When it comes to options for acquiring a printer for your business or personal workplace, there are three primary choices: buying, leasing or renting.
The latter is the least frequent option and is the topic we’ll be going over today.
Why would you want to rent a printer?
Although it’s the least used option out of the three listed above, there are certain scenarios where renting a printer would be the best option for you.
At Strategic Technology Partners of Texas, we’ve accrued over 30 years of experience in the printing industry and renting is an option we have become acutely familiar with during our tenure as a locally managed print vendor.
Below is a guide to inform you of some of the major questions about renting a printer, including when it is and isn’t an option, how long you can rent, which models are available and how much it could cost you. By the end of this article, you should have a solid understanding of whether renting a printer is the best option for you.
Since we sell Xerox machines, we’ll be using our experience with Xerox as a reference to help answer some of your most pressing questions about renting a printer.
What Is the Difference Between Rental and Lease Printer Agreements?
Before we get into renting a printer, let’s quickly go over the differences between rental and lease agreements.
For many vendors, the terms rental and lease are used interchangeably, which means you may think you are in a rental agreement when you’re actually in a lease agreement.
Specifically speaking, a true rental is an agreement you can get out of at any time and return the equipment to the vendor.
Whereas a lease agreement is set to a specific term, such as 36, 48 or 60 months. Once your term is complete, you have the option to buy out your printer and permanently own the machine.
The reason most people do not rent a machine is that the flexibility that comes with renting a machine also comes at a premium price. This means that if you need a machine for an extended amount of time, renting is not financially feasible.
For example, think about how much renting a car for three days costs you on your last vacation. Now ask yourself, would you rent a car from Enterprise for three years at that price?
The same logic applies to printer rental agreements. They are predominantly a short-term solution.
3 Scenarios When Renting a Printer Is an Option
The first step you need to assess before considering if renting a printer is an option is why you would need to rent in the first place. The most common scenarios where renting is an option include:
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Renting as a short-term solution while you wait for your new printer to come in
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The old printer broke, and you need a short-term replacement until you find the new one you want
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Renting for big projects or events
Let’s expand on these three scenarios:
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Renting While You Wait for Your New Printer
Lately, this has become the prevailing reason why customers have inquired about renting a printer.
Because of the ongoing supply chain crisis, new printers have taken almost four months to come in. In normal times, your new printer would usually take two to four weeks to come in.
This is a real issue for businesses whose old printer broke down and ordered a new one out of necessity, only to find that it’ll take more than a quarter of the year to get delivered.
If you’re experiencing delays with your new printer and your old one is inoperable, then you are a fit for a short-term rental.
If you’d like to learn more about how the supply chain crisis has affected your printer and printing supplies’ delivery times, read these blogs:
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Renting Because Your Printer Broke
Let’s say your company’s printer just stopped working but you want to be diligent about buying your new machine. After all, printers can be quite expensive, especially for larger workgroups.
But you also acknowledge that your business needs a printer right away while you vet out your options to find the best new machine for your printing goals.
This is another scenario where renting a printer could be an option. If you need a short-term replacement to take care of basic printing tasks while you research the new printer you want to invest in, then you’d be a prime candidate for a rental.
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Renting for Big Printing Projects
Maybe you just need to rent an extra printer or multiple additional printers for one major project you’re undergoing that your resident printers couldn’t sustainably handle.
For instance, a school district might rent multiple additional printers to ensure they have enough capacity to handle the massive amount of paperwork that comes with getting students registered for school.
For large institutions, like schools or hospitals, renting printers to handle big projects is an option if you’re expecting a greater-than-normal print volume.
When Renting a Printer Is Not an Option
Unless you fall under the three scenarios listed above, you most likely wouldn’t be a candidate for renting a printer.
With limited exceptions, individuals or companies who want permanent printing solutions need to buy or lease a printer to provide the best return on investment.
To learn more about buying and leasing printers, read these blogs:
How Long Can I Rent a Printer?
Generally speaking, print providers have various kinds of policies when it comes to renting a printer.
Some have fixed contracts, where the term will be specified in the contract, and some will craft flexible contracts to meet a customer’s specific rental need.
Most of the time, you won’t need to rent a printer for more than a few months, but there are exceptions.
For example, if there is a scenario where you need a printer only for an extensive project, but that project could last up to a year, you could ask your print vendor to formulate a contract that is tailored to the time you require for your rented machine.
The duration of a renting policy could be different for other print vendors. You will want to consult your vendor to hear their policy on rentals.
What Are My Printer Options?
There is typically variation in the printer models available at a print provider. Some might be newer and some might be older, but it's difficult for vendors to be consistent on the machines they rent out.
What is more consistent, however, is the machines available to rent will have likely been previously used and not brand-new at the time you get your rental.
Most vendors have a standard checking process they go through to make sure the printer is still effective and can comfortably handle its recommended monthly print volume.
How Much Will Renting a Printer Cost Me?
Now that we’ve gone over fit, duration and options, the last and arguably most pressing concern to go over when renting a printer is cost.
You might be reading through this and nodding along after every section, knowing that you are a prime candidate for renting a printer.
But you won’t know if you’re a true fit for the renting option unless you have a rough estimate of how much you’d be paying for the machine.
To help with this question, we're going to breakdown some of the typical fees and costs you’ll be paying to rent a printer. These won't be universal accorss every place that provides rentals, but it should give you an idea of some of the charges you may incur:
Printer Delivery and Installation Fee
On the day your rental machine gets delivered, there will be an around $150 delivery and installation fee that you will need to pay to get the printer to your workplace and installed.
This price may vary depending on if a service analyst needs to do more than simply deliver and install the machine, such as additional scanning or other application installations.
Printer Usage Fee
The usage fee is the one you need to be most aware of and is entirely dependent on how many prints you make during the duration of your rental contract.
To help in understanding how a usage fee is calculated, here is an example:
Printer Usage Fee Example
Say you get a machine with a meter reading of 1,000 prints. After your renting period is over, the meter reading says 4,000, which means you made 3,000 prints on the machine since you received it.
The average cost for usage of a rental machine is about $0.02 for black-and-white and $0.10 for color.
For this example, let’s say you only printed in black-and-white, so you would be charged $0.02 per print.
We would calculate your click rate by using the $0.02 per black-and-white print and multiply it by the number of prints you made, in this case, 3,000.
That would give you a total usage rate charge of $60.
When deciding whether to rent a printer, make sure to keep in mind your potential usage rate. If you’re going to be making a large number of prints, the usage fee can start adding up more quickly than you would think.
Printer Pickup and Removal Fee
After your rental contract is over, the company will come to pick up the machine, and you will be charged a $150 pickup and removal fee.
Prices may vary depending on the number of printers you rented out and whether there is additional work needed when picking up the machine.
Think Renting a Printer Is Right for You?
Now that you’ve read through this guide on renting a printer, there are a few takeaways that you must keep in mind:
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Renting a printer is meant to be a short-term or emergency option, not a permanent solution.
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The duration of your renting contract can vary depending on the print vendor.
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Don’t expect the latest, greatest machine when renting.
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Be aware of the costs and fees and make sure renting a printer is a worthwhile option for you.
Because we’ve been in the industry for over 30 years, we can say that customers have had a positive experience during their printer rental period and generally feel that printer rentals have satisfied their short-term printing goals.
If you’d like to discuss renting a printer or want more information on the topic, reach out to us and we’ll do our best to assist you.
