Technology company SmartEquip has grown substantially since its inception in 2000. Lindsey Anderson discusses business and benefits with CEO Alex Schuessler.
In 2008, Murray Pollok, then-editor of International Rental News, sat down with SmartEquip’s CEO, Alex Schuessler, to discuss the company’s vision and outlook. Schuessler’s company was 8-years-old at the time and its biggest challenge was selling “another piece of software” to not only OEMs, but also rental companies. On top of that challenge, SmartEquip also was trying to focus its sightline on penetrating the European market, which was closely watching the U.S.-based company and its deals with Sunbelt Rentals, JLG, Manitou, Genie and more.
Fast forward eight years and SmartEquip has not only secured business within Europe (Netherlands-based equipment rental company Boels joined the SmartEquip Network in 2013), but it has roughly 75 percent of the top-20 rental companies in North America on board using its systems, including United Rentals, Sunbelt Rentals, BlueLine, Hertz Equipment Rentals and many more. The company has more than 40,000 users across more than 4,000 locations in North America and Europe.
“We have 160 brands overall,” Schuessler tells ALH. “We are currently processing approximately 100,000 orders per month at a value of approximately $40,000,000.”
As previously mentioned, SmartEquip has a number of OEMs participating in its program, including: Caterpillar, Easy Lift (Europe-only), Gehl, Genie, Gradall, Hy-Brid Lifts, JCB, JLG, Lull, Manitou and Skyjack. SmartEquip also has large contractor fleets such as Oldcastle (CRH) and Kiewit. A number of Cat Rental Stores (such as Puckett Rents) and smaller or independent rental companies have joined, as well (Cresco Equipment Rentals, Randall Rents, Cooper Equipment Rentals, PDQ Rentals and Neff Rentals. See the box story for more.)
SmartEquip’s main focus used to surround parts ordering and procurement. The main aim of the company’s system was to give rental companies a single web portal to identify and order parts and any other aftermarket items, such as manuals and safety bulletins, from their suppliers.
The company has now matured into an online fleet support network that connects fleet owners to manufacturers and their dealers with real-time access to critical parts and service information; helps fleet owners generate more profit from their equipment by automating and accelerating the service workflow, increasing asset availability and revenue; streamlines the service process, eliminates order errors, improves technician wrench-time and reduces equipment downtime.
Fleet maintenance and repairs can often freeze an asset in its tracks. SmartEquip aims to streamline parts management issues, which directly impact “wrench time” for a mechanic.
According to a study by the company, nearly 50 percent of service technician “wrench time” is anything but – mechanics waste time searching for manuals, identifying the correct parts to order, evaluating parts inventory, ordering parts and manually updating work orders. And then, errors and downtime can still happen (roughly 47 minutes of administration time is used per parts request, which there are roughly 2,000 of a year. Nearly 350 parts are ordered with errors and only 50 percent of mis-ordered parts are returned. All of this causes delays and downtime – which means wasted money.
“Mechanics spend two-thirds of their hours looking up part numbers,” Schuessler says. “We think their time could be put to better use.”
