Rental stock that comes back damaged and nobody knows whose fault

Rental stock has states, not just counts

Ordinary retail stock is present or sold. Rental stock is available, reserved, out, returned, under repair or written off, and a count that does not distinguish those is close to useless for deciding whether you can accept a booking.

Double-booking is the visible symptom. The underlying cause is nearly always a stock record that knows how many you own and not how many are free on a given date.

Record condition at both ends

A photograph at despatch and another at return, attached to the job, settles damage conversations in seconds. Without them the exchange is a negotiation in which the customer is present and the evidence is not.

This takes about a minute per consignment and is the highest-return minute in the whole operation.

Know what an item has earned

Rental items have a working life measured in hires. An item tracked individually accumulates a hire count and a repair history, which together answer whether it should be repaired again or replaced.

Without that history the decision is made on appearance, and appearance is a poor guide to how much more an item will cost you.