Is Bare Crane Rental Right For You?
Posted on: 24 October 2016
Renting a crane can be convenient, but it can also cause some confusion in terms of paperwork if you arrange for a manned rental. Suddenly there are additional people onsite (the crane operators) who need to learn your site's protocols, and you can see a big initial rental cost affect your budget. However, if you arrange for a bare rental instead of a manned one, you can get just the equipment and have it covered by your company's insurance policies and operated by your own workers. Both manned and bare work in different circumstances, and you need to look at how the addition or lack of these extra services will affect your construction project.
Cost
Because you're renting just a piece of equipment and nothing else, the costs for bare rental are likely to be more reasonable. You can find insurance policies and workers to operate the crane at prices you prefer, rather than paying prices that the rental company demands. Of course, you'll also have to deal with extra bills and more payments then because bare rental is not a one-stop shop where all of that money goes to the same place. Manned rental, on the other hand, may cost more initially, but you have one payment. Plus, everything is taken care of for you. If you want convenience, go with manned rental; if you want a chance to customize prices and services, bare rental may be better.
Knowledge
With manned rental, you get an operator who knows the specific crane model inside and out. He or she understands the quirks of the model and can tell when something isn't working correctly. With bare rental, you have to rely on your own operators, which is fine if they are familiar with the model too, but is not fine if they do not know the ins and outs of its personality, for lack of a better word. They'll know how to operate it, of course, but they won't be able to tell if the odd sound or shudder here and there is normal or not.
Productivity
One of the reasons companies rent cranes and other heavy equipment is because, if the crane needs repair, they can send the rental crane back and get another one -- at least if they have a manned rental where the rental company takes care of maintenance. Given that, it sounds like a bare rental might affect productivity negatively because you wouldn't be able to return it immediately to the rental company. However, that's not always the case. Sometimes a bare rental can lead to better productivity because if something goes wrong, you can arrange for repairs right away. You don't have to wait for a possibly busy rental company to pick up the crane and deliver a different one.
If you think that independence will help you get more work done, go for bare rental. It's best to contact the crane company and discuss exactly what is or is not included in their version of bare rentals, as companies can have slightly different service offerings.
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