After you’ve examined your infrastructure and determined your lifting challenges, now it’s time to determine your equipment needs. Oftentimes you’ll find yourself wondering: “Should I buy my equipment, or is it more sensible to rent?”
In reality, it depends on your circumstances. Start by considering whether you can handle repairs or certifications in-house.
We’re starting on the topic of repairs because it’s often one of the biggest concerns of most, if not all, construction-related industries. One poorly maintained hoist could break and cause whatever you’re lifting to fall. So, not only is it best to anticipate things of this nature to occur, but you also need to consider if you can handle repairing the equipment on your own or if you’ll have to outsource the repairs to another company.
Hard costs such as rental fees and lease payments are only a small part of total costs. Among the most frequently overlooked costs are those of maintenance and certifications. As you know, all equipment eventually requires maintenance, wears out or breaks down. It’s just a matter of when or where. While repairing some equipment can be easy, heavy lifting equipment is a much more complicated matter. In fact, the repairing and certifying of heavy lifting equipment is regulated by a specific set of guidelines. For instance, the equipment usually needs to be:
- OSHA and ANSI compliant.
- Maintained by specially licensed and trained technicians.
- Tested on specialized horizontal or vertical testing equipment.
So, if you’re looking to make a purchase, make sure you have access to the specialized labor and testing equipment you’ll need in the event of repairing your equipment.
When making the decision to buy or rent equipment, the next thing you should consider is what’s at stake if the equipment breaks. Missing a deadline or a budget target could mean the end of your relationship with your customer. When considering to buy or rent, ask yourself: “What am I really losing if my equipment fails?”
For some projects, it might not be a big deal. When the project at hand is a “lynch-pin” task — one which must be completed before further work can continue — you must carefully weigh your options. When renting equipment, some vendors will send a certified, trained technician to repair the equipment the same day an issue occurs. He or she might replace the equipment, too, mitigating the risk of equipment failure and time loss. However, these are not guarantees.
When purchasing, you must make sure you have access to back-up equipment and technicians in case of incidents, because when you purchase equipment, you are not getting a technician with it. Something else you should be thinking about is how risky you want to be. Heavy lifting equipment requires a specific kind of knowledge and training to operate, maintain and certify safely. It is also the culprit behind some of the most dangerous tasks on a jobsite. When purchasing equipment, you may have some peace of mind knowing you have direct access to that equipment at any given time. That being said, purchasing means you have to accept any and all responsibility for the ongoing upkeep, maintenance, warehouse expenses and certification of that equipment. To put it simply, you’re accepting total liability for it.
However, don’t fret. Owning equipment is not inherently a risky decision because, with the appropriate maintenance and upkeep, it can be very safe. It’s just a responsibility you have to be ready to take on because in construction, anything can happen — and it will. Just weigh the risks and decisions carefully, and you’ll see what tips the scale.
In addition, weigh the long-term needs of your company to understand what makes the most sense for you. The truth is there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are many factors to consider when evaluating what’s best for your company. A careful analysis of each of these factors will help you make the best possible decision.
For more information, visit www.lgh-usa.com/bic or call (800) 878-7305.
