Introduction:
For over four decades, Asheville Hwy Rental has built its reputation on being the neighbor businesses in the Upstate turn to when a job needs the right equipment. As the only locally owned equipment and event rental store in the region, they compete against national chains by offering quality machines and direct, personal service. Their yard spans everything from compact excavators and skid steers to scissor lifts, trenchers, and event equipment — a diverse fleet that moves constantly across job sites throughout the region. That diversity is a strength for customers, but it creates a real operational challenge: knowing where every asset is, what condition it's in, and when it's due for service.
Challenge:
Asheville Hwy Rental faced the challenges familiar to any independent rental operation running a mixed fleet. Equipment location data lived separately from rental contract data in their Point of Rental (POR) software, forcing staff to reconcile two systems manually and creating gaps between what the system said and what was actually happening in the field. Maintenance scheduling relied on estimated usage rather than actual engine hours, which meant service intervals were guesswork — machines were either serviced too early, wasting money and shop time, or too late, shortening equipment life and risking failures on a customer's job site.
The fleet's variety compounded the problem: powered equipment, unpowered trailers, and vehicles each needed different tracking approaches, and a single-device solution couldn't cover all of them. Theft and unauthorized movement remained a persistent risk, and with trailers and equipment distributed across dozens of active job sites, the team had no immediate way to know when an asset moved without authorization.
Solution:
Asheville Hwy Rental partnered with Hapn to deploy a mixed-hardware tracking solution matched to each asset class in their fleet. Battery-powered trackers were installed on trailers and unpowered equipment where no power source was available. Hardwired trackers were fitted to vehicles and powered machines for continuous reporting. Full CANbus devices were deployed on compatible heavy equipment, pulling engine hours, diagnostic codes, and utilization data directly from the machine.
Every device reports into a single Hapn interface, giving the team one pane of glass across the entire fleet regardless of asset type or device model. Hapn was configured to create parity with their Point of Rental system, so asset location and status align with rental contract data instead of living in separate silos. Engine-hour data from CANbus devices now drives maintenance scheduling against actual utilization rather than estimates. Tamper and unauthorized-movement alerts notify the team immediately when a device is removed or an asset moves outside expected parameters.
Measuring Success
The impact was proven under real conditions. When a brand new trailer was stolen from Asheville Hwy Rental, the immediate tamper alert triggered when the tracker was removed gave the team the window they needed to act — and the trailer was recovered.
Beyond theft recovery, the results show up in daily operations. Maintenance is now driven by actual engine hours rather than estimates, extending equipment life and reducing unplanned downtime on customer job sites. Staff manage the entire mixed fleet from a single view instead of reconciling multiple systems, simplifying daily operations and freeing time for customer service. Parity between Hapn and Point of Rental has closed the gap between contract data and field reality, improving billing accuracy and asset accountability.
