Two customers, one 8 tonner
The hire desk takes a booking for an 8 tonne excavator on Monday. The hire system shows two in the depot. One of them is in the workshop with a hydraulic leak, which the workshop knows but the hire system doesn't. The other was promised by phone to a regular customer by a colleague who hasn't keyed it yet. On Monday morning, one customer gets a machine and the other gets an apology, or a cross-hired machine at a cost you can't recover.
It happens the other way, too. Machines sit in the yard because nobody is sure they are free, while the hire desk turns customers away or cross-hires.
Why the hire system is not the whole picture
The hire system knows about contracts. It often doesn't know about everything else that affects whether a machine can go out tomorrow.
| Machine status | Where it is known |
|---|---|
| On hire | Hire system |
| Off-hired, awaiting collection | Hire desk and transport board |
| In the workshop | Workshop sheet or job cards |
| Due a service or inspection | Service spreadsheet |
| Promised verbally | Someone's head |
| In transit between depots | Transport board |
Each piece is accurate in its own place. Nobody sees them together, so every booking relies on someone asking round.
What double bookings cost
Cross-hire costs to cover a machine you thought you had. Customers let down on the morning a job starts, which is when contractors decide who to use next time. Machines idle in the yard because availability isn't trusted. And hire desk time spent ringing the workshop and the yard before every booking.
One availability view per depot
- Contracts, off-hires and reservations are read from your hire system; workshop status from job cards or your workshop system; transport movements from the transport plan.
- Each machine gets a single status and an expected available date, shown by category and depot, such as 1.5 tonne, 3 tonne and 8 tonne excavators, dumpers and rollers.
- The hire desk can reserve a machine for a customer and date. Verbal promises become reservations with a name and an expiry.
- When a workshop job or service is booked, machines with reservations clashing with it are flagged straight away.
- Machines off-hired but not yet collected show their collection date, so the desk knows when they will really be back.
- A daily list shows reservations at risk, machines idle in the yard, and categories where demand exceeds what is available.
The view sits on top of your hire system rather than replacing it. Contracts are still written in the hire system as they are today.
The hire desk after the change
Before promising a machine, the desk looks at one screen. The workshop's knowledge reaches the booking. Verbal promises are visible to everyone. Idle machines are obvious, and so are the categories where you are regularly short, which informs what you buy next.
Does your depot work like this?
- The hire desk rings the workshop before confirming a booking.
- Machines are promised verbally and not recorded.
- You cross-hire to cover a double booking more often than you'd like.
- Machines sit in the yard because nobody is sure they are free.
- Workshop status is on a whiteboard or a spreadsheet.