Plant rental is a fleet business with a haulage problem attached. A 3-ton excavator earns nothing sitting on the yard, and not much more sitting on a site that stopped work three weeks ago and never called to off-rent. Machines move between depots, sites and the workshop; each one carries a service interval, an inspection certificate and a set of attachments that may or may not come back with it. The office needs to know where every unit is, what it is on rent at, when it is due a service, and what the last operator did to it. Renttix keeps the fleet, the contract, the workshop and the billing on one record.
Equipment categories we support
Common challenges in plant hire
Knowing where every machine is
Plant moves site to site without anyone telling the office. Transfers happen on the customer's truck, attachments get swapped between jobs, and the yard list stops matching what is actually out there.
Inspection and service records
Every machine carries a service interval and a statutory examination date. Proving both were current on the day a machine went out is what a client audit or an incident investigation will ask for.
Damage, fuel and off-rent disputes
Kit comes back with a cracked screen, half a tank and a disputed off-rent date. Without dated photographs and readings from both ends of the rental, the argument is settled on who shouts loudest.
Servicing on hours, not dates
A telehandler on a highway job clocks 500 hours in the time a yard machine does 80. Servicing on the calendar either over-services half the fleet or lets the other half run past its interval.
Long rentals billed by hand
A machine on a six-month contract has to be invoiced every four weeks, at the negotiated rate, allowing for the fortnight the site was shut. Doing that on a spreadsheet across 200 contracts is how revenue leaks.
Workshop time you cannot see
A machine goes into the workshop and disappears from the rental desk's view. Nobody knows whether it is waiting on a part, waiting on an engineer, or ready to go back out and earning nothing.
How Renttix helps
Live asset and yard visibility
Every unit has an asset record with its current custody, state and location. The asset locator and depot stock reports answer where a machine is, and stock transfers record moves between depots properly.
Inspection regimes with certificates
Attach a LOLER, PUWER or in-house regime to a category with its interval. Each examination is recorded pass, advisory or fail, with the inspector, photographs and a numbered certificate you can reprint on demand.
Meter and fuel at handover
Handover policies make engine hours and fuel level mandatory at collection, or at both ends of the rental, and each condition-checklist item can be set for delivery, collection or both. The driver cannot submit the proof of delivery until they are answered, and every reading is kept as dated evidence.
Servicing driven by engine hours
Connect Trackunit, Samsara or an AEMP feed and Renttix reads engine hours and location from the machine. Service rules run on accumulated hours, so the alert fires on the fleet that is actually working.
Long rentals on invoice runs
Set a billing period and invoice run code on the contract, and the invoice run picks it up on schedule. Suspensions cover shutdowns, and metered overage is settled on the final invoice at termination.
A workshop board for engineers
Workshop jobs sit on a planning board by engineer and status, with parts, labor hours and downtime recorded against the machine. Customers can approve a repair estimate from a link before the work starts.
Key workflows
Inquiry and availability check
A contractor wants a 5-ton excavator for eight weeks from the 12th. Check availability across depots for the window, price it against the customer's agreed rate, and issue a quote.
Contract raised and machine allocated
Convert the quote to an order and allocate the specific machine. Compliance is checked at allocation, so a unit with an overdue examination is not the one that gets put on the low-loader.
Delivery to site
The job goes on the dispatch board with a vehicle and driver. At the drop the driver records engine hours, fuel, condition photographs and a signature, and the site contact gets a tracking link beforehand.
On rent, serviced on site
Hours accrue from telematics or manual readings. When accumulated hours cross a service rule interval, the machine is flagged service due and the workshop gets a notification.
Off-rent, inspect and settle
The customer off-rents through the portal, collection is scheduled, and the return is inspected at the depot. Damage, missing attachments and meter overage are charged, then the contract closes on the invoice run.
Relevant integrations
Trackunit
Pull machine location and engine hours from Trackunit into the asset record, so service due flags run on real usage rather than estimates.
Samsara
Samsara provides the same engine hours, odometer and position feed, which suits yards already running Samsara hardware across their depots and vehicles.
AEMP Telematics
The AEMP (ISO 15143-3) standard feed covers mixed-make fleets, so machines report hours and location through one standard rather than a portal per manufacturer.
Google Maps
Site addresses are completed as they are typed and geocoded onto the order, so the drop carries real coordinates and falls to the route whose geofence covers it rather than being sorted by hand.
Xero
Contract invoices, credit notes and payments push to Xero as each invoice run completes, which matters when a single long rental is billed twenty times over its life.
Sage
For yards on Sage, invoices and credit notes raised in Renttix sync to the ledger, so plant rental billing and the accounts stay in step without a monthly re-key.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Every machine has an asset record holding its custody, state and depot, and the asset locator report answers where a given unit is. Moves between depots go through a stock transfer with a receive step, so a machine in transit is visible rather than missing. Utilization and idle-asset reports run per depot.
It does. Set up an inspection type with an interval, the products it covers and a block policy. Recorded examinations carry a pass, advisory or fail result, the inspector's details, photographs, an expiry date and a numbered certificate. On block, a machine with an overdue or failed examination is removed from availability until it is re-tested.
Yes, through Trackunit, Samsara or an AEMP standard feed. Renttix syncs engine hours, odometer and position onto the asset and keeps every reading as history rather than only the latest number. Service rules can then run on accumulated hours instead of calendar dates, and readings can also be typed in manually at book-out and off-rent.
By making the evidence a required part of the job. A handover policy can force engine hours and fuel level at collection, or at both ends of the rental, and each condition-checklist item can be set for delivery, collection or both; the driver cannot complete the stop until they are answered. Photographs, signature, GPS position and timestamps are attached to the proof of delivery, and damage found at return is recorded with photographs before it is charged.
The contract carries a billing period and an invoice run code, and the invoice run picks up everything due on that cycle. Rate definitions handle weekly and monthly base units, minimum rental and non-chargeable days. If the site shuts down, a suspension covers the period. Metered hours beyond the allowance are settled on the final invoice.
Renttix has sub-rentals. Raise one against the order line, record the supplier, the rent-in rate and the agreed cost, and track the transit legs — supplier to site, site back to supplier — with a proof of delivery on each. The customer sees a normal rental line, and what you are paying the supplier stays recorded against it.
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