Struggling with meter-based billing, servicing schedules or asset visibility in your hire software? Telematics helps close those gaps.
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Running a successful hire business depends on your equipment performing as expected and returning in the right condition. But once assets leave the yard, that clarity often disappears, especially when usage data, service intervals and location tracking are not connected to your rental management system.
Without telematics, meter readings often need to be manually collected, copied from separate platforms, or confirmed with customers before invoicing. Servicing is typically reactive, scheduled after an asset breaks down or once someone realises it has exceeded its service interval. And when equipment is out on hire, teams may not have a clear, real-time view of where assets are located.
Klipboard Telematics brings this data directly into OnRent, surfacing meter readings, usage data and asset location against each piece of equipment. This allows your team to proactively schedule servicing, invoice faster using accurate meter data, and view asset locations without switching between systems.
Instead of waiting for updates or manually gathering information, your team gets timely nudges within OnRent, helping you act earlier, reduce downtime and make more informed decisions.
Let’s examine why this is so important for hire businesses and how this addresses some of the industry’s biggest challenges.
The pressure on equipment rental businesses has changed:
Utilisation is under constant scrutiny. If equipment is sitting idle, underused, or is returned in poor condition, it directly affects your bottom line.
Servicing is a key pressure point. Without a clear view of how your equipment is being used, how do your maintenance teams know what to focus their time on? That can mean unexpected breakdowns, missed service intervals, unnecessary downtime, or wasted time servicing equipment that doesn’t need it.
Accurate usage data changes that. When you can see how your assets are being used, and how often, you can plan maintenance at the right time to get them back to 100% for the next customer.
This level of visibility becomes a real competitive advantage.
Tracking devices have been around for years, and they provide useful data. Location, movement, and usage all help build a picture of what’s happening in the field.
But there’s a common issue. The data often sits in a separate system.
Teams must log into another platform, interpret the information, and then apply it to their day-to-day work. That extra step creates friction. It slows things down and increases the chance that insights are missed or ignored.
This becomes even more challenging when it comes to meter-based billing. Usage data may exist, but if it’s not easily accessible within your rental workflows, teams still rely on manual checks, customer updates, or delayed reporting. That can slow invoicing, create inconsistencies, and increase the risk of billing disputes.
Commercial teams may not see the data at all, and operations teams may not have time to interpret it. As a result, valuable information never fully translates into action, whether that’s planning maintenance, improving utilisation, or billing accurately.
Tracking data on its own does not improve operations. It’s what you do with it, and where you surface it, that makes the difference.
The difference shows up in the day-to-day, not in a dashboard.
Think about what usually happens when a machine comes back from hire. Someone checks it over, looks at the hours, maybe compares it to what’s expected, and then decides what to do next. If anything looks off, it often takes a bit of digging: phone calls, follow ups, and too much guesswork.
Now imagine that same process, but the usage data is already sitting alongside the hire record.
You can see how long the asset has actually been used, how it’s been handled, and whether it’s approaching a service point before it even returns. There’s no need to chase the information or wait for someone to confirm it.
That changes the conversation internally.
Servicing becomes easier to plan because it’s based on what’s actually happened, not what was expected to happen. Equipment that’s worked harder can be prioritised, while assets with lighter use are not pulled out unnecessarily.
The same applies to billing. When usage is visible and consistent, there’s less back and forth. You’re not relying on someone else’s numbers or trying to reconcile differences after the fact.
It also becomes easier to spot patterns over time. Which assets are always out on hire but lightly used. Which ones are doing more work than expected. Which sites or customers tend to push equipment harder than others.
None of this requires a separate step or a separate system. The information is simply there, at the point where decisions are already being made.
Not every equipment rental business is at the same stage, and that’s fine.
Most follow a similar path:
The real value comes as you move along this journey.
With Klipboard, that journey is supported end-to-end:
This connected approach means your data is collected to make decisive and profitable decisions.
When telematics is properly connected to your operations, the impact shows up in everyday work:
For businesses using meter-based billing, this becomes even more valuable. Accurate usage data supports fair, transparent meter-based billing and accurate invoicing reduces the risk of disagreements – meaning your customers are more likely to return and your revenue remains consistent.
Your business doesn’t need more data for the sake of it. You need better visibility built into the systems you already rely on to run your operations.
When asset data flows directly into your day-to-day workflows, it becomes easier to act quickly, plan ahead, and make informed decisions.
Discover how Klipboard Telematics can help you get clear, actionable insights from your asset data.
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