In the current economy, businesses need to watch every dollar they spend in all avenues of their business. For those businesses that require a forklift to move goods around, having a forklift in their business is a cost they need to budget for. But forklift maintenance is one area that any business has control over, and do things that can impact the bottom line of any business.
As a business, if you need a forklift for your operation. You really have two choices, you can hire a forklift or you can outright purchase a forklift that suits the needs of your business. Let’s take a look at the difference in forklift maintenance in both hiring and owning a forklift. And how Nationwide Forklift Sales can help your business.
Hire a forklift
If you are hiring a forklift, apart from it being a 100% tax-deductable operating cost for your business. The day-to-day maintenance requirement is handled by Nationwide Sales Service rental as our responsibility.
It is generally referred to as fair wear and tear, meaning the equipment manufacturers recommend servicing requirements and any breakdowns that might occur. So those servicing costs and breakdowns, are all included within the weekly hire rate.
The only maintenance requirement not covered under a forklift hire arrangement is any operator damage that might occur.
Operator damage means any physical damage to the forklift that has occurred due to operator negligence or abuse. Once we identify any damage to the forklift, we provide a repair quote, once agreed upon the forklift is repaired and charged back to the hirer.
Under this arrangement, full workplace health and safety records are kept by Nationwide Sales Service and Rental. So record keeping is one less thing that you need to be worried about.
Purchase a forklift
When you purchase a forklift, the owner is responsible for all forklift maintenance. Which means all servicing, breakdown, and operator damage.
Mostly forklifts will have a 250 / 500 or 3 monthly service requirement. A lot of times, most businesses don’t even come close to those sorts of hours in a 3 monthly service requirement. So it’s fine to push back a service. But you must have your forklift serviced at least once in a 12-month period.
Unfortunately, forklifts will break down as well, usually at the worst possible times. You also need to factor this into the purchase vs. hire argument.
Depending on the nature of the breakdown, sometimes forklifts can be non-operational for days or weeks at a time. You need to still be able to cover your operational requirements to move products in your business. You might be stuck with having to hire another forklift to cover the downtime of your owned unit.
Sometimes owning a forklift is a smart choice for a business, Nationwide Sales Service and Rental also can offer a 12-month fixed price preventative maintenance agreement. So your business will know what servicing costs to expect over a 12-month period.
Forklift Maintenance is a really important thing to consider when deciding to either hire or purchase a forklift. It needs to fit well into you operational requirements of your business, a business needs to budget and allow for forklift breakdowns to occur.
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