5 Ways Fleets Can Use Commercial Truck Rentals
Flexibility and agility can give businesses a competitive advantage, and rental trucks are a cost-effective solution to tap into additional capacity and equipment without making a long-term financial commitment. Being able to add the right resources as needed can help businesses evaluate new opportunities without a significant, upfront investment.
Here Are 5 Ways To Use Rentals:
Managing Short-Term Surges: Seasonal peaks, promotional events and other temporary increases in demand can create the need for additional capacity. Rental trucks allow businesses to respond quickly to short-term surges without purchasing additional equipment and then scale back down when the market slows.
Trialing New Opportunities: Expanding into new territories, testing alternative lanes or serving new customers can all benefit from an incremental approach. Rental trucks provide an affordable way for fleets to evaluate new business initiatives without committing to long-term leases or ownership. They also allow fleets to refine their approach and confirm demand before scaling up.
Testing Equipment Sizes: Changing needs and operations can alter the types of equipment fleets need. Moving to Class 8 trucks from smaller sizes may allow fleets to consolidate loads and increase efficiency while adding smaller classes can allow fleets to hire non-CDL drivers. Smaller classes may also be beneficial for operations that provide smaller, more frequent deliveries. Rentals allow fleet managers to try different sizes, body types, trailer lengths or other configurations without committing to a purchase.
Evaluating Efficiency: Technology on commercial vehicles is advancing at a rapid pace. Renting different equipment can help fleets compare operational costs and performance against their other equipment, including owned vehicles. Rentals may reveal new areas for cost savings or show which configurations work best for specific routes. They also give fleets a chance to test newer technology, such as driver-assist features, giving fleets insights into potential productivity gains and operational improvements.
Exploring Alternative-Fueled Vehicles: Transitioning to electric or alternative-fueled vehicles is a major decision, and rental trucks offer a low-risk way to experiment with different technologies. Fleets can test how these vehicles integrate into their routes, calculate cost-per-mile savings and gain experience with the infrastructure required to support them. Fleets can use rentals to assess how ready they are for a larger-scale rollout.
Work With Us
Penske offers more than 100,000 well-maintained, late-model commercial vehicle rentals across 2,500 commercial rental facilities. Rentals can be as short as one day or span several months depending on the business’s needs. To learn more, contact a Penske representative at 1-844-906-3404.
Posing for a ribbon-cutting photo, from left are Penske associates: Patty Gonzalez, district financial manager; Andy Zellmann, district manager; Art Narmi, area vice president; Luis Juarez, district rental manager and Joe Gochenour, district service manager. 
