Help from Above: Renting a Crane

Going through the process of renting equipment can be quite challenging, especially if you’ve never done it before. Apart from having to know how to properly negotiate, you’ll have to do a background check on the best provider to rent from. For example, if you’re from Savannah, GA, and looking at renting a lifting product, you’ll want to go to a provider with a good reputation, equipment that’s still in great condition, and fantastic support. After all, you wouldn’t want to do any heavy lifting (literally and figuratively), right?

When hiring a crane, you need to consider the restrictions of your location site (meaning, secure permission if you can bring in a crane for your project). A quick tip: residential areas typically don’t allow these transactions.

According to Consolidated Rigging & Lifting Products, Inc., the two factors in determining crane rental size:

● Load weight; and
● Distance from crane to landing area

The difference between a contract lift and a crane lift:

● Contract lift – the crane rental (as well as other integral tools and equipment) that remains solely under the permission granted by the crane owner. In essence, the rental company takes charge of all the supervisory tasks. The main advantage of going with a contract lift is that you can fight the urge to micromanage and simply focus on working on your own job-related projects. After all, you can now afford to just do something else and still be helping people in a way.

● Crane hire – this is the opposite of a contract lift: in this arrangement, the rental company turns over the responsibility of keeping the crane in good shape to the borrower. As for accountability issues, the people in government tax agencies are there to remind you to pay your dues as soon as possible.

Naturally, all crane hire services are bound to comply with the guidelines set by the Construction Plant Hire Association (CPA), in accordance with BS7121, The Safe Use of Cranes, as well as LOLer regulations. Start reading up and comparing notes today, so you’ll be able to book heavy equipment when you need them someday.