evidence. The conversation happens during the hire, when it is a normal commercial matter, rather than after, when it feels like an ambush. Some customers move to a rate that fits how they work. Service planning also benefits, because heavy use is visible.
Is this happening on your hires?
- Machines come back with far more hours than the hire period suggests.
- Telematics data is not compared with hires.
- Extra hours are rarely or never charged.
- Hour readings on delivery and return are patchy.
- Heavy use shows up only as early breakdowns and services.