By trade

Hire companies

A hire company does not buy a tool for one machine:
it buys it for a fleet. What decides is not the performance of the tool, it is the number of machines it will go on.

This trade also covers: hire of civil engineering equipment, hire with or without an operator, general hire depot, short-term hire, a company's own hire fleet, fleet management.

The essentials

Classes in the fleet: From the micro to the 20 t
Use of the tool: Intensive, by third parties
Constraint no. 1: The fleet is multi-make
What costs: The tool that does not turn

The couplers, and why they diverge →

01 The trade

What this trade demands of the tooling

A hire fleet is not built up all at once:
it is bought machine by machine, second-hand included, as opportunities and trade-ins arise.
After a few years, it has three or four makes and as many coupler systems. That is the normal case, not the accident.

A tool bought for one particular machine is only of use when that machine is available. If it is out on hire, the tool sleeps — and a tool that sleeps pays nothing back. That is the fundamental difference from a contracting firm, which equips its machine and uses it itself.

The right question is therefore not “which tool”, but “on how many of my machines will it go”. A tool fitted on three machines turns three times as much as a dedicated tool — at the same purchase price. It is the interface, not the tool, that decides that return, and that is why it deserves to be dealt with before the rest.

02 The method

Making one tool turn on several machines

One mounting plate per machine, one single tool It is the simplest and cheapest arrangement.
The tool keeps a single interface; it is the mounting plates that change and stay with each machine. See how a mounting plate is determined.
Grouping the fleet around one coupler system When a machine is bought, the type and size of coupler are chosen — that is rarely done, and that is where it is decided. Two machines of different makes can carry the same coupler if it is asked for on the order.
On a fleet that is renewed, convergence is built up over three or four purchases.
Favour what does not call for hydraulics Buckets, trapezoidal bucket, forks and hook, forestry rake, grading blade :
they go on every machine whose coupler matches, with no question of flow or pressure.
They are the tools that turn the most in a fleet.
For hydraulics, aim for the widest range A breaker or a auger is chosen on a flow range. A wide range covers several machine classes; a narrow range locks the tool onto a single carrier.
At comparable performance, it is that criterion that makes the difference in hire.
Do not forget the other direction A tool oversized for the small machine in the fleet is more dangerous than useless:
the weight at the end of the arm cannot be made up for. The seven criteria, including that one.

03 Use by third parties

A hire tool is not used by the person who paid for it

It is the second feature of this trade, and it exists nowhere else.
The tool goes off to somebody who did not choose it, does not know its limits, and has no reason to take care of it.

The wear parts decide the real cost Teeth, edges, chisels, blades:
they are what wears out, and it is their availability and their price that make the operating cost. A tool whose wear parts are neither standard nor obtainable ties up more time than it earns.
What comes off fast goes back on fast Between two hires, the tool changes machine. The fitting time is a direct cost, and a complicated fitting ends up being done any old how.
The instructions go out with the tool The hirer is a user discovering the equipment.
The maker's instructions go with it:
it is not a formality, it is what distinguishes making equipment available from taking a risk.
Your fleet marking, on the tool as well A tool that is identified can be found, followed and invoiced. A tool that is identified only as “the ditching bucket” disappears one day — and nobody will be able to say which one or since when.

⚠ On the conditions of making equipment available, on maintenance and on liability in case of breakage, we shall tell you nothing:
it is not our trade, and it comes under your hire conditions and the maker's instructions. We answer on what goes on which machine, and on what will not.

Have your fleet checked, not only one machine.

Give us the list of your machines — make, model and coupler type when you have it — and the work your customers most often ask you for. We will tell you which tools cover the most machines at once, and which will go on only one.

If you do not know the couplers of your whole fleet, that is not an obstacle: a photograph of the end of the dipper arm of each machine is enough to identify them.

Written study within 3 working days, complete file.

Tell us about your worksite Written study within 3 working days, complete file · no obligation

What decides, in your case

The tools that turn

Your customers

By trade

The same tool is not chosen in the same way depending on who fits it, and on what is around it.

The 12 trades

Agriculture Drainage, ditches, hedges, land clearing, handling.
Pipelayer and services Opening narrow, laying heavy, closing clean.
Quarries and rock Blasting out, picking up, loading a material that wears everything.
Local authorities and roads Roads, green spaces, winter maintenance, weed control.
Demolition and recycling Bringing down, separating the materials, crushing on the spot.
Railways The tool is the simple part; access to the track is not.
Special foundations Driving, boring, supporting — before anything comes out of the ground.
Forestry and silviculture Mulching, felling, extracting, stump grinding, restoring.
Hire companies You are here. A tool that fits several machines pays; a dedicated tool sits idle.
Landscaper Getting in without damage, working the soil, maintaining.
Recycling and waste Sorting, gripping, separating, recovering on the spot.
Civil engineering and roads Opening, laying, closing, and giving the road back in good order.