Rental equipment dealers found a new solution at The ARA Show that can increase utilization and profits, decrease equipment rental costs and eliminate equipment rental stress caused by bad weather.
Weather Warranty exhibited for the first time at the ARA show 2021. The company provides a service that rental equipment dealers can offer their customers. It protects equipment rental customers from bad weather by automatically extending their equipment rentals by the number of bad weather days experienced on the jobsite.
“We surveyed contractors to find out their biggest challenges to keep projects on schedule,” said Rick Wilmot, co-founder and product lead at Weather Warranty. “More contractors listed weather as the top reason for project delays than any other reason. The second biggest reason for project delays is communication. Whereas there are dozens if not hundreds of solutions to help contractors with communication; there are only two apps designed to help you with the weather—the weather app and Weather Warranty.”
When rental equipment contractors experience enough rain, wind, snow, or other weather event that shuts down progress, any rented equipment covered by Weather Warranty’s weather protection will be extended by the number of days of bad weather.
“However, this is just more than just a great opt-in weather protection service; it’s also a revenue-generating device for rental equipment dealers,” said Wilmot. “Rental equipment dealers who have partnered with Weather Warranty have advised us they have seen a 5 to 8 percent increase in utilization since offering the service to their customers.”
Seventy-five percent of contractors polled by Weather Warranty said they would pay for a service that automatically extends their equipment rentals caused by bad weather.
Founded in 2020 —a year of a record-breaking number of tropical storms that effected the United States —Weather Warranty is a new solution to an old problem.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.