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Benefits of Buying Used Equipment

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When you’re operating a construction business, you need to decide where to spend your capital wisely. When you need equipment for a job, you can always buy new, but there are times when it can make sense for your bottom line to invest in used Cat® equipment. There are also a number of benefits to buying previously-owned machinery from an authorized dealer, like Holt of California.

Construction Industry Facts and Statistics

2   construction growth

The construction industry is the largest employer in the world. It is expected to grow by 70 percent by the year 2025. With demand for more workers, there will be a growing demand for more equipment. Companies will need to look at their options to keep their fleet at full capacity in order to keep up with the projects they have scheduled. Construction is a dynamic industry that continues to grow and change. Take a look at the following facts and statistics

  • In the US, construction is one of the largest industries. It makes up about 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
  • Construction-related jobs made up two-thirds of all jobs in the US.
  • The total number of construction machines in the United States is approximately three million units. About one-third of the fleet is in use at any given time.
  • Caterpillar is the No. 1 rated heavy equipment manufacturer in the world. Komatsu and Hitachi are ranked Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.

While construction may be the largest employer in the world, you still need to make sure you have what you need to complete the job — but that doesn’t always mean buying new equipment.

Advantages of Buying Used Cat Construction Equipment

It may be the first instinct to buy new equipment when you need it to complete a job, but there are many advantages to buying used construction equipment as well. Let’s take a look:  

1. Purchase Equipment at a Lower Cost

3   lower costBuying new equipment is an investment that can have a significant impact on your company’s cash flow. However, you can purchase quality used equipment and at a much lower cost. It’s possible to save thousands over the cost of buying new machinery by choosing this option.

The price of new equipment has increased over the past several years. It’s always nice to think about buying something brand new, but you don’t need to sacrifice quality simply because the machinery has been previously owned. If the equipment has been well maintained, you can still get several years of reliable service from it.

Buying used equipment means paying less in sales tax as well as a lower initial purchase price. You could decide to use the savings toward attachments, maintenance costs for your fleet or toward the cost of buying a second piece of equipment.

Browse Used Construction Equipment

2. Avoid Initial Depreciation on Equipment

Construction equipment starts to depreciate as soon as you take it off a dealer’s lot in the same manner as your truck or car. In the first 12 months after purchase, double-digit depreciation is normal, and then it slows down in the second, third and fourth years of ownership. By choosing to buy a used piece of equipment, you are avoiding taking the “hit” on the initial depreciation.4   depreciation

If you decide to buy a new piece of equipment, and it depreciates as the same rate as a new car (between 20-40 percent in the first year), it’s possible for you to owe more on it than what its worth after 12 months or so. No one ever wants to be underwater on a car or truck loan, a mortgage or financing for heavy equipment if they ever had to consider selling the asset after the first year or so.

By choosing to buy a piece of used equipment, you avoid the situation with the particular asset and can focus on building your fleet. You can also turn your attention to the projects you have booked for completion.

3. Hold Equipment Value Longer

As long as the used equipment is properly maintained, it will hold its value. As a reputable used Cat equipment dealer, we track the maintenance history on the equipment we sell. Our customers know how many hours various parts can work before they need to be serviced or rebuilt.

Once you take delivery of your used Cat construction equipment, make a point of keeping detailed service records. Not only will you need to track any expenses incurred in keeping the equipment serviced for income tax purposes, but this information will be very important when the time comes that you want to sell the equipment later on. Prospective buyers will be very interested to find out when the machinery was serviced and what was done. The more details you can provide, the more likely you will be to find a buyer quickly and get an offer close to, or at, your asking price.

4. Find the Features You Need

If you were to make a list of the must-have features when looking for equipment, you’ll likely find them on newer used models. Technology in this market doesn’t move as quickly as other niches, such as computers, where new features and updates that were not available before are being introduced with each new version.

Compare the features of Cat used construction equipment for sale with those of newer models. If you are already a Cat owner and you want to add a similar piece of equipment to your fleet, consider how your existing machinery operates. The mechanisms of a used piece of equipment may be similar to its predecessors in the same model on a year-by-year basis. You can expect to get some of the same functions of the new model, but at a lower price when you choose to purchase a used version.

