You protect yourself against damage when you rent out trailers and machines by recording their condition with photos before and after every rental, by having terms with an excess that the customer sees before they pay, and by having insurance that covers rental. Damage then becomes something you deal with, not a loss and an awkward argument.
Most things that go wrong in rental come down to disagreement about condition. Was the damage already there? When did it happen? The answer is to record it, not to rely on memory.
How do you record the condition at pick-up and return?
With a short checklist and photos at both pick-up and return. You and the customer then have the same picture of the product, and most arguments end before they start.
“It was already scratched” is hard to claim against a photo with the date and time from the pick-up.
Keep the checklist short. Five points the customer actually goes through are better than twenty they click past. Ask for photos of what usually breaks: tyres, hoses, cables, cutting parts and paintwork. On a machine with an hour meter, take a photo of that too.
What is an excess, and how do you put it in your terms?
The excess is the amount the customer pays themselves if something breaks during the rental. Write it as a fixed amount, or as the actual cost up to a cap, and show it before the customer pays. The customer then knows what they are agreeing to, and you avoid negotiating afterwards.
Write the terms so that a customer understands them without reading twice. If you rent to private individuals, your terms must not be unfair, and an unclear term is read in the customer’s favour. That is the rule in Sweden, and the rest of the EU has the same principle. Include what is included, what the customer is responsible for and what happens in case of damage, loss and a late return.
Can you take a deposit?
In Qonnecta you can add a mandatory fee or insurance to the booking, have damage terms with an excess that the customer accepts when they book, and condition photos at pick-up and return that show what happened. You can keep handing over expensive machines yourself. Want to take a deposit as a hold on the card? Get in touch.
Does your insurance cover rental, including theft?
Ask your insurer, and ask specifically about rental. An ordinary policy for a trailer or a machine does not always apply when it is rented out for payment. Also check what happens if a customer does not return what they have rented.
That is not always theft in the insurance sense. If the customer got the trailer or machine from you willingly and does not bring it back, some policies count it as embezzlement or unauthorised use, and then the theft cover does not apply. There are add-on policies made for rental that cover it.
Also ask how the insurer wants damage to be documented. The photos from the condition check are good evidence.
What do you do when a customer will not pay for damage?
Send a claim with the photos from pick-up and return and a reference to the terms the customer accepted. If the customer does not pay, send a reminder. If that does not help, you can pass the case to a debt collection agency. In Sweden you can also apply to the Swedish Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden) for an order to pay; other countries have their own procedures for small claims.
The clearer the photos and the terms are, the less often you get that far. A photo from the customer’s own pick-up is hard to argue with.
How do you follow up on damage?
Link the issue to the right booking, customer and product, with the photos, and follow it until it is closed. Then the follow-up is in one place, not on a note stuck to the screen.
Look for patterns too. If the same product often comes back with the same fault, it may need replacing, or the instructions may need to be clearer.
How do you prevent damage?
With instructions before the rental. A lot of damage happens because the customer did not know how to use the product. Short instructions or a video in the booking lower the risk. If a machine needs a walk-through, you can hand that one over in person and rent out the rest unattended.
In Qonnecta you decide what is checked for each product. The customer takes photos at pick-up and return, and an issue lands with the photos on the booking and in your list of issues in admin, even when nobody is on site. Read more about equipment rental.