If you run a plant hire business, you've probably been pitched fleet management software. GPS dots on a map, fuel reports, service reminders. It's useful. But it wasn't built to run a hire business.

The short answer

Fleet management software tracks where your vehicles are and how they're running.

Plant hire software runs the business around your machines: allocations, wet and dry hire, prestarts, dockets, maintenance, utilisation and invoicing.

Fleet software tells you where a machine is. Plant hire software tells you whether it's making you money.

What fleet management software does well

Generic fleet tools are built for transport fleets: trucks, utes, delivery vans, sales cars. They're good at:

• Live GPS location

• Fuel use and driver behaviour

• Service reminders based on kilometres

• Rego and vehicle records

If your main job is moving vehicles from A to B, that covers a lot.

Where it falls short for plant hire

A hire business has different problems. Here's where generic fleet software starts to struggle.

Hours, not kilometres. An excavator sitting on a civil job doesn't clock up kilometres. Engine hours drive your servicing and often your charges. Fleet tools built around odometers miss this.

Wet hire vs dry hire. Dry hire is just the machine. Wet hire adds an operator, which means timesheets, allocations and labour costs. Fleet software usually has no idea who's in the seat or how they get paid.

Dockets and billing. The money in hire comes from turning hours on site into an invoice. If dockets live in one system and invoicing in another, hours go missing and invoices go out late.

Prestarts that actually stop a machine. A failed prestart shouldn't just sit in a report or someone's inbox. If a critical item fails, the machine needs to come off the allocation board automatically.

Utilisation in dollars. Knowing a machine moved isn't the same as knowing it was on hire. You need to see what's on hire, what's available and what's down for repairs, so you know what's earning and what's costing you.

Allocations. Who has which machine, on which job, until when. Fleet tools show location. They don't manage bookings.

Side by side

Plant hire software checklist

If you're comparing options, look for:

1. Allocation and dispatch boards showing every machine and where it's booked

2. Wet and dry hire handled in one place, including operator timesheets

3. Digital prestarts that flag a machine unavailable on a critical fail

4. Maintenance scheduling with full service history

5. Utilisation reporting that shows what's on hire and what isn't

6. Dockets that flow straight into invoicing

7. Integrations with your accounting software and existing telematics

8. A mobile app that works offline, because plenty of sites have no signal

Do you need both?

No, but you shouldn't rip out your existing trackers either.

Many hire businesses already have telematics on their gear, like CAT VisionLink or Komatsu Komtrax, or GPS through providers like Geotab or Teletrac Navman. That hardware stays. What you don't need is a second dashboard for your plant.

Good plant hire software pulls that data in directly, so hours and locations feed your maintenance, utilisation and billing without anyone retyping them.

Where Cloudcon fits

Cloudcon's software, Prestartr, is built for civil contractors and hire businesses. Not transport fleets. Not office-based project teams. It ticks every box on the checklist above.

A few things worth calling out:

Lockout that actually locks out. You set what counts as a critical fail. When one is logged, the machine is flagged unavailable on the allocation board and the photo defect goes straight to the workshop queue.

Works with the gear you already have. Prestartr integrates with CAT VisionLink, Komatsu Komtrax, Volvo CareTrack, John Deere JDLink, Hitachi Global-e, Trimble and Topcon, plus GPS providers including Geotab, Teletrac Navman, FleetComplete and Verizon Connect.

Your data stays in Australia. Cloudcon is ISO 27001 certified, and customer data is hosted on AWS Sydney.

Whether you're running hire off whiteboards and spreadsheets, juggling a fleet tool alongside three other apps, or you've outgrown your current system, Prestartr is set up around how your business already works.

Built for the dirt, not desks.

FAQ

What is plant hire software? Plant hire software manages the day-to-day running of a plant or equipment hire business: bookings and allocations, wet and dry hire, prestarts, maintenance, dockets, utilisation and invoicing.

Is fleet management software the same as plant hire software? No. Fleet management software focuses on vehicle location, kilometres and fuel. Plant hire software covers the hire side of the business, including operators, engine hours, dockets and billing.

Can plant hire software work with my existing telematics? Good plant hire software should. Prestartr integrates with major OEM telematics and GPS providers, so the data you already collect feeds into your maintenance and utilisation reporting.

Does plant hire software handle wet hire? It should. Wet hire needs operator timesheets, allocations and labour costs tracked alongside the machine. Prestartr handles wet and dry hire in one place.