Running an access and lifting equipment rental business today means balancing safety, compliance, customer expectations and margin – while keeping fleets productive and teams aligned across multiple moving parts. The systems behind those operations matter more than ever.
The Rental Benchmark Report for Access & Lifting provides a data-led snapshot of how operators across the UK and Ireland are performing today – and how confident they feel about the systems that support their businesses.
From utilisation and turnaround times to integration, maintenance and future investment, the report highlights both the strength of the sector and the opportunities emerging as digital maturity accelerates across equipment rental.
Access and lifting equipment rental continues to perform reliably in one of the most regulated and operationally demanding segments of the hire industry. Across safety, service delivery and compliance, operators demonstrate strong day‑to‑day execution.
However, when respondents were asked about the long‑term suitability of their systems, a more cautious picture emerged.
Only one in three respondents said they are very confident their ERP or rental management system will meet their needs over the next three to five years. The majority described themselves as only somewhat confident.
This reflects a sector that recognises how quickly expectations are changing. As rental operations become more data‑driven and customers expect faster, more transparent service, system capability is increasingly seen as a strategic factor rather than a purely operational one.
Fleet utilisation remains one of the most important indicators of rental performance – and one of the clearest opportunities for improvement.
Almost half of operators report average utilisation between 40–59%. Around one third achieve 60–79%, while only a small proportion consistently exceed 80%.
The causes of lost revenue are rarely linked to demand. Instead, the most common contributors are process and visibility gaps:
Minimum rental periods not applied
Excess usage not billed
Miscommunication on hire duration
Late returns or missing check‑ins
These issues quietly erode margin. The encouraging insight from the data is that they are operational in nature – and highly addressable through better workflow design, automation and real‑time visibility.
In short‑cycle hire, turnaround speed directly impacts utilisation, customer satisfaction and revenue.
Smaller and mid‑sized operators often demonstrate faster turnaround, with nearly half returning assets to rent‑ready status within one to three days. Larger operators, managing broader fleets and more complex maintenance workflows, typically operate in the four to seven day range.
There is no universal benchmark. What consistently differentiates faster performers is system alignment – where hire desk, workshop and logistics teams share the same real‑time view of asset condition, certification and availability.
Connected systems reduce delay, remove manual handovers and accelerate return to revenue‑generating service.
Across the entire report, integration emerges as the most persistent challenge.
Operators report partial or poor integration across core functions including asset tracking, inventory management, routing, telematics and billing. Where systems do not connect cleanly, teams rely on manual reconciliation, duplicate data entry and informal workarounds.
These gaps directly affect operational performance – slowing turnaround, reducing utilisation accuracy and increasing the likelihood of billing errors and service disruption.
Closing the integration gap represents one of the largest opportunities for the access and lifting sector. Integrated workflows create live operational visibility, improve control and reduce the friction that impacts both margin and customer experience.
The benchmark data also highlights the everyday pressures faced by rental teams.
The most common frustrations include:
Inefficient order processing
Limited real‑time inventory visibility
Complicated billing and invoicing
Weak integration between systems
Inconsistent maintenance tracking
These challenges reflect a need for systems that simplify execution, reduce manual effort and allow teams to focus on service quality rather than administration.
Customer complaints closely mirror internal workflow challenges.
Service response time, pricing and rate queries, equipment condition, billing errors and delivery delays remain the most common issues reported. In most cases, these problems originate not with the equipment itself, but with delays, handovers and fragmented information between teams and systems.
As competition increases, the ability to deliver consistent, predictable service is becoming a key differentiator in equipment rental.
Investment intentions indicate a sector entering a new phase of digital transformation.
Nearly half of respondents expect to change or upgrade their ERP within three years. Security, compliance, reporting and fleet availability are the primary drivers. Adoption of AI‑driven scheduling, telematics, predictive maintenance and mobile applications is accelerating rapidly.
Rather than incremental upgrades, many operators are now focused on building connected, cloud‑based rental platforms designed to improve control, visibility and scalability across the full rental lifecycle.
The next stage of performance improvement will not be driven by fleet growth alone. It will be defined by the quality of data, the strength of integration and the ability of systems to support operational teams at scale.
Operators who invest in connected, rental‑specific platforms will be better positioned to:
Increase utilisation
Reduce revenue leakage
Shorten turnaround times
Strengthen compliance
Deliver a more consistent customer experience
This article highlights only a small selection of insights from the Access & Lifting Benchmark Report.
Read the full report to explore the complete findings on systems, integration, utilisation, maintenance and investment priorities across the UK & Ireland access and lifting sector.
Download the full Klipboard Rental Benchmark Report for Access & Lifting: