Rental software · Cranes

Crane hire software

Crane hire software manages a fleet where every job is one of two legally different things: a CPA crane hire, where the client supervises the lift, or a contract lift, where you supply the appointed person, the lift plan and carry the liability. The two carry different prices, different insurance and different paperwork, and the system has to keep them apart on every quote, contract and invoice. Underneath sit LOLER thorough examinations and operator records per crane.

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Last updated 10 Jun 2026

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See it in action

9 minutes. The whole hire flow.

The same platform walkthrough we give crane hire firms on a demo — booking to invoice, in English:

Contractors see live availability and book themselves — no phone tag
Contract generated and e-signed before the machine moves
Condition reports with time-stamped photos at handover and return
Invoices raised from the hire and synced to your accounting platform
One live fleet overview across every depot

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The problem

What makes crane hire hard to run?

The reasons generic rental tools — and Excel — give up on crane hire. If you searched for crane plant rental software, this is the part that matters.

Quoted as a hire, delivered as a contract lift

The client asked for "a crane with a driver", your team planned the lift, supervised the lift and ran the site — and the paperwork says CPA hire. You just carried contract-lift liability at crane-hire money, and the insurer knows the difference even if the invoice doesn't.

The job pack is four folders and an inbox

Lift plan, LOLER report, operator and appointed-person records, method statement — every job needs the pack assembled, and every site wants it before the crane arrives. Rebuilding it per job from scattered folders is a morning per mobilisation.

Mobilisation costs leak off the invoice

The low loader, the escort vehicle, the road permit, the mats, the second lift to position counterweights — real costs on every job that have a habit of missing the final invoice when they live in someone's notebook.

Two calendars: the crane's and the appointed person's

A contract lift without an available appointed person isn't a booking, it's a promise you can't keep. Crane availability and people availability have to be allocated together, and a whiteboard does neither well.

Exam dates on machines that cost four figures a day to park

A crane out of LOLER date isn't just non-compliant — it's your most expensive asset earning nothing while the examination gets arranged. The date belongs where bookings are made, not in a compliance file.

We get the hesitation

Your contracts manager knows which jobs are contract lifts. The invoice doesn't always agree.

What’s true

We know — the people running the jobs understand the distinction perfectly. Nobody in your office confuses a hire with a contract lift.

Where it stops

But the distinction has to survive the journey from enquiry to quote to contract to invoice — and every manual re-entry is a chance for the job to quietly change category. Pricing and paperwork that follow the job type automatically is how it stays the same job at both ends.

Compliance

The paperwork crane hire actually carries

LOLER 1998BS 7121CPA crane conditions Thorough examination

BS 7121 is the backbone of safe lifting: every lift planned, an appointed person in charge of the lifting operation, and the split between crane hire and contract lift made explicit — under CPA crane-hire conditions the hirer supervises; under a contract lift, you do, and your insurance prices that. LOLER adds the examination clock: 12 months for goods lifting, 6 where persons are lifted, plus examination after substantial alteration or repair.

Operationally that means three things have to be attached to every job before the crane moves: the right contract for the job type, a current thorough-examination report, and the lift documentation the site will demand at the gate. A system that assembles that pack from records it already holds turns mobilisation morning from a scramble into a checklist.

How it works

How MovoGo handles crane hire

The same flow your hire desk runs today — minus the paper, the phone tag and the things that never make it onto the invoice.

1
Quote as hire or contract lift — explicitly
The job type is chosen at the quote and everything downstream follows it: rates, terms, insurance wording, required documents. A contract lift can't accidentally go out on hire paperwork.
2
Crane and people booked together
The crane, the operator and — for contract lifts — the appointed person are allocated as one booking. If any leg is missing for those dates, you know before you confirm.
3
The job pack assembles itself
LOLER report, operator records, lift plan and method statement attach to the hire from records already in the system. The site gets one pack; your office gets its morning back.
4
Mobilisation costs as billable lines
Transport, escorts, permits, mats and rigging time go on the job as priced lines when they're arranged — so the final invoice bills the job that actually happened.
5
Invoice matches the job type
Hire jobs bill machine time; contract lifts bill the lift service with its costs. Both sync to your accounting platform via API, with the margin per job finally visible.

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Frequently asked questions

Crane hire software, answered

The questions crane hire firms actually ask before they look at a system.

In a CPA crane hire, you supply the crane and operator; the client plans and supervises the lift and carries most of the risk. In a contract lift, you plan the lift, supply the appointed person and supervision, and carry the liability — priced accordingly. Confusing the two on paperwork is the most expensive admin mistake in the crane business.

Under LOLER 1998: at least every 12 months for cranes lifting goods only, every 6 months where the crane lifts persons, and after substantial alteration or repair. The report has to be current and producible — sites routinely ask for it before the crane crosses the gate.

Yes — documents attach to the hire itself, alongside the LOLER report and contract. The job pack the site asks for is assembled once, lives in one place and goes out with the confirmation instead of chasing the crane to site.

Transport, escorts, permits and rigging time are added to the job as priced lines as they're arranged. The pattern worth breaking: mobilisation costs get spent in week one and forgotten by the invoice in week three.

Four cranes at four-figure day rates is more revenue per asset than any other vertical on this site — and the highest cost per administrative mistake. The question isn't fleet size; it's how expensive it is when a contract lift goes out on hire paperwork. Most four-crane firms know that number from experience.

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