When and why to replace rental bindings is a question that concerns most rental operators. Some shops operate on a set replacement schedule, either phasing in new inventory of the same make or model or making an entire inventory upgrade at pre-determined times. But almost every other operator wonders when to replace bindings in inventory.
As with other rental shop decisions, there are few hard and fast rules that will work every time for every shop. There are, however, certain considerations that figure into every shop’s decision making.
First off, has the equipment paid for itself? Except in rare cases equipment that has been in use for a period of years has always earned more money for the shop than it cost. If you are in doubt, sit down with your accountant and figure it out. Above all, don’t be sentimental about bindings. If you feel that there is a valid case for replacement and you know that the equipment has earned its keep, move on to other considerations.
Second is appearance. There are two factors to consider here. One is strictly cosmetic. At a time when increasing customer demand for rental gear without the “rental look” is spawning high performance shops and franchise operations that specialize in offering equipment with a retail heritage, a beat up rental inventory can be hurting your bottom line.
A second cosmetic consideration is the type of equipment offered. Shops still using plate designs popular in the 70’s are almost always losing business in a competitive market. If you are in this situation it may be time to look around. Find out what other shops are using to take away your business. One qualification: There are current rental products which have a distinctive look and they also have distinct efficiency advantages that can make them a profitable choice. Inventory size and the market segment served have to be considered.
Efficiency is the third consideration. Most new toe-heel systems can offer adjustment and fitting procedures that reduce rental times to a level that was previously associated only with the once-popular plate designs. Depending on what you have in inventory now, new bindings can be expected to, in the worst case, keep your labor costs about constant. In the best situation, new product types and fitting procedures can reduce the time that customers spend in the shop and your labor costs dramatically.
If you think this might be the case with your operation, work with a manufacturer’s products and procedures in your shop. Don’t take someone’s word, work out cycle times and labor costs yourself. Minutes and seconds saved on each operation can add up to hours of labor costs that you don’t have to pay.
The last consideration is performance. Bindings are machines and like any other machine they wear-in over a period of time…and then they wear-out. Some worn-out bindings won’t hold a skier adequately. Most will hold a skier too well. Here again there are two approaches.
Some shops set a time limit for equipment. After that limit is exceeded, the equipment is retired. No doubt a lot of worn out equipment is removed from inventory, but serviceable bindings may well be thrown out with the bad. In any event, service time is always an arbitrary period, not based on performance but on hunches.
The second option is mechanical testing of inventory, and subsequent evaluation. As a result of work done on the proposed ASTM rental shop practices standards, most binding companies can now supply rental operators with specific performance criteria for their products. At a given setting with a given boot sole length, operators can determine how a binding should perform. There is little room for doubt. A bindng either performs within specifications or it does not. This is probably one of the most important advantages that rental operators can realize from the standards work that has been done.
Again, there is no room for sentimentality. If a binding does not perform up to specs, if it is worn out, that is probably because it has worked hard and earned money. And deserves to be retired.
The basic questions that a rental operator needs to ask when considering a purchase of new bindings are: “Will new bindings get more customers in my door?” “Will new bindings allow me to get more customers out the door faster?” And, “Do I need new bindings because the ones that I have now are worn out?”
