ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Anna Garbagna from Italy on how equipment rental is become more popular with cleaning companies.

Renting professional cleaning equipment is increasingly becoming the option of choice for many. This is because it can offer several advantages both for those offering the equipment for rent and for
the cleaning companies and/or individual professionals who decide to make use of this opportunity.

Among the benefits offered, there is certainly a reduction in initial costs, access to more cutting-edge technology on the market, as well as reduced maintenance and service costs following the purchase of the various pieces of equipment.

Rental service trends in the industrial cleaning market were indeed discussed during the update meeting ‘Rental in the professional cleaning market: an added value’ organised by AFIDAMP in collaboration with Rental Network and presented by the organisation’s Pier Angelo Cantù.

In a sector estimated to be worth €168 million in Italy, it is important to understand how this avenue can generate important economic growth and allow the opportunity to offer continuous modernisation of equipment.

On the manufacturers’ side, the inclusion of the rental service represents a real added value that can go a long way toward growing their clientele as well as expanding their range of services. On the other hand, from the point of view of those who use equipment rental in professional cleaning, it is an advantageous solution for those who are looking for flexibility, technological upgrades and cost reduction.

However we should not speak of savings alone, as the rental formula also allows companies to give their clients a series of timely and up-to-date solutions to the various needs they face. However, it becomes almost ‘obligatory’ for the company renting equipment to the industry operators to have and offer increasingly technologically advanced, cutting-edge and fully functional machines,
so that the relationship of trust can grow and expand between the two parties by meeting and, in some cases, anticipating market demands.

Among the most popular rental equipment in the industrial cleaning sector in terms of yield and efficiency there are high-pressure washers, industrial sweepers and vacuum cleaners, cryogenic cleaning systems (such as sandblasters), tank cleaning equipment, drones and inspection and cleaning robots.

Other sectors

On the other hand, the ranking of the sectors that make the most use of industrial cleaning equipment rental sees, among others, the presence of the manufacturing and metallurgical sector (which - working with metals and heavy machinery - requires frequent cleaning to remove dust, metal residues and chemicals); the food and beverage industry (which requires steam sanitisers to clean equipment and surfaces to food safety standards) and water and waste treatment (which requires specific cleaning equipment, such as high-pressure pumps and industrial vacuum cleaners, to safely handle residues and waste materials).

Given the still limited use of this new service in Italy, suppliers and customers can certainly help develop this new industry, which has immediately proved to be of great use and seems destined for success.