5. Get Your Equipment Right When You Need It

5   get used equipment right awayBuying new may mean placing an order and waiting for your piece of machinery to be manufactured for you. While there is the advantage of taking delivery of a new machine that has just rolled off the assembly line, you do have to contend with any possible lag time involved. This is a situation where you’ll need to evaluate exactly how important speed of delivery is to the equation when you’re looking for heavy equipment for your business.

On the other hand, used equipment is available, in stock and at the dealer’s lot right away. Once you have made arrangements to buy it and have it delivered to your facility or directly to a job site, you can start working with it (and have it start paying for itself) right away.

You can review the available inventory online at any time that is convenient for you. Simply click on the models you are most interested in to find out more about them before you even go out to visit the lot. The used construction equipment dealer should be able to provide you with the following information about each used item in their inventory:

  • Manufacturer
  • Model/serial number
  • Year
  • Hours of use
  • Asking price

You should also be able to find out where the equipment was used previously, which will give you some idea of the type of conditions it has been exposed to. You’ll want to know whether it was used in a part of the US or Canada that is predominantly wet, dry, warm or cold since this will give you some clues as to how well the equipment may perform if it was well maintained and stored appropriately between jobs.

6. Have Lower Costs of Ownership

Since used equipment holds its value quite well after the first 12 months, you can buy it for specialty jobs, and then sell it and recoup an amount that reflects a good percentage of what you paid for it. In the meantime, you can deduct expenses such as amortization, interest on financing costs, maintenance, insurance, etc. on your income tax return starting in the year you purchased the equipment.

The equipment represents an expense to your business, but it also will help to pay for itself with increased revenue. The more equipment you have available to you in your fleet, the bigger the jobs you will be able to take on. You’ll also have equipment available to send your employees out to more than one job site at the same time. When you can start to generate income from more than one project simultaneously, you will be able to really reap the benefit of having the used equipment available to you. It will allow your income to increase exponentially.

7. Increase Flexibility

6   bid on jobsSince you can acquire used equipment rather easily and for less cash outlay than a similar model of a new truck, dozer, loader or other piece of equipment, you will be able to consider bidding on jobs you wouldn’t be able to consider if it was conditional on you buying new machinery. The cost of financing the used equipment temporarily is something you can factor in as one of the costs of taking on a specialized job for several months or the term of a contract. When the work ends, if you don’t end up landing another contract where you would need the specialized machinery again, you have the option of selling it and recouping much of your initial outlay.

In the meantime, your company and crew have gained experience working on a specialized project. This can only add to your reputation in the industry and with prospective customers. The next time you are approached about doing similar work, you can point to your previous project and explain you have experience in that area. Depending on the amount of work being offered, you can make a decision at that point whether it makes sense to buy a used piece of equipment again or make an alternate decision about how to get the equipment you need for the projects you are being hired to complete.

8. Take Advantage of Available Warranties

The dealer often offers a warranty on used construction equipment. If you know that the equipment is being backed by a maintenance plan, you will feel a lot more comfortable about committing to a purchase.

The maintenance plan benefits you in other ways, too. It helps you to plan for maintenance expenses. These include not only parts and labor, but also items such as supplies and lubricants. When you know how much these expenses will cost per month and over the lifetime of the maintenance plan, you are shielded from the impact of large business costs, as well as having to deal with small repairs that tend to add up over the course of a month or more.

Your dealer will work with you to give you an estimate for the amount you would pay for a package for the particular make and model of Cat used construction equipment for sale that you are interested in. It would include a specific basket of services, maintenance intervals and replacement parts that would fit your particular business. The estimate would be worked up to be a reasonable cost per operating hour for the equipment.

If the maintenance cost is too high, you won’t want to buy the protection plan and if it’s too low then there is no benefit to you as a consumer to consider buying a maintenance agreement to keep your equipment repair costs under control. For the arrangement to benefit both sides, it must contain conditions that will end up benefitting both of you.

