GetMyEquipment

The UK equipment hire market, covering scaffolding, plant machinery, tools and temporary structures, has historically run on phone calls and long-standing supplier relationships. A project manager who needed scaffolding for a two-week window rang a supplier they knew, took the quote, and either accepted it or rang someone else. Price discovery was slow, the alternatives were limited to whoever was already in the buyer's network, and smaller suppliers had no practical way to reach buyers beyond their local patch and established contacts.

GetMyEquipment was built to give that process a structure. Buyers post what they need with specifications and dates, suppliers bid in real time, and the buyer accepts the best combination of price and terms. For buyers, that means more competitive pricing and a wider pool. For suppliers, it is a channel to customers they could not previously reach.

The marketplace could not launch as a lead-generation directory. It needed real transactions from the first day, which meant payment processing, deposit handling, supplier payouts and dispute logic all had to be correct before the first job was posted. A marketplace that made introductions and left payment for the parties to sort out offline would have undermined its own proposition, because the trust problem between strangers is the thing it exists to solve.

Financial workflows were therefore the first thing built rather than the last. Every later feature, from bidding to ratings, was designed around a payment flow that already worked, and the platform launched in London with that flow live.

A buyer creates a job posting with equipment type, quantity, delivery location and hire dates. Suppliers whose category and region match receive the posting and can submit a bid within the window. The buyer watches bids arrive in real time and can accept one, counter it or close the job. Before a posting goes live, the buyer can restrict which suppliers will see it, which lets an established relationship coexist with open competition.

Once a bid is accepted, Stripe runs the payment flow. The buyer pays a deposit that is held in escrow, released to the supplier on delivery confirmation, with the balance settled on return of the equipment. Neither side is exposed for the full amount at any point, and neither has to chase the other. Disputed jobs route to a manual review queue with the bid terms and the communication thread attached, so the reviewer sees what was agreed and what was said.

Supplier profiles carry verification status, equipment categories, coverage area and ratings from completed jobs. A buyer comparing bids from suppliers they have never met has the record of previous work in front of them.

The alternative was a fixed-price catalogue: suppliers list equipment at set rates, buyers search and book. It is simpler to operate and easier to explain to a first-time user. The problem is that equipment hire pricing is genuinely variable. It depends on availability, travel distance, hire duration and how busy a supplier is that week. A fixed price either locks suppliers into rates that do not reflect real conditions or demands constant manual updating that nobody does.

Live bidding lets the market clear at accurate prices without that overhead. A supplier with idle kit nearby can bid low; one that would have to travel can bid high or not at all. The buyer sees the real spread rather than a list price that was true last month. The trade-off is a short wait for bids instead of an instant booking, which the buyer accepts in exchange for a real price.

A project manager posts the job in the morning. Matching suppliers are notified, bids come in through the day, and the buyer accepts one by the afternoon. The deposit is taken and held. The equipment is delivered, the buyer confirms, the deposit is released, and when the hire ends and the kit is returned, the balance settles.

Nobody issues an invoice by hand or chases a payment. The supplier's rating updates on completion, and the buyer's next posting draws on a wider pool than the last. If something goes wrong, the dispute queue holds the full record rather than a memory of a phone call.

The platform has processed £477K in equipment transactions. Buyers report access to suppliers they had not previously worked with, and suppliers report winning jobs outside their traditional geographic coverage.

Completed jobs settle without manual invoicing or payment chasing on either side, because the escrow flow was built before anything else. That foundation is what lets the marketplace add suppliers and buyers without adding administrative work in proportion.