Huge potential for rental equipments for construction industry in India: Amit Nagpal

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Saurabh Gupta | 02 Feb, 2016
Construction equipment and rental market is at its nascent stage in India. There is huge potential for rental equipment for construction industry in India. Infact, only 7% of equipment are sold to rental companies which is quite low compared to global average of 50%. With the rise in infrastructure, this is bound to change, Director and Founder of Maquina, Amit Nagpal told SME Times in an interview.

He said that the market is dominated by small time players, there are very few organised players who have grown reasonably well. Unorganised and small players have limited reach due to limitation on the marketing expense and such platform will be of immense use to such ventures.

Excerpts of the interview...

Please tell our readers more about your group Maquina - themaquina.net.
Amit Nagpal: Maquina is first of its kind equipment management portal which provides online market place serving the construction industry for renting in and renting out as well as buying and selling of construction equipment.

In addition to its unique remote management systems, it offers all the customers value added services which include the equipment tracking, fuel management, pilferage control and MIS reporting. Using the innovative technique and easy to search features, the lessee can locate and hire the equipment they need with just a few clicks.

How it works?
Amit Nagpal: Lessor or seller who have equipment to rent or sell can register their machinery on Maquina. The innovative platform gives them wide pan India reach for the equipment registered and thus better deployment of their apparatus.

For the lessee needing equipment for their project, the user-friendly platform offers a wide range of readily available equipment. Complete features of the equipment and the logistics details are provided to take a technico commercial conscious call.

Whether you are equipment user or buyer, large fleet of verified and well maintained equipment are available with just a few clicks. Most of the equipment registered with Maquina are pre inspected and rated which means that lessee gets the reliable and genuine equipment at their site.

What all Services you offer on this platform?
Amit Nagpal: In addition to offering an online market place for renting in and renting out as well as buying and selling, we present a host of other value added services to our clients through our online tracking system.

With our remote management system in addition to location tracking, we offer fuel management and theft alert, working hour tracking as well as fleet health data, fleet utilization data, fleet availability and complete MIS.

Both lessee and lessor can log in to the system and complete MIS is available to them on working hours, utilization, billing and others.

We also offer Annual maintenance contract, Repair and overhaul services and Technical manpower services. The state-of-the-art platform provides O&M Solution through well trained seasoned operator with rich experience at various Indian and oversea sites of EPC and infrastructure companies.

What is the procedure for rent in and rent out?
Amit Nagpal: The procedure to rent in and rent out is very simple. Lessee logs in and searches for the equipment which suits their requirement on the basis of predefined parameters already laid in system to make the search precise, easy and quicker.

Equipment are taken in the cart, enquiry is sent through Maquina and deal is closed and signed involving Maquina.

How the idea came to your mind?
Amit Nagpal: Most of the time hiring of the equipment has been a struggle. With the burgeoning internet and mobile services, we felt that there is a need for a seamless platform to offer streamlined access to relevant information between equipment lessors, lessees, buyers and sellers.

Many times people hire equipment from far off places and later discover that the equipment was available in a nearby location at a much cheaper price with lower transportation cost.

There is huge potential for rental equipment for construction industry in India. Infact, only 7% of equipment are sold to rental companies which is quite low compared to global average of 50%. With the rise in infrastructure, this is bound to change.

Construction equipment and rental market is at its nascent stage in India. The market is dominated by small time players, there are very few organised players who have grown reasonably well. Unorganised and small players have limited reach due to limitation on the marketing expense and such platform will be of immense use to such ventures.

Due to lack of a streamlined system or approach, on one hand there are users searching and not being able to locate appropriate for equipment and on other hand there are owners willing to rent or lease their equipment but not able to locate users.

I was certain that with the availability of this efficient and innovative technique and quick and easy search feature is going to change the way the construction industry is going to buy or rent the machines.

When to initiate this idea what kind of challenges you have encountered?
Amit Nagpal: There has been great encouragement and boost from all sectors. People felt that there was great need for such portal in India. We have received huge appreciation and support our innovative and unique initiative. Challenges were mainly in designing the system. The final product is exactly the way we wanted it to be -- systematic, robust and user-friendly with all functionalities in place for the ease and convenience of the consumers.

What are your future plans?
Amit Nagpal: The platform was launched in Excon 2015. The present focus is on marketing to make Brand Maquina a household name in construction Industry. We have set up our proficient marketing team in North India and soon plan to expand and start offices in Mumbai and Hydrabad to cover western and south India.