9. Enjoy Lower Insurance Costs

The cost of insuring used equipment is usually lower than insuring a similar model of new equipment. Insurance companies generally base their premiums on the equipment’s replacement cost, not on how much you would be able to sell it for after you have owned it for a time. In the case of used construction equipment, the overall cost of coverage is generally less expensive since the replacement cost is lower than for a new piece of equipment. Here are a couple things to look at when determining the insurance for a used piece of equipment:7   replacement value not cash value

  • Replacement value vs. cash value. When discussing adding your new purchase to your policy, make sure your agent or broker understands that you want to insure the equipment for its replacement value, not the cash value. These are two very different terms for insurance purposes, and failing to recognize the difference could end up costing you a lot of money if you have to make a claim against your policy.

If you decide to insure it for the cash value only, you will be entitled only to the depreciated amount if there is a loss. Even though depreciation slows down after the first year, the equipment does continue to depreciate, and you will be faced with a financial deficit if you decide to buy this type of coverage for your used construction equipment.

Choosing replacement value means you will be entitled to compensation for the value of a similar year and model of the type of equipment that was destroyed in a total loss. The insurance company wouldn’t fund the cost of brand new equipment, but you would be “made whole” to the time that the loss occurred.

  • 8   per incident limit vs overall policy limitPer incident limit vs. overall policy limit. When you take out insurance coverage on your construction equipment, keep in mind that your overall policy limit may be a certain figure, but that number may not be the amount you would receive if your fleet was destroyed in a complete loss. You may have an overall policy limit of $X dollars, but the limit the insurance company assigns for any single loss could be a much lower amount.

If an accident involving equipment occurred, the most you could receive to replace it would be limited to a fixed amount, even if there was damage caused to more than one piece of equipment. It’s very important to understand all of your insurance policy provisions before you agree to purchase coverage.

Examine the Equipment Before You Buy

Before you commit to buying the previously-owned construction equipment, do make a point of examining it thoroughly, both inside and out. The dealer should allow you to inspect it completely before you make your buying decision so you can familiarize yourself with all the details of the equipment. You’ll want to make a point of going over the following details:

9   examine1. Cab

The cab is an important part of any piece of equipment. Whether you plan to operate it yourself or have someone on your team work with the equipment once you buy it, this is the place where all the action happens throughout the day. If it’s not comfortable for the operator or the controls are difficult to read or reach, your entire crew won’t be as productive. That will affect your bottom line.

Sit down in the cab, in the same manner as if you were buying a car or a truck. Get an idea of what the operator sees when they sit in it during the day. Find out whether the seat is adjustable in height to conform to different operators’ leg lengths and if the backrest can be adjusted as well.

Next, look at the console and consider how the operator is expected to read the instrument panel. You’ll want to ensure it is well lit and that the information can be read in bright sunlight as well as in low light conditions, since you may need to operate the machinery after dark. Consider, too, whether the equipment is operated with foot pedals or a joystick to lower the risk of neck and back fatigue, as well as repetitive strain injuries to the operator’s hands and wrists.

2. Tires and tracks

Carefully look at the tires on the piece of equipment you are considering. You’ll want to make sure the treads are intact. Cracks and bubbles on the tires are indications that the equipment has been left outside. If the equipment has been exposed to the elements for some time by a previous owner, its condition may not be as good as a similar model that has been stored in an enclosed space when not in use.

Use a tread gauge to check the tires for uneven wear. If you discover any signs, it could indicate a problem with the drivetrain. You’ll want to have that issue fully investigated before moving forward with a potential purchase on a particular piece of equipment.

If you are interested in adding a track machine to your fleet, make sure the tracks and the bolts are firmly in place. Keep in mind that tire and track replacements can often be quite expensive. You’ll want to make a point of finding out the general price on replacement costs for the machine you are considering purchasing.

3. Chassis

You can learn a lot about a piece of equipment’s condition by examining the chassis. Carefully inspect the metal frame to look for signs of welding around the locks, arms, tracks and sprockets. Check the engine, hydraulic parts, hoses, pumps and rams for any indications of leaks. It’s normal for a used vehicle to have some minor signs of wear, but you should be wary of any untreated damage that shows a lack of regular maintenance on the part of the previous owner. Indications of damage that may compromise you or your operator’s comfort or safety also constitute red flags that at least warrant further investigation.

