Original Source: Rental Management

Photo courtesy of K&D Landscaping

Computerization and then the internet changed how rental businesses operated. Then robust rental software programs came online to help both the front and back ends of the operation. Today, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to make its mark. Keeping up with the latest and greatest and knowing what to integrate can be challenging for both equipment and event rental businesses and their customers.

To help rental operators discern what to adopt as far as the latest technology, Rental Management talked to those they serve — their customers. In the story below, see what those who rely on rental businesses to equip their job sites and events are integrating technology-wise at their operations and what they are looking for from their rental business partners. You might be surprised.

What technologies do your equipment rental customers need from you?

Data is king for contractors and landscapers — the very customers equipment rental businesses serve. Accessing and understanding that data can help them when it comes to bidding on jobs, managing their fleets and becoming more efficient at handling their day-to-day operations. As they begin to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) technology in their businesses to expedite these processes, what support do they need from their rental partners?

Rental Management asked Jon Kaye, vice president of equipment and information technology, Miller Bros. Construction, Archbold, Ohio; Arnie Trujillo, purchasing manager, Weifield Group Contracting, Centennial, Colo.; and Justin White, CEO, K&D Landscaping, Watsonville, Calif. See what technologies they are incorporating in their operations, what they need from their equipment rental partners and what they see coming on the tech front.

Technology integration. Technology overall has “enabled us to move faster and be more accurate, specifically when we’re talking about bidding a project,” says Kaye, whose family-owned business concentrates on heavy civil contracting.

That is particularly the case when it comes to estimating jobs.

“That’s where the place of technology has the biggest impact. We can be more accurate in what we’re estimating. We can give better estimates to our owners and then build the project close to those estimates because we’re basing them on data — how much data you have access to and how accurate it is,” he says.

White’s family-owned business that serves everything from high-end residential, homeowner associations and commercial landscape design, installation and maintenance took a deep dive into technology when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit.

“When we realized that COVID was going to disrupt many industries, with communication being at the forefront, we went to a lot more online communication, started to ensure that we had automated processes in place to communicate job progress, job quality and schedules to our clientele, and from our office to our operations in the field. We started to leverage technology to help streamline our operation. Some of the things we put into place have been to operate with the business management software, where we can estimate and manage projects in one system and provide our customers with a portal where they can see updates on the job. They can make requests, approve or decline change orders and pay their bills, all through an automated portal,” he says.

White recently implemented an AI-integrated estimating tool. “In landscaping and other construction jobs, you have to measure the plants, you have to measure the area that you’re going to be mulching or grading, and you have to do a lot of calculations to identify the amount of materials, labor and equipment that you’re going to need to use to get the work done. And so we have partnered with an AI company that provides us these takeoffs and measurements in an automated fashion utilizing AI. So rather than having to measure everything by hand, our estimators are able to use AI and get what used to take three hours in about two or three minutes. We actually found it to be more accurate,” he says.

Weifield Group Contracting, an electrical contracting company that focuses on commercial and industrial projects, highlights on its website the use of advanced technologies such as BIM, Trimble Systems, Livecount/Accubid, Blue Beam and more.

“Technology offers a lot. There are different facets of the projects, from estimating all the way through purchasing. We use it quite a bit for pretty much everything that we do,” Trujillo says. “For my department alone, we use a purchasing system that offers quicker turnaround for estimates and quotes.”

On the fleet side, Kaye uses a telematics integrator. “We’re seeing that start to use AI more and more to give us insights,” he says.

Kaye’s team is also beginning to use ChatGPT to examine data. “We have large data sets. Having an AI tool we can layer on top of that and pull out those nuggets of information and look for trends” is important, he says.

A lot of the software providers he uses are either exploring or starting to incorporate AI into their systems. “They do have AI starting to come into their program, but it’s really in the beginning stages,” Kaye says.

All agree that it is an evolving dynamic. White sums up AI-integration this way: “It is important to keep in mind that it’s constantly changing. Understanding there’s a lot of experimentation in AI that you have to take on if you’re going to utilize it. If you truly want to have the best, you have to always be out there looking for the next best option,” he says.

Wish list for rental partners. All appreciate the valued relationships they have with their rental business partners and the progress those partners have made on the tech front. However, they do have suggestions to help rental operations accommodate their increased need for that accurate and timely data. A few recommendations include:

• Real-time data on rental equipment. Kaye’s type of construction is productivity-driven. “The only way we can win work is to be a little bit better than our competition, and normally that’s by driving productivity a little faster and then making sure when we’re getting the next job that we’re bidding with the right data,” he says.

