Rent or Buy?

Typically, a business may consider stanchion rentals for one off or infrequent events that require the setup of customer queues or to bar access to restricted areas. While renting can make sense for one off events if there is a likelihood of repeat use even infrequently the economics of purchasing may make more sense.

Digging deeper into why people rent stanchions over purchasing them we find some common trends.

Price

Logic would suggest that for infrequent use renting would be a lower cost alternative to purchasing and this was certainly true in the past. However, over the past decade the price of stanchions has almost halved with the wide spread introduction of economy models. During this time the cost of renting has remained stable so the cost advantage of renting over purchasing is no longer clear cut. Just one or two rental cycles will often equal the cost of purchasing.

The Hidden Costs of Renting

Lack of Storage Space

A key decider in the rental decision is lack of space to store stanchions between events. Queue Solutions stanchions can be quickly broken down and stored flat so they take up less storage space than you would expect. For a modest investment storage carts can be purchased which enable the stanchions to be stored in a very small space. Our Horizontal storage carts store stanchions horizontally in racks with one rack above the other. This design allows up to 21 stanchions be stored in less than 10sq ft of floor space.

Purchase is New, Rental is Second Hand

The queue is often the customer’s first contact with your facility and first impressions count. Old, tired rental stanchions will hardly give customers a good impression of your organization. And don’t think they won’t notice, queue stanchions are to guide people standing in line which means they spend idle time waiting between the stanchions. You can bet they will notice if your stanchions look less than professional.

Customization, A Missed Opportunity With Rentals

The queue is the busiest location in any facility and each stanchion has almost 2sq ft of belt, and that is prime advertising real estate. On a purchased stanchion you can have the belts custom printed with your logo or advertising message. With our digital print process any thing can be printed including photographs and scannable QR codes. Rental stanchions come in one style, black post with plain black belts and all those yards of printable belts are wasted!

Get The Right Product

All rental stanchions are pretty much the same, but will they really suit your needs? There is a multitude of stanchion models available for purchase all of which are designed for specific uses, indoor, outdoor, single belts, multiple belts, long belts, wide belts, iron base, rubber base the list goes on. By talking to one of our Authorized Distributors you can find a model that best suits your needs and will do a better job for you than the one ‘one size fits all’ rental product.

Summary

Rentals have their role and thousands of Queue Solutions stanchions are used by rental companies nationwide. As we have discussed for a single use rental often make sense but for the ‘once a year’ or occasional repeat use take a few minutes to examine the pros and cons of renting versus buying and you may well find that buying is a more economical way to go.

Some useful resources

Stanchions Wiki
OSHA Website