Heavy machinery is hired two ways: bare, where the machine arrives and your people run it, or operated, where an hourly rate covers the machine and a driver. Bare hire is cheaper per day and puts the insurance, the training and the damage on you. Operated hire costs more per hour and moves most of that back to the yard.
What separates the two rates
A bare day rate covers the machine and nothing else. An operated rate is quoted by the hour, commonly $65 to $110 above the machine for the person in the seat, with a minimum number of hours and travel time on the clock. For two days of work with nobody qualified to run a dozer, operated is not the expensive option.
The certificate the yard asks for
Before a large machine leaves on a bare hire, most yards want a certificate of insurance naming them, with rented equipment cover at or above the machine's value. Getting that from a broker takes a day or two. Start it when you book, not on the morning of delivery, or the machine sits in the yard.
Access decides which machine can come at all
Expect questions about the gate width, the overhead lines, the ground the truck must cross and where a lowbed can turn around. A 20 ton excavator on a float is a long, heavy, slow vehicle, and yards refuse deliveries they cannot get out of again. Send photographs of the entrance if there is any doubt.
How many yards you can ask
There is no published list of rental companies in the United States, because hiring out machines is not a licensed activity here. The count is published: 5,830 rental establishments across 544 counties, of which 4,123 are machinery yards at the heavy end and 1,707 are general rental centers.
Questions people ask about heavy machinery rental
What counts as heavy machinery for a rental?
In yard terms, anything that needs a truck to arrive: excavators from about 5 tons, dozers, graders, wheel loaders, large telehandlers, rollers and big generator sets. Smaller machines that ride on a tag trailer are priced and delivered on a different and cheaper basis.
Is operated hire worth it for a short job?
Usually, if nobody on the crew is trained and authorised on the machine. An experienced operator does the work in fewer hours and gives the machine back undamaged, and the rate includes the yard carrying the risk of both of those.
How far ahead should I book?
A week for common classes, and two or three for graders, large excavators and anything with a specialist attachment. Fleets are sized to average demand, so the machine everybody wants in spring is the machine nobody has spare in spring.
Does the day rate include fuel?
The machine arrives full and is expected back full. If it comes back short, the yard refuels it and bills at its own rate, which is above the pump. On a long hire, ask whether a scheduled fuel service is cheaper than sending someone out with cans.