Hell there! Basically I graduated and applied for a few jobs and 'sales/ops coordinator' for an Equipment Rental business sounded exciting and paid decent for just graduating. I told them I have limited knowledge of construction equipment but I was still hired. Now that I am working there, I am having a hard time. I will get calls asking for Skid-Steer attachments, 10k rentals, 130 excavator (among many other names), etc. and I am just lost. Is there any good guide online for all equipment and/or attachements in this industry (along the commonly rented equipment line ... i.e. forklifts, excavators, booms/manlifts, etc) AND any good guides on driving this equipment? or just an outline of the controls? Any help is appreciated, thanks
10k rental? are they putting on a race, or do they need a small generator?? yeah, it can be a little confusing. I'd take an hour or whatever it takes at one time, and go through the excavator forum here until you understand the models and how they compare, basically the customer is asking for a size class, or a machine equivalent to one they know, you have to memorize them or know how to find it quick, right? Then same thing for each "line" of equipment. Dozers, and loaders, skid steers each need their own study period. Generators are easier, KW and fuel type is all that matters, usually, go to smokestak for more, even if just for fun. Lifts and skid steer attachments, I'd use youtube to understand what each does and typical uses. Take your inventory/stock list and go through it one at a time. What experience do you have driving and what are you trying to do?
Yair . . . livingintexas I can't really help but crikey mate, it sounds like you have been thrown in at the deep end . . . I feel for you and had to respond to get the conversation started. It seems unreasonable to me that you are not receiving some on site assistance/training . . . not a fair go at all, particularly when you were up front about you limited knowledge. The good thing is you obviously care and are concerned about the situation and want to learn. You have come to a good friendly place and there are folks on here who may be able to steer you in the right direction. All the best with it. Cheers,
It seems really odd the rental outfit wouldn't have a list of the equipment they have for rent with all the rental rates listed for daily, weekly and monthly rates. I know a place that rents skid steers, mini excavators, forklifts and big compressors and they have everything listed on a sheet with machine weight, capacity and basic specs. as well as all the attachments to fit. If this place doesn't have something like that, you should get some help to come up with a sheet like this and it will make your job a whole lot easier. Is this a new company just getting into rentals? Rentals also have to include that regular maintenance(greasing etc.) is the responsibility of the renter and perhaps even oil changes on long term rentals.
Welcome to the new management structure. Anyone with a half inch Craftsman socket set is a mechanic and any hire out of college can handle any office job. What you are wanting is an old timer to mentor you for a bit. What you are asking for is schooling on the jargon of the trade. There are no official training schools or published manuals. To put it plain you are going to have to do plenty of your own research on your own time till you learn that part of the business. Start checking out any sales brochures. Service manuals are very handy as well. When you have dead time, if you ever do, find a machine in the yard and just look it up on the internet. It takes some time and the fact that you are new will only get you some slack for a few weeks. The last young gentleman I worked with was on the hot seat all the time. The boss came in one day early on after a customer complaint and scolded the coordinator. What do you mean you didn't know, you have been here for two weeks.
Also I'd suggest making up some sort of crib sheet (an Excel file maybe) with a tab for each type of equipment like tracked excavator, skid steer, wheel loader, etc, etc. Put all the details relating to the machine in one or more comments columns, rental rates too if applicable. It won't make you an overnight expert but as you add to your crib sheet you will add to your knowledge of the machines and hopefully if you have a reasonable memory some of the info you put in there will start to stick. Also have a separate page in your crib sheet for technical terms and what they mean.
Learn from your customers some of them know what they need and why strike up a conversation to learn about it so you can try to help the other guy that isn't sure what he needs
Sometimes you can learn a lot from customers as they know what they need and what's worked for them but other times a customer may go somewhere else so they can deal with someone who's knows what they're talking about. I don't think rentals would be much different than selling new equipment where product knowledge is the most important aspect.
