What we are
doing next.
Everything we have shipped, everything we are working on, and the things we think matter but have not scheduled yet. Dates are quarters, because a date to the day would be a guess dressed up.
If something slips we move it and say why, rather than quietly re-dating it. That is the only version of this page worth reading. Last reviewed 1 October 2026.
Bookings, availability and the hire desk
ShippedSeptember 2026Live availability by date across the whole fleet, quoting on your own rate card, and a booking that allocates a specific machine. Weekly rates are worked out properly, so a fortnight never costs more than it should.
Your yard rules, enforced
ShippedSeptember 2026Closed Sundays, weekend minimums, Friday overnights with a Saturday-morning return. Set them once and the app stops a booking that breaks them before it reaches your desk.
Self-service off-hire
ShippedSeptember 2026Contractors stop the clock themselves and get a collection reference. The argument about when they rang is over.
Identity and proof of address
ShippedSeptember 2026Photo ID and a recent bill, collected in the app, checked for the obvious signs of tampering, and put in front of you with a clear verdict. Machines you flag will not go out until you have signed it off.
LOLER and PUWER records
ShippedSeptember 2026Every examination recorded against the machine, with the certificate attached. A month before anything lapses, you hear about it. A machine with a lapsed certificate is not offered for hire.
Condition reports, signed on the phone
ShippedSeptember 2026Photographs and notes at dispatch and at collection, signed by whoever takes the machine. The pair is what a damage charge stands on.
Deposits held, not charged
ShippedSeptember 2026The card is authorised at booking and only captured if something comes back damaged. That is how plant hire has always worked; now it happens without a paper mandate.
Branded contractor app
ShippedSeptember 2026Your name, your colours, your fleet. Contractors install it from a link you send them — it sits on their home screen and opens full-screen, with no store to search.
App Store and Google Play listings
BuildingQ4 2026A searchable listing rather than a link you have to send. One Yardspan app that takes on the name and colours of whichever yard a contractor picks, so it ships once instead of waiting on a review for every customer.
A separate listing per yard would mean a one-to-two week store review for every customer, which is not something we can promise inside a 14-day trial. One themed app is the honest way to do it.
Driver app with the day’s run sheet
ShippedSeptember 2026What is going out, what is due back, what needs collecting, in the order they need doing — with the customer’s number and site address a tap away, the condition report in the same place, and the yard’s messages so the person on site can answer the question rather than relaying it.
Jobs a driver can actually move
ShippedSeptember 2026Take an unassigned job, say you are on your way, or hand it back to the board. The office sees where the lorry is without ringing to ask, and two drivers cannot both set off for the same machine.
Cross-hire network
ShippedSeptember 2026When your last digger is out, search the yards who have opted in and see what is free, where, and at what rate.
Your own database, your own domain
ShippedSeptember 2026Every yard is separated at the database level, not by a column in a shared table. Your customers, your fleet, your documents.
Guided setup for a new yard
ShippedSeptember 2026A wizard that walks you from an empty dashboard to a fleet you can hire from: your rates, your machines, your examinations, your rules. Ten minutes rather than an afternoon, with a checklist that keeps your place if you stop halfway.
Charging damage against a deposit
ShippedSeptember 2026Look at the collection photographs, decide what it costs, and take that much and no more — with the reason and your name on the record. Whatever you do not take is released back to the customer straight away.
Invoices into Xero and QuickBooks
NextQ4 2026We already work out what is owed, including overrun at the day rate. This pushes it into your accounts package instead of you retyping it.
Xero is the commitment for Q4. QuickBooks follows once Xero is boring, which may be Q1.
Delivery and collection charges
ShippedSeptember 2026Price the haulage by distance from your yard to the site, with your rate per mile and your minimum. Quoted at booking rather than argued about later.
Push notifications
ShippedQ4 2026Your contractor hears that the machine is on its way. You hear that an off-hire came in. Nobody refreshes anything.
Google Calendar sync
ShippedQ4 2026Hires on the yard calendar, so the people who live in a calendar can see what is out without opening the dashboard.
The sync itself is written. It needs the Google Workspace side set up and tested with a real yard.
Your own domain
ShippedSeptember 2026hire.yourfirm.co.uk instead of yourfirm.planthirehq.com. Add one DNS record, press connect, and the certificate is issued automatically the first time somebody visits.
Reports that answer the questions you actually ask
ShippedQ1 2027Utilisation by machine, revenue by customer, which machines earn their keep and which are ornaments. Exportable.
Driver app that works with no signal
ShippedSeptember 2026Half the sites in this country have no bars. A condition report is written at the gate and goes up on its own when the lorry gets back to a signal, with a count on the run sheet of anything still waiting.
Drawn signatures
ShippedSeptember 2026A finger-drawn signature on the condition report, alongside the printed name we take today.
Multi-depot
ShippedSeptember 2026One company, several depots, and machines that move between them. A transfer goes on the same board as the day’s deliveries, and a machine only counts as arrived once somebody says it has.
Workshop parts and what a machine costs to keep
ShippedSeptember 2026Filters, hoses and teeth counted off the shelf as they are fitted, at the price they were fitted at, so each machine shows what it earned against what it cost to keep running.
Remote immobilisation
ConsideringNo date yetStopping a machine from the dashboard when it is taken, or when it should not be running.
Needs an OEM telematics agreement per manufacturer. There is no point in a button that cannot reach the machine, so there is not one.
Trade accounts with credit terms
ConsideringQ2 2027Monthly invoicing for the customers you know, instead of a card at the point of hire.
Machine tracking
ShippedSeptember 2026Last known position, engine hours, fuel and battery for every machine with a tracker fitted, and a flag on any tracker that has gone quiet.
Telematics alerts and service scheduling
ShippedSeptember 2026Fuel disappearing with the engine off, a flat battery, a service due on hours rather than on a date, a tracker that has gone quiet mid-hire. Every alert states the reading behind it, so you can check it before sending anyone.
Rules over the readings your trackers send. Not a prediction, and not an idle-time report yet.
DVLA licence checks
ConsideringNo date yetA real licence check through a licensed provider, on top of the document triage we do today.
This needs a third-party bureau and a per-check cost. We will not pretend to do it until we actually do.
A public API
ShippedOctober 2026A complete Identity API for B2B integrators. It allows other rental companies and third parties to run our AI Document Forensics Engine on their own clients.
Something missing?
We build for yards we can talk to. If the thing that would make your week easier is not on this list, tell us what it is and we will tell you honestly whether it is coming.
hello@planthirehq.com