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Do You Inspect Rental Equipment?
There are many situations where it is necessary to rent equipment for use in a facility. In the vast majority of cases, renting equipment is an easy process where you get exactly what you need and don’t experience any problems at all.
Occasionally, however, the process can be quite a hassle, which is why it is important to always inspect the equipment prior to accepting it as well as periodically after you have used it. Whether you are picking the rental equipment up from a company, or they are dropping it off, a simple inspection should always be done right away to ensure everything goes smoothly.
The following are some key reasons why this type of inspection is so important, and how it can help to prevent trouble along the way.
Tips to Help You Inspect Rental Equipment
1. Checking for Obvious Problems
The first and perhaps most obvious reason why it is important to inspect rental equipment is to ensure there aren’t any obvious problems. Some rental companies don’t do a full inspection when they check an item in, which means there could be broken or missing parts that will cause delays or even safety hazards.
Taking a few minutes to look over the piece of equipment will help you to catch any obvious issues so that they can be dealt with immediately. This can help ensure the whole rental experience goes much more smoothly.
2. Getting Blamed for Problems
Another key reason for inspecting rental equipment is so that you don’t get blamed for existing problems. In almost all cases, when you sign a rental agreement, you agree that you are responsible for any damage to the item that occurs while you are using it. If you don’t double check for existing problems, the rental company could demand that you pay for problems that are already there.
It is important to identify even small issues and make it clear that it was there before you accepted it so that you won’t be held liable.
3. Getting the Proper Equipment
In some cases a piece of rental equipment will arrive in boxes or several pieces, so it is not always easy to tell that you are getting exactly what you ordered. While most rental equipment companies will be happy to correct any mistakes, it will still take a lot of time to get these issues sorted out. You’ll save a lot of time by just inspecting the items first, so that any problems can be addressed immediately.
4. Ensure Maintenance is done
When renting machinery that needs periodic maintenance, you should make sure to check that it has been done recently. For example, if a machine needs to have oil or another fluid changed after running for a set number of hours, you want to know if this has been done. If it hasn’t, you will want to have it changed before you accept responsibility.
5. Part 2: Inspecting Equipment while you have it
In addition to just inspecting the equipment before you accept it from the rental company; you may also need to add it to your normal inspection routine. If you are keeping the equipment for more than a few days, it is often necessary to take steps to ensure it continues to work properly while it is in your custody. The following are key reasons why you must inspect equipment as long as you have it, even if it is a rental.
Check Out this Podcast on Machine Safety
6. Responsible for Regular Maintenance
For longer term rentals, you will likely be responsible for taking care of any regularly scheduled maintenance. Things like changing the oil or adding other fluids will be your responsibility and if you don’t perform them, you may be fined by the rental company. This is just one reason why you need to inspect the equipment regularly once you have taken custody of it.
7. Facility Safety
You likely have a regular inspection strategy for all the equipment in your facility to help avoid safety problems. Adding rental equipment to your normal inspection routine will help to ensure they are operating safely while use. Neglecting this type of thing can lead to significant risks within the facility.
Safety is especially important when working with equipment that employees aren’t used to, which is typically the case with rental items. Doing proper inspections to this equipment will help everyone become more familiar with the equipment they are working with.
8. Finding Problems Early
If you attempt to return a piece of rental equipment with a problem, you may be held responsible for it and have to pay to get it fixed. With this in mind, it is much better to identify issues early so you can get them repaired right away. The longer you put these types of issues off, the more expensive they will be to fix.
9. Understanding Equipment
When you own a piece of equipment, the maintenance team begins to learn how the equipment works and what type of care it needs in order to stay functioning. This is because the equipment is regularly inspected so that they know, for example, if a particular machine uses more or less oil than expected or that a belt wears out quickly.
If you don’t inspect the items that are rented, it will be difficult to learn these types of things about that piece of equipment, which can cause problems over time. This is essential for any items that you plan on keeping for more than just a few weeks. The more information that the maintenance team as well as the operators of a item can gather, the better they will be able to use it for the facility.
10. Scheduling All Inspections
All of the above reasons contribute to ensuring your facility is able to operate smoothly and with as few hazards or interruptions of work as possible. Without immediate and ongoing inspection of rental equipment, you will run into far more problems than would otherwise happen.
Rental equipment is supposed to help you to avoid downtime or get work done that otherwise wouldn’t happen. Taking a little time to perform these inspections will help ensure your facility gets all benefits that you are looking for when renting equipment.
Additional Resources
- Autonomous Maintenance: The Key to a Healthy TPM Program– creativesafetysupply.com
- The Benefits of Equipment Inspections– blog.5stoday.com
- 5 Reasons Why Fall Protection continues to be OSHA’s Most Violated Standard– blog.creativesafetysupply.com
- Top 5 Reasons Why Lean Transformations Fail– aislemarking.com
- How to Fix Human Error– lean-news.com
- Why You Should Use Takt Time Production & How To Do It– kaizen-news.com
- Why is it Important to know the Difference between Vapors and Fumes?– safetyblognews.com
- Top 3 Reasons Why I Think Floor Tape Is Better Than Paint– floor-tape.com
- Keeping Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Clean– creativesafetypublishing.com