4. Engine and transmission

You can tell a lot about a piece of machinery by examining the state of its engine and transmission. You or one of your professional operators should start the engine and listen for any sounds that are out of the ordinary. You’ll also want to check for emissions to make sure no warning signals go off.

Test the gear and put the machine into reverse to see how well it runs. Any unusual noise from the rollers could indicate that one or more parts are worn out. Do double-check the engine to ensure the hot, moving parts are guarded and that they are working properly. Check the pump and the swing bearing for signs of wear and to make sure there are no leaks anywhere.

Contact Holt of California for Your Used Cat Equipment

10   contactIf you’re looking for more information about used construction equipment from a California dealer, contact us today. We have an extensive selection of previously-owned equipment, including air compressors, articulated trucks, asphalt pavers, backhoe loaders, compactors, off highway trucks and more. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have, so you can get the right equipment to get the job done. 

Contact Holt of California

15 Advantages of Renting Equipment Versus Owning It

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Companies within all industries need every competitive edge they can get. As everyone pours over the balance sheets and all aspects of the business to find advantages, it can literally pay to explore and compare the costs of renting or leasing equipment against the expenses of buying and owning it. 2   it can literally pay

Loaders, excavators, skid steers, trucks, lifts, generators, uninterruptible power supplies and other equipment are essential to any business. But like any other department or resource, they can and must be streamlined for maximum efficiency and versatility. A cost-benefit analysis can provide valuable data to help you make an informed decision about equipment rental versus ownership.

Regardless of how businesses and companies differ in their size, purposes and structure, few that use any size of equipment can afford to have it be ill- matched for the task or sit idle and unused. Procurement, finance, production and administration departments all might have input on which option to use, since all have important perspectives to present. Maybe you head all those departments for your company or maybe there are different people in charge of each one, but you’re likely to pull statistics from all for a good analysis.

Holt of California offers a comprehensive inventory of equipment for purchase and rent, so we can help you decide which option best suits your business needs, whether that be rental, ownership or a mix of both. As a strong Cat™ dealer serving many industries from multiple locations, we sell new and used equipment and have Cat construction equipment for rent. Along with the excellence of Cat, Holt of California also carries many other allied brands.

Browse Equipment for Rent

Take Time for an Examination

It helps to first take a step back and analyze the cost-benefit situation as applicable to your business. An educated, logical decision will result as you consider all the factors:

  • Estimated rental payments for the period of use and machines needed
  • Approximate cost of a new machine
  • Transportation and storage expenses
  • Frequency of need for equipment
  • Projected life span of new machine
  • Estimated cost of maintenance and service over its life
  • Rough amount of labor saved with either option
  • Financing options and available capital
  • Need for special technology or skills with projects or equipment
  • Availability of desired new-purchase equipment
  • Possible, multiple uses for machines both rented or bought
  • Internal capability to test, maintain and service machines.

A cost-benefit analysis will result in a much stronger sense of which option fits best, as well as where and why. The most often recommended numeric benchmark for when it’s time to cross over from rental to purchase is when the equipment is needed and used at least 60-70 percent of the time. Generally speaking, if you’re thinking about need for the equipment in terms of years, that can be an indicator that you’re moving toward purchase, unless of course you’ll have little or no use for the machine after the current project or set of jobs.3   benchmark

Your examination of equipment needs will naturally reveal data that are useful to decision making, things such as usage duration, hours wasted or saved, profit or loss potential and capital or financing available now or in the future. Businesses can use some type of construction-management software to track vital job statistics and provide useful information such as trends or previously unknown needs.

Beyond the hard numbers sit a good deal of other considerations, such as safety, quality, efficiency, compliance, growth, risk, morale, employee retention and other factors that affect business but don’t have a hard number attached to them. Individual companies will each value the softer factors differently, but they are all worth considering.

Who Rents and Why?

