Abstract

JOHNSTONE, DAVE. 1981. Short-term rentals may help you match equipment to market. Weeds, Trees & Turf 20(3): 16-17.

If you bid on a maintenance or installation contract, you may have your equipment specified for you by someone who has consulted a computer or who has a friend with that equipment. In any event, you are likely to have to field a lot more questions about completion time and equipment capacities than in the past. You can’t very well go out and buy new equipment for each job or you would soon be bankrupt, and so you must find an alternative means of acquisition. It’s not leasing, because leasing involves a long-term commitment, generally of a year or more. It’s renting, a concept that you may not have thought about recently. The disadvantage of renting is that you cannot depreciate the equipment (depreciation is a source of capital) but must treat the equipment as a straight expense. Renting does have its advantages. These are usually promoted as: 1) conservation of capital, 2) provided maintenance, 3) saving of storage space, 4) inventory control, 5) mobility, 6) eliminating disposal costs, 7) matching equipment to task, 8) minimizing idle equipment, and 9) eliminating personal property taxes and licensing costs.

• © 1982, International Society of Arboriculture. All rights reserved.