The $96,000 Forklift Rental Mistake (and How to Check Your Fleet in One Hour)

Written by the FleetShield team · November 7, 2026 · 4 min read

Two forklift rentals. $2,000 a month each. 24 months. That's $96,000 in rent, paid long after the truck they were covering for got fixed.

If you run a fleet, something like this could be sitting in your accounts payable right now. Here's how it happens, what it costs, and how to check in one hour.

How did two rentals stay on site for two years?

A truck went down. The company rented two electric Toyota sit-downs to keep the floor moving. Smart move.

The truck got fixed and went back to work. The rentals didn't go back.

Why? The purchase order had no end date. So every month an invoice showed up, every month somebody paid it, and nobody asked the only question that mattered: do we still need these?

Two years later, somebody finally asked. Both units went back to the rental company.

How much does a forgotten forklift rental cost?

Do the math with me. $2,000 a month per truck, times two trucks, is $4,000 a month. Twelve months of that is $48,000. Two years is $96,000.

A new Toyota electric sit-down costs about $50,000. So they spent almost exactly what two brand-new forklifts cost, and they own zero of them.

Here's the part that should bother you. At $2,000 a month, one rental costs as much as a new $50,000 truck in about 25 months. Your rental may include maintenance, so compare the full terms. But if a rental has been on site for two years, you should at least be asking whether you should have bought.

Why do forklift rentals get forgotten?

Nobody on that team was lazy. The process was set up to forget. Four things stacked up:

1. No end date on the PO. If a rental doesn't have a return date, nothing ever forces the question.
2. It looks like every other invoice. $2,000 from a dealer you already pay every month doesn't stand out. It hides right next to your PMs and parts orders.
3. The person who rented it isn't the person paying for it. The supervisor who needed a truck that morning has moved on to the next fire. Finance pays what's approved.
4. The repair feels like the finish line. Truck's back, problem solved. Except the rental is still billing.

This isn't a one-off. We've seen it at other companies. If you've run a fleet long enough, you've probably seen it too.

How do you find forgotten rentals in your fleet?

You don't need software for this. You need one hour and your AP data.

1. Pull every rental invoice from the last 12 months. Sort by unit and start date. Anything older than 90 days needs a reason, written down.
2. Match every rental to the truck it's covering. If that truck is back in service, the rental goes back. Today.
3. Put an end date on every open rental PO. Can't commit to one? Add a review date. "Until further notice" is how you get a $96,000 bill.
4. Give every rental one owner. One name. That person's job is to send it back.
5. Review your active rentals every month. Five minutes, one list: what's here, since when, and why.

Do it once and you'll know where you stand. Do it every month and this won't sneak up on you.

How FleetShield tracks rentals

If you'd rather not do that by hand every month, that's what we built FleetShield for.

FleetShield reads the service and rental invoices you already pay. It spots the rentals and puts every active one on a single list: how long it's been on site and what it's cost you so far. A rental like the two in this story shows up every month, instead of two years later.

No sensors, no hardware. Just the invoices you already have.

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