Many industries can benefit from renting equipment rather than buying it:

  • Agriculture
  • Automotive
  • Construction
  • Earth moving
  • Government
  • Landscape
  • Logging
  • Military/Defense
  • Mining
  • Plumbing
  • Recycling
  • Retail
  • Trucking
  • Waste

Companies and people rent equipment for a number of reasons:

  1. Saves money in many cases
  2. Caters to short-term equipment need
  3. Provides specialty performance
  4. Satisfies temporary production increases
  5. Fills in when regular machines need maintenance or fail
  6. Helps meet deadline crunches
  7. Expands machine inventory
  8. Increases overall capability when and where needed
  9. Eliminates responsibility of testing, maintenance, service
  10. Makes the project schedule easier to manage with on-demand resources.

The rental of equipment can enable a bigger company to augment its fleet when and where needed, while it can aid a small- or medium-sized company to propose work that requires specialty equipment or machines to fulfill the requirements. The range of capabilities among equipment of all sizes can help businesses serve niche markets and win new and different kinds of projects.

4   Rental options can fill in during an outage or emergencyRental options can fill in during an outage or emergency and provide a flexibility that extends to logistics and finance, at a minimum. In addition, competition among rental providers can work to the consumer’s advantage with prices, specials and service. Equipment rental appeals to many industries because of its many benefits and advantages.

Benefits of Renting Equipment

Companies experience numerous advantages from choosing construction equipment rentals.

1. Forgo the Upfront Investment

Equipment, especially large equipment such as an excavator, tracked dozer or a telehandler, is an expensive capital cost. Your company must budget for equipment acquisition expenses. It often takes a “good year” (or a couple) to have the liquid cash to afford to purchase a piece of equipment outright.

When you purchase a piece of capital equipment, your money is tied up in it until you sell it, and if you used it well and kept it long, sale offers might come in lower than you’d like. Renting equipment allows you to access reliable equipment with a smaller initial investment. With less money tied up in capital equipment, you business will have more funds available to pursue opportunities and maintain other important parts of the business. 

2. Decrease Long-Run Expense

Any piece of heavy machinery requires consistent maintenance for fault-free operation. In many cases, companies have maintenance teams or equipment consultants devoted to upkeep. Mechanics and service technicians must check fluids and hydraulics, replace worn parts, repair leaking valves, update technology — the list goes on. Keeping up with equipment maintenance requires coordination and ongoing expenses.

Beyond maintenance, your company will also invest capital in usage scheduling and transportation. As constant as the ongoing expenses may be, they are often unpredictable. You can more easily gauge and control rental fees than the costs of private ownership.  

3. Avoid Storage, Transport Costs

5   avoid storage and transport costs When you purchase a piece of equipment, you'll have to determine where to keep it and how to move it between jobs. Your large, heavy construction machinery will take up space at your headquarters, and you'll need a separate vehicle for transportation. Storage and transportation solutions are investments themselves, which is why it can be advantageous to rent equipment instead.

Your rental company will store the machinery on their property, deliver it to your job site and pick it up when you're finished. You'll save space, money and time as a result, helping you run a more efficient business. Renting can help you respond faster to varied needs in different locations. It all happens fast, allowing you to streamline operations, shorten the workday and save money. Leaving the logistics to the rental company will free you to focus on your true business objectives.

4. Save at Tax Time

Renting and purchasing equipment impact your tax returns in different ways. When you purchase machinery, you will write off its depreciation each year. Renting creates an opportunity for a larger write-off. You can deduct each rental fee you pay from your business's income — a more consistent write-off than what is available for equipment you purchase outright.

5. Maintain Strong Borrowing Power

In the same way that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) views at rented equipment one way and owned equipment another way, so do banks. They do not see rental expenses as a liability on the balance sheet, so the option to rent equipment maintains stronger borrowing power for a business. Thinking in terms of assets and liabilities, capital-equipment debt or an aging machine could weaken a business’ overall financial picture depending on the numbers and circumstances involved.

6. Achieve Worry-Free compliance

Especially in California where many would argue the emissions standards are the most stringent in the nation, compliance with air-quality standards is a must and navigating the regulations can be a complex and confounding experience. No companies can afford the financial ding or loss of reputation associated with violating the standards since that can be troublesome and expensive, if not damaging.

6   achieve worry free complianceAir-quality gatekeepers in the Golden State classify the emissions of off-road equipment into three tiers, according to their horsepower and other factors of their overall consumption. As the historic push-pull of progress and conservation continues, the laws and regulations continue to change, and it’s hard to stay abreast of what the differences are and how they apply to your business.

