Should You Hire or Buy Your Scissor Lift?
A scissor lift is a piece of equipment that allows you to work at heights. You will soon need to decide whether you want to hire the lift or buy one to keep on hand for your business. Both approaches have their advantages.
Buying
Buying a scissor lift has obvious benefits. The lift will always be available as soon as you need it, even at short notice or outside of business hours. You will also be able to choose exactly the make and model you want, without having to rely on what is available from the rental company. Buying a scissor lift gives you control over the make and model you are using.
It is also possible to buy used scissor lifts, which make a good compromise between price and quality. You can then sell the equipment when you no longer need it, offsetting some of the costs involved in buying it. Owning a scissor lift can therefore be a realistic and affordable option for your business.
Hiring
There are, however, good reasons for hiring a scissor lift. The biggest one is the price. Even if you go down the second-hand route, scissor lifts are expensive pieces of kit. If you will not be using it that often, buying a lift could be an unreasonable expense.
You should also remember that there are other costs associated with buying a lift that you can avoid by hiring. If you own the machine you will have to pay to keep it properly maintained, for example. You will also have to find somewhere to store the machine while it is not in use, which can be a problem in itself and will take up space that could otherwise be put to better use.
Another point to remember is that once you have bought a scissor lift, you are stuck with it. When you hire a lift, you can choose a model that is most suited to the particular job you are doing. You can also take advantage of improvements in design and technology that make newer models superior to older ones.
On balance, unless you will using the equipment intensively and can make do with a single model for all your tasks, hiring a scissor lift will be a more affordable and flexible way to obtain your lift. Just talk to a rental company to find out more about how hiring a scissor lift can help your business.