I suppose another relevant question at this point would be - just exactly what is your job description..?
I wouldn't sweat it too much, most people (not all) in the rental offices around me are anything but knowledgeable about equipment. Then to complicate things some customers don't know what they want or the proper name for a machine. It's going to take time learn the basics.
(Bold is mine.) You mean "operating" the equipment, right? It may seem like a small nuance, but generally, equipment has an operator, just like a plane has a pilot, and a railroad locomotive has an engineer. If I hear somebody refer to the "bulldozer driver" I immediately wonder how much time they've spent in this field.
Sounds like there should be an operating guide made up for every piece of equipment in the fleet. Maybe not the complete Operation/Maintenance manual from the factory but say something with the basics. Does this place have the manuals for each unit? If not they are not too smart in my book. You could try doing a search online for each machine some manufactures feel it is in their best interest to have those kind of things available. Repair and service manuals are a different animal! I think it would be great to have a one or two page handout that you could print out and hand to each person renting a machine. This would explain how to start and shut off and what controls do what along with some safety info, like don't stick you feet in the chipper to push branches through! Sometimes wondered about rental store how they can let someone walk out the door with potentially deadly tools without knowing if the person has any idea how to use them. Guess that is what all the fine print on the forms you sign is about. "You kill yourself or break the tool, it's your problem!"
Yes that would help! "sales/ops coordinator" tells me nothing. Just what are you suppose to be "coordinate"? Do they even know? Then again I retired after 45 years and for the last 40 my "Title" was "Mechanic Class 1" or "Master Mechanic" don't think I was ever given a real job description. Just figured I was suppose to fix what they broke and do my best to keep them from breaking things. Even had the assistant superintendent at the quarry tell me a few times he wasn't sure what his real duties were and each time he told me that I would tell him, "Well neither do I!". He would say well you're doing fine keep it up! Back to your job, keeping notes on things is a very good idea. Like Nige says if you can set up a simple spreadsheet for each type of machine that would help. Can start out real basic and add things to it as you go along. Have things like Make, Model, Serial Numbers, Year of Manufacture, Cost When Purchased, Hours for Service, Total Hours on Unit, and so on. Nice thing about spreadsheets is you can add to them and link one page to another so information entered in a column on one page automatically updates the total on another page. One more thing, have a back-up of these spreadsheets don't want to loose the work you did. Not sure upper management knew or would approve but I used a flash drive to save all my files and took it home often to load on my home computer just in case shop got hit by lightning or there was a fire.
Some excellent advice here! One thing i'd like to add is; Take pictures of the machines you have for rent and the attachments, #'s etc.
And those pictures can also be inserted right in the spreadsheet!
For a lot of equipment the people renting need to have their own liability insurance too. I've run into this before but did have contractors insurance at the time. As an example, I don't think anybody can just rent an excavator or even a skid steer having never run any kind of equipment before. Some people should never be on equipment period because they just have no clue how things work.
After dealing with machine and rental sales people for around 40 years I have to wonder why anyone would think they know anything about machinery. Most could never use one well enough to make a dollar, many could not even start the thing and more than a few couldn't tell you which way was forward. I had one rube in fancy clothes one time tell me I could back blade with a grader to get final grade. I had another wonder why the cutting edges on a dozer weren't mounted on the other side of the blade also. I was standing next to a customer one time when a sales rube told them that they didn't have to check engine oil because the electronics in the machine would let them know when the oil ran out. That was about five years before low level alarms were installed in engines. They can figure rental and interest rates, work out a payment program and maybe hand out a phone number of who to call if there are any problems. If you are looking for guidance on how something should be operated you're better off doing a Google Search.
Good chance if someone around here called a rental yard and asked for a 10K they were looking for a 10,000 lb zoomboom forklift and not a 10K generator. Having worked all over the country I can testify that different parts of the country have different local jargon for different things.
True, just ask for a soda or pop in the wrong place!