Choosing Cat construction equipment rental can relieve you of the chore of tracking the sporadic regulations changes and provides automatic, consistent compliance. The investment is safer from a compliance perspective because your commitment to the machinery is less binding.

Consider this scenario - you purchased a brand new machine at full price, but a new regulation ups the standard for emissions. If the machine you purchased is not compliant or too expensive to run within required parameters, your investment could go to waste. The machine will get little to no use and have less resale value within the state. By renting, you can access compliant machinery with greater flexibility. 

7. Reduce Waiting and its Associated Losses

Most owners and managers would agree that lost time at the job site eats into profit and deadline adherence. It’s never good to leave workers waiting for a piece of equipment to arrive or for a machine to sit idle because it stalled. Renting connects you with reliable equipment when you need it.

When you have a rental agreement, it’s on-demand delivery and pickup for the exact time frame you need. If you need a backhoe with a precision arm for a week, you can get it. If you need an earthmover for a month, you can get that. It can arrive when you start and leave when you finish. In addition, since professionals maintain and service the equipment, it is less likely to fail and waste job hours while an alternative is found and transported.

8. Track New Opportunities

7   business opportunityEquipment rental can do just as much to increase business opportunities as it does to reduce operating expenses. Once you factor in the possibility of renting a piece of specialty equipment, it opens the door to new possibilities through that capability. Maybe the job entails digging or grading or a certain kind of precision dirt work that you could capture if you had the right machine, and the same principle translates universally across industries. Whether you’re chasing road-construction projects or trying to harvest crops more efficiently, there are rental options that can cater to nearly any need.

9. Sharpen Your Competitive Edge

Many small- and mid-sized businesses bemoan the fact that it’s hard to compete against the big companies. Larger companies often have bigger budgets that grant them accesss to the nicest, newest, best machines. Your smaller business gets the job done with what you have. 

Equipment rental can shift that age-old dynamic so that small competitors can procure the same kinds and quality of equipment for jobs, if that’s what will win the work. If a client asks what machines you will use or about a key piece of equipment, you can rest assured knowing that you have access to a diverse, efficient and compliant fleet of machines, just like the bigger companies.

10. Avoid Long-term Commitment

Investing in capital equipment brings a host of responsibilities and worries that keep some business owners up at night. Most new or used machines cost a lot of upfront money, so you'll spend time searching for the right deal. There are warranties to track, service-contract decisions to make, financing options to discern along with interest rates and countless other considerations.

After you commit to a machine, you'll have to keep it busy and productive to recoup your investment. Managing your equipment is a job of its own. You'll be in for years of maintenance, service, eventual sale or disposal, upgrades and adherence to regulation for all the years that you plan to own it.

For business owners who have any apprehension about the longer-term obligations, renting equipment can be a great solution. You can rent a piece of equipment, use it while you need it and return it after the fact, leaving all ownership responsibilities to the rental company.

11. Eliminate Coordination Headaches

8   alleviate concernWhen you purchase equipment, it's up to you to maintain it, plan logistics and train employees to use it. Renting relieves you of those responsibilities, saving time and energy. Everyone probably values the benefits of stress reduction and time gain differently, but that is one benefit many business owners or fleet managers would agree is created through renting equipment rather than buying it.

12. Gain Flexible Options

Flexibility is valuable in today’s business market where companies navigate a major recession, razor-thin profit margins, increasing regulations, market volatility, growing demand for specialized capabilities and the general quest to deliver quality service, great products and efficiency.

Renting equipment enables companies to respond to specialty niches, financial fluctuations and the ebbs and flows of demand. It’s an adaptable option, especially when explored through a cooperative relationship with a trusted equipment partner. The more functions a machine can perform, whether rented or bought, the more justified its expense will be. For example, one versatile body with interchangeable accessories that might dig, reach and lift would sooner be a justified expense than would a machine that does only one of those tasks.

