Hiring vs Buying – What’s the Right Solution for Your Air Compressor Needs?

Hiring or buying: it’s a classic debate that business buyers have to face in all sorts of industries, from construction to manufacturing and everywhere in between.

Is it better to spend the company’s money on a permanent purchase that your organisation keeps for a while, or a temporary solution that is fully maintained by someone else?

As is the case with many decisions in the world of business, the answer is: it depends.

Let’s take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of both hiring and purchasing solutions to meet your compressed air needs.

Hiring from Compressed Air Specialists

One of the biggest benefits of hiring a complete compressed air solution instead of buying one is that there are less logistics to deal with.

Of course, there will still be certain responsibilities that your company will have, but much of the burden of maintaining your compressors shifts to your air compressor provider when you decide to hire instead of purchase.

Another big advantage of hiring is that there’s much less capital expenditure involved. When you hire, you only pay for the cost of using the air compressor for a specific period of time, whereas when you buy you are paying for the full value of the equipment. On large-scale projects, the combined cost of all the necessary equipment can create a drastically different price point between hiring and buying.

A third key benefit of hiring in comparison to buying is the pace of deployment. It is much quicker to call upon a compressed air specialist to implement a hiring solution instead of trying to take the time to research which compressor is best for your company needs, come up with the full amount of capital, and handle all the logistics of setting up and maintaining the compressor that you need for your business.

Buying a Compressed Air Solution

Purchasing an air compressor is a permanent solution. A purchase is best for companies that know they are going to be using the same type of air compressors over and over again, because the cost of purchasing is usually lower over the long run than it is compared to hiring.

Also, purchasing generally allows a company to get a more customised solution. This is because purchasing is a longer process that requires more input and direction from the customer. If time is not of the essence, you have a long-term requirement for a compressor, and you need a solution that is personalised, purchasing may be the right choice.

An Example of the Hiring vs. Purchasing Air Compressor Choice

Air Powered recently worked with one of Australia’s largest packaging companies that had a critical air compressor break down, causing a serious downtime to their business.

The challenge that this particular company faced was being able to come to a decision quickly. An organisation of this size would have taken quite a bit of time choosing whether they wanted to attempt to repair the broken compressor or purchase a new one.

Realising that each extra day taken to reach a decision would continue to negatively affect productivity, the company’s procurement officials decided to turn to Air Powered for assistance. We were able to provide this customer with a 30kW rotary screw air compressor that helped them maintain sufficient levels of production while waiting for senior management to make a decision.

Our compressor solution ended up playing an integral role in the powering of their entire manufacturing plant, giving company management sufficient time to plan their long-term strategy. Even though this particular organisation may end up purchasing a new compressor or repairing the damaged one, the compressor hire played a critical role in fulfilling their immediate need for an air compressor.

 The Final Word on Hiring vs. Purchasing

Although it is certainly difficult to say for sure whether hiring or purchasing is the right solution for your company’s air compressor needs, you should now have a better understanding of which decision is more appropriate in which scenario.

Use a hire when you have an immediate need that must be filled without complicated logistics; choose a purchase when you have a long term requirement that needs to be tailored to your particular operation.

Whichever choice is best for you, Air Powered will be glad to help you pick the equipment you need and make sure that it gets setup smoothly and in a way that is conducive to the successful operation of your business.