Simplex Rentals Video Case Study – Toyota Forklift

Toyota Forklifts & Simplex Rentals

Announcer: For many companies, the cost to keep all of the equipment that they need to handle their busiest times of the year, just isn’t cost effective. That’s why many distributors, warehouses and retail applications rely on rental houses, like Simplex, to provide them with the additional forklifts they require to face periods where they experience heavier than normal volumes, such as during holiday shipping.

Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Simplex is one of Canada’s oldest and largest industrial rental companies, serving customers for 108 years. The company’s 40 locations throughout Quebec and eastern Ontario provide a wide range of products for rent. It’s inventory includes 50,000 small tools, from basic hand tools to cutting tools. Simplex also has 4,000 pieces of heavy equipment to rent, including aerial lifts that can reach skyward to 135 feet. It’s forklift rental fleet has 700 units to help distributors and manufacturers meet times when they need additional equipment.

In 2015, Simplex added Toyota forklifts to their rental fleet. They made the move to Toyota in part because they were experiencing lingering problems with the vehicles from another fork truck brand.

Charles Desroches: Basically, cost of maintenance on our current equipment was very high, although the equipment was fairly recent, it still cost us a lot of money to maintain and the servicing, you know the parts and the service that came with equipment was also in question. We had the opportunity to talk with one of the Toyota forklift dealership here in Quebec, and we evaluated the equipment and compared equipment with competing products. The specs and the reliability, the reputation of Toyota, played a big role in the making that decision at the end of the exercise, and we decided to give it a try because our level of confidence with the product was very high and we needed to try something different.

Announcer: Simplex began working with Toyota by placing 30 Toyota Core IC Pneumatic tire forklifts in their rental fleet. All of these are 5,000 pound capacity, counterbalance models, powered with propane and resting on solid pneumatic tires. The reaction from customers who have rented these vehicles has been very positive.

Charles Desroches: Customers actually like it. A lot of the customers are calling in and if they had experience with the Toyota forklift on the previous rent, they will actually specifically ask for another Toyota forklift, if available, which is a very good indication of how receptive the market is to the forklifts.

Announcer: Simplex has their own technicians who inspect the forklifts once they come back from being rented and to perform basic maintenance. These trucks are at one of Simplex’s Montreal locations, where 13 units of the Toyota forklift fleet are part of this location’s inventory. Technicians check fluid levels and perform regularly prescribed planned maintenance. And because of Toyota’s dependability, that’s really all that is needed.

Charles Desroches: Pure, basic maintenance, you know, just the standard maintenance procedure as spelled out in the manufacturer documentation. Although it’s only been one year, in one year we haven’t had a single warranty claim to make to our dealership, so the forklifts have been very reliable. It made a hug difference. They go out on rent, they come back, we inspect, we send them out to rent. That’s basically what we have to do with it.

Announcer: In addition to assisting with busy times, customers also rent these trucks to replace their own equipment that is down for repair and also for special projects. For example, most of these Toyota trucks recently came back from being used to help set up and tear down, the Montreal Auto Show.

Overall, Simplex provides forklifts in a wide range of capacities, from 5,000 to 36,000 pounds. Because of customer satisfaction and the dependability of these Toyota vehicles, Simplex is planning to look again to Toyota, to expand both the number and types of forklifts it adds to the fleet.

Charles Desroches: Definitely, without hesitation, we would do that. Every year Simplex is renewing its fleet and we are investing a fairly important amount of money in the equity renewal, so ultimately we will be looking at different range of capacity to fill in the needs of our fleet.

Announcer: Dependability, ease of maintenance, customer satisfaction, Toyota, simply the choice for Simplex.