Best Practices for Ordering Rental Equipment
As a rental house we see tons of equipment requests every single day, as you can imagine this had made us strive to figure out how to do it better when ordering equipment for ourselves. Here are a few things we’ve found to be very helpful in ordering equipment.
Someone ordered all of these pieces of gear!
Create a Template
The number one thing we see is orders missing standard equipment. This could be missing distro, stands, or most often carts.
By creating a template you’ll protect yourself from this as it will create this standard list of questions you are asking yourselves. Now we’re not talking about a template of standard equipment, we know the jobs change far too much for that. All you need is key bits of information along with categories. This could be in your notes app, a saved signature, however you’d like to do it, but something that standardizes the information that you send to the rental house every time.
Here’s a sample:
Job Name: (Even if you have to make one up, its better than nothing)
Pick Up Date: (Include specific times if applicable, otherwise dates are fine!)
Shoot Start:
Shoot End:
Return Date
TRUCKS
LAMPS
DISTRO
DOLLY
GRIP
STANDS
CARTS
EXPENDABLES
Once you have a template you’ll protect yourself against most mistakes, but the next thing to keep in mind is to be extremely specific. Especially if you are working with a vendor you don’t normally work with. An easy example is what comes with an S60 Skypanel? Some rental houses will include a remote, some will not. By always putting a remote on your order and not assuming it will come with the package, you will protect yourself against the times when it does not. Assuming equipment will come with the order is a good way to get in trouble.
The other thing to watch out for is putting multiple pieces of equipment on one line item. For example writing
1 Joker 800 w/Chimera and Soft Grid
Vs.
1 – Joker 800
1 – Small Chimera
1 – 40 Degree XS Soft Grid
While it may feel superfulous, it is extremely unlikely a rental house will miss these items if you list them out individually rather than on one line.
The last thing to keep in mind is if you are renting a truck, sometimes the simple items you are requesting will already be on there. Then the question becomes do you want at least that many items? Or do you want these items in addition to whats on the truck? A common thing we see is people will ask for a 1 Ton Grip truck and 10 C-Stands and 20 Sandbags. We always have to ask do you want
A final equipment order might look like this:
Job Name: Rita Fruit Store
Pick Up Date: 10/20
Shoot Start: 10/21
Shoot End: 10/21
Return Date: 10/22
All Items are additional to the truck basic package unless otherwise noted.
TRUCKS
1 – 1 Ton Sprinter Grip Truck
LAMPS
2 – S60 Skypanels
2 – S60 Remotes
1 – M18
2 – 800 Jokers
DISTRO
4 – 50′ Stingers
4 – 25′ Stingers
DOLLY
1 – Fisher 11
1 – Set of Skate Wheels
2 – 8′ Pieces of Track
GRIP
2 – Junior Pipe Hangers
2 – Safety Chains
STANDS
3 – Junior Stands
2 – Low Combos (Total including truck package)
2 – Runway Stands
2 – Beefy Baby Stands (Total including truck package)
1 – Preemie (Total including truck package)
CARTS
1 – Head Cart
EXPENDABLES
1 – Roll 2″ Black Paper Tape
1 – Roll of ND .6
Consider adding a checklist at the end. Some checks could be
-Enough stands for the lights ordered
-At least one stinger for each light
-Enough Low Stands
-Carts for all units
Requesting Changes
All changes should be made using the Add/Drop format.
Making changes to the order can be very difficult if you send back a completely new list of items, then the rental house will have to go through your entire list to see what changed, or more likely they will send it back and ask for it in the Add/Drop format. It is much easier to make an email like the following:
Hi,
I’d like to make the following changes to my order
ADD
1 400 Joker
Drop
1 800 Joker
This gives the rental house a clear indicator of how you’d like the order to be changed.
Apps
There are a number of apps out there to help with putting together an equipment order. If you remember about being specific, this is where the apps can really help, as you’re not just adding 1 800 Joker, but it lists all of the accessories contained within it with one click.
Some people find them to be very helpful, other people do not. We haven’t quite figured out how to use them in our workflow, but heres a link to something you hear about often.
The issues we’ve found is they are unable to create custom items, so if you want a light that is not listed in the database it can be problematic. Also they cannot handle changes in the add drop format, so making changes to your order and keeping your order accurate in the app can be difficult and time consuming.
Using these simple tips for your equipment order will reduce a lot of back and forth and most importantly reduce mistakes.