Utilisation rate is the heartbeat of any equipment rental business. It tells you whether your fleet is earning its keep or gathering dust in the warehouse. Yet most rental companies track it poorly, if at all. They know intuitively which items are popular, but intuition doesn't scale.
When you have 500 assets across 30 categories, you need hard numbers. Here's how to measure utilisation properly and, more importantly, how to improve it.
What utilisation rate actually means
At its simplest, utilisation rate is the percentage of time an asset is generating revenue compared to the time it's available to do so. The formula:
Utilisation Rate = (Days on Hire / Available Days) x 100
Available days is the important qualifier. If a moving head is in for repair for two weeks, those days shouldn't count against it. You're measuring commercial effectiveness, not mechanical reliability (though reliability is a separate metric worth tracking).
Most rental companies should calculate utilisation across three dimensions:
- Fleet-wide utilisation - the overall health check. What percentage of your total fleet is out earning at any given time?
- Category utilisation - how does audio compare to lighting? Are your cameras working harder than your rigging?
- Individual asset utilisation - which specific serial numbers are workhorses and which are underperforming?
Benchmarks: what good looks like
There's no universal target, because it depends on your market, your equipment mix, and your business model. But here are some general benchmarks for AV and event equipment rental:
- Below 40% - you're carrying too much stock, or your sales pipeline needs attention
- 40-55% - acceptable for companies with seasonal demand patterns
- 55-70% - healthy range for most rental operations
- 70-80% - strong, but watch for over-reliance on sub-hire to cover peaks
- Above 80% - you're likely turning away work. Time to invest in more stock
These numbers assume a mixed fleet. Specialist items that only go out for specific types of jobs will naturally have lower utilisation. Commodity items like cables and stands should be much higher.
Why your utilisation numbers might be misleading
The most common mistake is measuring utilisation against calendar days rather than available days. If you close over Christmas and your equipment sits in the warehouse for two weeks, that shouldn't drag down your numbers. You weren't trying to rent it.
Another pitfall: counting prep and return days as utilisation. If equipment goes out on Monday and comes back Friday, but the client only needed it Wednesday to Thursday, you might be counting five days of utilisation when only two generated revenue. Be honest about what counts.
Finally, watch out for averaging. A category showing 60% utilisation might contain items at 90% and items at 30%. The average looks fine. The reality is that half your stock is underperforming. Always look at the distribution, not just the mean.
Seven strategies to improve utilisation
1. Identify and address your bottom 20%
Pull a report of your lowest-utilisation assets. For each one, ask: is this a demand problem or a visibility problem? Some equipment sits idle because nobody asks for it. Some sits idle because your sales team doesn't know you have it, or because it's not listed on your website.
For genuinely low-demand items, consider selling them and sub-hiring when needed. The capital freed up can be reinvested in items that actually earn.
2. Implement dynamic pricing
If certain items are constantly at 90% utilisation, your prices are probably too low. If others sit at 30%, they might be too high. Dynamic pricing doesn't mean changing rates daily - it means reviewing and adjusting quarterly based on demand data.
Consider offering discounted rates for midweek or off-peak bookings on underutilised equipment. A 20% discount that turns an idle asset into a booked one is pure profit you wouldn't otherwise have.
3. Reduce turnaround time
Every day equipment sits in your warehouse between jobs is a day it's not earning. Map your return-to-dispatch process. How long does testing take? How long before items are re-racked and available? Where are the bottlenecks?
Common quick wins: dedicated return processing area, standardised testing checklists, parallel workflows instead of sequential ones. If testing takes a full day because one person works through items one at a time, adding a second person or batching by type can halve the turnaround.
4. Build cross-hire partnerships
Equipment that's idle in your warehouse might be in demand at another rental company in your area. Cross-hire relationships turn competitors into partners. You sub-hire to them when their stock runs short; they do the same for you.
This works best with companies that serve slightly different markets. An AV company focused on corporate events and one focused on festivals have complementary demand patterns. Peak season for one is quiet season for the other.
5. Bundle underutilised items
Some equipment doesn't get hired on its own but adds value as part of a package. If your haze machines sit at 25% utilisation, try bundling them into lighting packages at a small incremental cost. The client gets added value. You get utilisation.
Review your quotes to see which items clients frequently add. Build packages around those combinations and promote them as standard offerings.
6. Improve your online presence
How easy is it for a potential client to see what you have available? If your equipment list is a PDF from 2023, you're losing bookings. Modern clients expect online catalogues with real-time availability, photos, and specifications.
Every item in your fleet should be visible, searchable, and bookable. The barrier between "I need a 5K laser projector" and "I've requested a quote from this company" should be as small as possible.
7. Track and act on seasonal patterns
Most rental companies have predictable demand cycles. Conference season, festival season, Christmas events. If you know Q1 is slow for lighting but strong for audio, you can plan accordingly - running promotions on lighting, scheduling maintenance during the lull, or offering package deals to smooth out demand.
Historical utilisation data, broken down monthly, gives you the pattern. Use it for purchasing decisions, maintenance scheduling, and targeted sales activity.
Making utilisation part of your weekly rhythm
Utilisation isn't a metric you check once a quarter. It should be visible daily and reviewed weekly. Make it part of your management rhythm:
- Daily - glance at the dashboard. What's out? What's available? Any surprises?
- Weekly - review utilisation by category. Flag anything significantly above or below target.
- Monthly - deep dive into individual assets. Identify trends. Make buy/sell decisions.
- Quarterly - review pricing against utilisation data. Adjust rates where the data supports it.
The companies that consistently achieve high utilisation aren't lucky. They're disciplined about measurement, honest about underperformance, and quick to act on what the data tells them. The equipment doesn't manage itself - but with the right metrics, you can manage it with confidence.