13. Get the Latest and Greatest

Equipment that features up-to-date technology can benefit a business greatly by bringing efficiency and specialization to the project. A piece of rental equipment featuring the latest advancements can help your business work fast and accomplish more specialized jobs. 9   enjoy latest technology

Especially with Cat machines, you enjoy raw power and strength as well as precise performance for even the most delicate operations. The intuitive systems in today’s models deliver metrics and other business data that aid the actual work, such as digging guides and easy-change attachments. Many businesses tend to make do with whatever machines are nearby and/or owned by the company, but targeted equipment selection according to technology can potentially enable you to do many existing jobs with fewer pieces of machinery and in less time.

In the same way quality rental equipment can help you better compete in the market, renting also helps you avoid any risk of your machines becoming unusable or obsolete. A good rental partner continuously rotates machines off the fleet in order to have the most updated models and technology available so that you and your jobs benefit from the specialized capabilities.

14. See and Experience a Preview

Maybe your burgeoning business looks to grow and you’d like to see how certain models of equipment, attachments and accessories work. Renting allows you to try before you buy, helping you feel more confident in your purchase.

By renting, you will gain a better feel for how the equipment works, the time it takes, its usability and other things that might affect a purchase decision. For a hypothetical example, if you wanted to dig diamond-shaped ditches, you could try a few recommended machines and attachments before you purchase one or as you work your way into enough business to buy one.

15. Add Convenience, Hours

Managing even one piece of heavy equipment represents a lot of responsibility, much less a small or large fleet of machines. When you rent, things such as fluid checks, service, maintenance, hours count,  schedules, testing, parts and depreciation becomes someone else’s responsibility. Not only is it easier to let the professionals at a rental company handle some of those logistics for you, but also it frees up your valuable time and saves money in many cases.

Progress With a Professional Partner

As any business owner or manager might surmise, the key to successful rental is a wide and varied selection of machines, as well as the professionalism and experience of the partner they pick. Holt of California understands the demands placed upon industry. Caterpillar™ itself works to develop innovative machines, technology and techniques that help business keep moving forward.

From loaders, backhoes and excavators to power systems, lift trucks and attachment variety, we can deliver superior products, service and selection. While Holt of California is a certified Cat dealer for 16 California counties, we also carry a number of allied brands for a broader selection. We realize the importance of adherence to emissions standards and stay on top of the latest developments and changes so that we can be a resource to our customers about how to remain compliant and avoid trouble.

We are here to help with anything and everything we can, including rental contracts, agreements and options that can help get what you need to where you need it and when. Besides equipment rental, Holt of California fulfills a full range of needs across many industries with a comprehensive offering of new and used equipment for purchase:

  • Dozers, tracked and wheeled
  • Forestry machines
  • Graders
  • Harvesters
  • Lift trucks/forklifts
  • Loaders, tracked and wheeled
  • Planers
  • Power systems
  • Spreaders
  • Tractors
  • Trucks

Along with the basic machines come the attachments, accessories and features that can make your working life easier with everything from raw power to collected data. When it comes to construction equipment for rent in California, you certainly want to work with a partner you feel is dedicated and conscientious so that you realize advantages, satisfaction and ultimately, good business.

Browse Construction Rental Equipment

The quality of partner you pick will make a difference in how much benefit you’re able to achieve through equipment rental versus purchase of it, but Holt of California offers the reputation for integrity and expertise that clients seek along with other characteristics like product inventory, a positive business history and courteous service.

10   contact

Please don’t hesitate to contact us so we can discuss your needs and how Holt of California can help your business progress into the future. We would be happy to work up a quote and share more information about how to rent Cat equipment (or allied brands) and all the associated options. 

Contact Holt of California

Full Circle After 20 Years

"Sometimes life brings you full circle to a place you have been before just to show you how much you have grown." I'm not sure who said that, but it sure fits my journey here at Holt.

My journey began 20 years ago when I was brought in for a 3-day temporary assignment to "answer phones" in the Earthmoving Service Department. That was all the assignment was to encompass, answering phones.

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Reno Righetti's 60 Years

November 28, 1955: Reno Righetti's first day at work for Holt Bros. 

Sixty years later Reno still comes to work at Holt of California; A remarkable record from a remarkable man. Holt of California is a much larger organization than the company Reno went to work for sixty years ago, so if you have not had the pleasure to work with him; let me introduce you to Reno.

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