For him that means trying to “squeeze out every ounce of productivity for the job site while lowering costs. I like to tell my teams internally that it doesn’t matter who necessarily owns the equipment. It’s important that we make sure we’re capturing the same data regardless of where the fleet comes from,” he says.

Utilization data is something he can easily gather from his company’s equipment. He uses his telematics integrator for information from his different brands of equipment to look at it all on one screen. He can’t always easily do that with the equipment he rents. The same is true for carbon dioxide emissions.

“One of the things we stress with our OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) when we’re buying our own equipment is that if they have access to the data we feel we should too. I would challenge rental companies to have that same mentality,” he says.

White agrees. “I think the utilization that we track on our own equipment is not necessarily visible from the rented equipment. That could definitely help us make better decisions around how to rent and how to schedule equipment,” he says.

• Integration of that information. In addition to the ability to quickly and easily gather that data, Kaye would like to get it back in-house. “We do work with a majority of [rental] brokers within three states, so I’m probably renting from multiple companies at a time. If I have to log into three or four different websites just to get all the data I need, it becomes really difficult. So I think one of the things that, from a customer’s perspective, we’d like to see in the future is how is that data accessible to us? Can we bring it to our own in-house systems?” he asks.
• Better scheduling of planned maintenance. All interviewed said having rental companies be more proactive on this front would be beneficial.

“We have long-term rentals. Our projects can range anywhere between three to 36 months. I would like to see more planned maintenance on site to where it doesn’t create downtime for my teams. Offering a substitute in the time frame that it does need to have maintenance would be beneficial as downtime is crucial for what we do, and it creates a lot of problems when our teams are down and cannot use the equipment,” Trujillo says.

Alerts would be beneficial in helping “the field staff know that a piece of equipment is going to be down for maintenance. Providing off-schedule hours is an option if that’s possible,” he adds.

Kaye agrees. “I think there’s always opportunity the earlier we can get ahead of it. So if we have an item that’s coming up for preventive maintenance, finding out the day of and the day before is really hard at an operation like ours. If we can find out, based on our current usage, that service will be needed in seven to 10 days, we can actually preplan that,” he says.

• Having a proactive and dedicated sales rep. Tech is great, but real-life interaction with a committed sales rep is crucial, they say.

As Kaye puts it, ‘We like having a dedicated sales rep — we know the person we’re calling and they know us. They know our business. They know what standard things we like to include and how we like to be billed. It’s almost like they become an extension of my team. That sales rep can say, ‘Hey, I know you’re calling for a 45-ft. boom lift, but are you sure you don’t need a 60-ft. or are you sure it’s not an articulated boom?’ It’s an extra set of eyes.”

Kaye likes to preplan with his sales rep and rental partners. “Here’s our outlook so they kind of know what’s coming, and then it’s the phone call or text message that says, ‘OK, we’re ready to pull the trigger,’” he says.

Trujillo agrees. “The reason that I like to deal with a sales rep is options. The one thing that I don’t seem to get from AI, say, a portal, is if I’m going to request a piece of equipment, the portal is looking for only that piece of equipment. They’re not able to offer something else because they don’t have it. So then, on my side, we’re having to jump from company to company. If I’m using a person, then they can suggest something else that they have that would work. We can always mitigate the cost upfront, right then and there, which is very helpful for us,” he says, noting that challenges arise when there is sales staff turnover.

Future trends. All foresee more data access and sharing. “Integration is key. I think in the future, if you had a true partner, we’d also be sharing some of our internal data with those providers and having those conversations of loan versus rent. I want to provide equipment to my job site at the cheapest cost possible. Sometimes rental is the way to do that. You can only make those decisions if you have the information,” Kaye says.

While Trujillo anticipates “more companies going to the AI booking feature,” he says “we talk them out of it with the companies that we work with only because they’re looking for specific information or specific equipment. They’re not always able to offer something different,” he says, adding that he also sees an increase in AI tracking of equipment.

White sees a continued push to the digital — “fewer physical meetings, more online meetings and job-site schedules being condensed while focusing on how technology can improve our time on the job site and bringing that down. So I think the biggest trends we’re going to see are just less on-the-job communication, more digital communication and more automated flow of information from the building owner to the general contractor, down to the subcontractors, suppliers and vendors,” he says.