An April 2011 online survey asked US building service contractors (BSCs) if they have ever considered renting or leasing janitorial equipment such as carpet extractors and floor machines.
The survey was sponsored by Powr-Flite, a manufacturer of professional cleaning tools and equipment and part of the Tacony group.
It was the result of interviews with two BSCs in Northern California who said they had never rented or leased cleaning equipment nor had they ever considered it.
However, the survey indicated these two BSCs were certainly not in the majority.
Of the 63 contractors that started and/or completed the survey, 62.6% indicated they had considered renting floor machines and carpet extractors; slightly more than 56% said the same about leasing these tools.
Diving deeper into the issues surrounding renting and leasing cleaning equipment, these were some of the other findings:
• Asked the key advantage to leasing, 63.6% indicated ‘less impact on cash flow’; and
• The key advantage to renting was being able to ‘rent the machine if and when I need it,’ according to 83.3%.
Although the survey respondents did believe there were benefits to renting and leasing cleaning equipment, cost benefits, for the most part, were not one of them.
Asked if over the long-term they believed renting cleaning equipment was more or less expensive than buying it, nearly 69% said more.
Similarly, half thought leasing janitorial equipment was more costly than buying it. However, 31% thought it was less expensive.
“Leasing can be cost effective because very often the contractor can purchase the equipment at the end of the lease at a significantly reduced price,” says Gary Pelphrey, marketing director for Powr-Flite.
“Because more distributors and rental houses rent/lease professional cleaning equipment, at least this is an option available to BSCs when needed,” he adds.