The construction industry is one of the most dangerous fields to work in. In fact, around 20% of industry worker fatalities occur in this sector. Coupled with this, it also incurs losses worth millions of dollars from several non-fatal injuries.
This is why safety is so important in construction. While it comes at a cost, the price of negligence is far greater; a single violation of any safety precautions defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can cost you up to $70,000.
And it’s not just construction that requires watertight safety. All equipment-intensive organizations have safety regulations to keep up with. For example, labs require atmospheric monitors and supplied-air respirators. Hence, research centers regularly need protective equipment for researchers.
However, the growing costs of ownership for such equipment is an important factor for companies to consider. Specialized safety equipment is expensive and requires regular inspection and upkeep.
This opens up the perfect opportunity for rentals in this segment. If you already have an equipment rental company, you can easily diversify into safety equipment. And if you’re looking to start a new business, invest in a safety equipment rental.
Moreover, other companies may also undertake small projects or events occasionally that require protective equipment. So it makes more sense to rent instead of purchasing the equipment.
Types of safety equipment
You can choose to stock up on several different types of safety equipment depending on the niche you want to cater to. An overarching segment of safety equipment is called Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). PPE caters to several industries, such as transportation and construction. Both of these are sectors where hundreds of workers every day are exposed to a variety of environmental and vehicular hazards.
This segment of safety equipment includes common safety items that workers will directly use. Some of these are:
- Face shields
- Gloves
- Goggles and glasses
- Gowns
- Industrial safety helmets
- Shoe covers
- Respirators
- Earplugs and earmuffs
- Safety boots
If you’re venturing into safety equipment rentals, you can also look to serve particular industries. Here are some sectors you might want to look into:
1. Pulp and paper industry
Papermaking is a complex process requiring a number of moving parts. Companies need proper ventilation systems because hot surfaces and high temperatures are common hazards inside paper mills.
2. Core manufacturing industry
Manufacturing includes being surrounded by hazards such as loud noises. This is why workers are required to wear hearing protection. There are also uneven walking surfaces and slippery floors that can cause accidents. Companies look to rent appropriate fall protection safety equipment for such processes.
3. Food safety and sanitation industry
The food safety industry includes maneuvering through confined spaces and around tools such as sharp knives and moving machinery. In order for food manufacturing facilities to prevent worker injuries and remain compliant, workplace safety equipment must be procured.
Keeping track of safety equipment rentals
If you’re renting out safety equipment, then you also need to carefully track it and ensure that it is well-maintained. Even the smallest speck of dust left unchecked in equipment such as respirators and filters can cause great damage to your company. Moreover, since you’re dealing with such high-ticket items, knowing their location and movement is of the utmost importance.
All these are important processes that you can’t keep carrying out manually. You can save yourself some time and energy by investing in relevant software instead. Appropriate rental safety equipment software makes it easier to stay on top of your rentals. Here are several processes that you can automate with the help of software.
1. Maintenance processes
Maintenance is always a priority for companies that rent out safety equipment. You need to schedule every single piece of equipment for several types of services.
Most companies manually schedule maintenance. This is, of course, tedious. Ensuring that all items are serviced means you will inevitably miss some. A single piece of equipment that skips inspection could end up taking a life and your company’s image. You can’t let such a mistake happen.
Safety equipment management software automates the process and makes it easier to account for each piece of equipment in your database.
With software, rental companies can send items for maintenance immediately after customers return them. While items are out for maintenance, customers won’t be able to view or rent them out anymore. This way, availability is automatically updated and customers can easily rent out alternatives.
When dealing with safety equipment, preventive maintenance is much more effective than reactive maintenance. Preventive maintenance regularly sends out equipment for maintenance to prevent sudden breakdowns. Reactive maintenance, on the other hand, repairs damaged equipment in the event of a breakdown.
You can shift to preventive maintenance by setting up regular service sessions for each item, irrespective of whether it’s been rented out or not. This helps improve equipment lifecycle while decreasing the number of breakdowns and mishaps.
2. Storing safety equipment
Safety equipment requires specialized care. For starters, protective equipment requires a dry environment for storage. Depending on what item you’re dealing with, there may be several other constraints you need to take care of as well.
The trick is knowing, at any given moment, where the relevant tool is stored. You can maintain a manual log outlining the locations of all items. But let’s face it, that takes too much time. You’re going to have to sift through several sheets of data before you find the item you’re looking for.
A much better way to go about it is rental software! You can easily look up the exact location of the item you want. You just have to type in the item you want and all relevant information simply pops up.
This helps save crucial time when your customers are here to rent out an item and you can’t find it. Moreover, it also helps keep things organized and increase transparency, ensuring you don’t misplace or lose any safety equipment.
3. Inventory management
When you think safety equipment, you usually don’t think of consumable items such as washing material. However, items such as duct tape, wiping rags, adhesive sealants and cleaning agents are all consumable. Once they leave your system, they aren’t going to come back. Customers don’t rent such items out, but instead, buy them from you.
Along with keeping track of all your assets, inventory management is an additional burden if you’re trying to go the manual route.
Rental software can help! Set up alerts for low stocks and never run out of inventory. This way, you always know exactly when to reorder more. Some software even automates the reorder process, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. Once the inventory hits a certain level, the system automatically generates a reorder request to the appropriate vendor. You’ll never run out of inventory anymore!
The absence of real-time tracking also makes it hard for companies to maintain records of inventory. Lack of information means you can’t track the number of items leaving your system. This leads to poor order management, risk of theft, misplacement and stock damage.
With safety equipment rental software, automate the inventory management process and store accurate data for all your activities.
Read More: Simplify Inventory Management Challenges With Online Rental Software
About EZRentOut
We are safety equipment rental software that offers businesses seamless rental management. It also comes with a host of other features like asset tracking, maintenance management, a customized webstore, and much more.
