Efficient rental-fleet management

Fleet manager, Henning Pedersen with one of the telescopic handlers, which is part of the companys’ fleet.

The lift-rental company Riwal Denmark A/S has in recent years experienced annual growth rates of 30-40 pct. A new headquarter is under construction. One of the secrets behind its success is an efficient management of the rental fleet currently consisting of about 1.000 lifts.

At the company Riwal Denmark A/S in the outskirts of Odense, trucks are lining up to load lifting gear and machinery to be dispatched to rental-costumers, construction companies and others.

- It is cramped for space here, but this situation will improve, when we move to our new 6.500 sqm. headoffice on a 15.500 sqm. site with all facilities, managing director, Søren Rosenkrantz says on a brief tour around the site. The new headoffice is based in Tietgen Byen.

Company in growth

60 employers are all busy providing lifting material and machines in prime condition, and that all regulations are being met, such as the obligatory annual check-ups. It is a demanding task to control the distribution and running of so many units.

- In order to be more efficient, we have implemented a GPS-monitoring-system on all liftunits. The system is provided by the company M-tec in Pandrup in the north-west of Denmark. And we are already very pleased with this system. It provides a brilliant overview of each machine, says fleet manager Henning Pedersen.

- We handle all transportation of the lifts to and from the customer. It is important to know exact locations and at the same time we are able to get a lot of different data on the machine, regardless of its current position. This also means that we can predict and plan service-intervals and maintenance, and we can plan logistics a lot more precisely, Henning Pedersen explains.

Monitoring all activity

The M-tec system provides information on all the machines activities. This ensures an efficient invoicing, as the customer is only billed for the exact time driving the lift.

- Furthermore we can efficiently plan ahead service-intervals, which again means lower transportation costs, Henning Pedersen explains. Headoffice receives an e-mail as soon as the machine enters the site at the customer who rents it.

- We are also notified ten hours before a due serviceinterval. The GPS unit in the machine also registers if the lift is in activity during a weekend. This is also an efficient protection against theft, and at the same time we can go on the internet and see exactly where the machine is located in realtime, he explains.

Ready for the future

Riwal Denmark previously had another fleet-management system, but it failed due to shortage of options and development. So it was a major improvement to change to M-tec:

- We have great communications with the M-tec people, and they constantly make new developments and improvements to the system, in order to suit our needs, so we feel that this system gives us a lead position in terms of fleet management, Henning Pedersen comments.

- The M-tec system also provides an engine-control option, which means that we can get data on relevant engine functions. If there is a problem, we can immediately assess and take action, precisely as a mechanic is doing on your car with his pc in the workshop. Only here it happens online, regardless which end of the country, the machine is located, Henning Pedersen explains.

Further information: Jørgen Raguse Sales Manager M-tec A/S Industrivej 10 DK-9490 Pandrup

Mob: +45 2142 7403

Photo: Fleet manager, Henning Pedersen with one of the telescopic handlers, which is part of the companys’ fleet.