Keep your trailers on the move

Essentially, trailer rental companies have a fleet of trailers and additional products, for example, moving boxes and beak trolleys, they rent out to their customers for different durations. Every company has its own rental process, pricing model, and way to make the service available.

Typically trailer rental businesses work through a click-and-collect model, where a customer makes a booking online and picks up a trailer when the booking starts. After the booking, the customer returns the trailer after which it's checked and prepared for the next customer.

Starting a trailer rental business requires some up-front planning, preparation, and setting up processes. First, you need to make a business plan which includes a description of your business, market and competitor analysis, financial plan, and marketing plan.

The processes around trailer rentals are relatively simple. You need to have solutions for inventory tracking, order management, scheduling repairs, and accepting payments. However, these are all something that good rental management software can handle.

It is worth noting that a large fleet of trailers requires a lot of space. Before getting started, you should ensure that you have sufficient space to store your assets.

In general, a trailer rental service can be very profitable and enjoy high profit margins, making it a great extra service, for example, for a hardware store or an easy side-hustle for anyone owning a trailer.

Still, just like with any company, profitability comes down to the business's income and expenditure structure. The better utilization rate your trailers have, the more profitable the business.

Trailers are relatively easy to maintain, so even one person can manage a fairly large trailer fleet. Thus, the most significant costs typically consist of the purchase of the trailers, the rent of the land where the trailers are stored, and insurance.

To better understand your financial estimates, we recommend looking at our guide to financial planning and budgeting →

It is strongly recommended that you start using trailer rental software from the early days of your business. Trailer rental software allows you to manage your whole business in one place instead of several apps and spreadsheets. This gives you a better overview of your business and helps you streamline your rental operation.