Greatly Expand Your Storage Capability Using Semi Trailers

One of the frustrating things about business is that you work so hard to grow your company, and then, when your efforts start paying off, you find yourself with another challenge: “Where can we get the space needed to support our growth?” That question can become urgent for multiple reasons:

• You don’t have room to store raw materials and components of your operations.
• You need space for staging outgoing products before they’re loaded on trucks and shipped.
• You need an area for holding returned products until you can process or dispose of them.

And if you can’t answer your storage question the right way, you can end up:

• Alienating suppliers with requests to reschedule or cancel deliveries due to lack of space.
• Frustrating your merchant and distributor partners because you can’t provide a steady, consistent supply of goods.
• Hurting your finances by paying much more than you should for a storage solution.

The good news is that there’s a way to quickly and significantly expand your storage capacity using semi trailers.

Why Building a Warehouse or Renting Space May Not Be the Answer

Companies use a few approaches to address their increasing storage needs. One is constructing a warehouse. If your business has the capital needed for that type of initiative and the time required to design, build, and move into a new structure, that can work well.

However, many companies—especially those in rapid-growth mode—do not have either. They need an affordable storage solution that can be available quickly.

Another option is to rent warehouse space. That approach may work for businesses with ample funds to pay the fees and a willingness to be “at the mercy” of market conditions and space availability. But most business owners prefer not to pay high rental rates, and most logistics managers would rather not have to jump through hoops as their storage needs increase or their warehouse space providers’ availability grows and shrinks.

So, what can you do? Take matters into your own hands.

Use Semi Trailers as the Foundation of Your Storage Strategy

Most businesses that require parts and materials or ship out finished products know they can rent semi trailers for those purposes. Even those with their own transportation fleet or that receive/send items using shipping companies will periodically need to rent or lease a semi trailer.

What many companies don’t think about is that they can rent or lease an enclosed semi trailer, park it on their property, fill it with whatever they don’t have space for, and keep the equipment as long as they need it. For many business owners, that realization is an “Ah, ha!” moment.

Of course, a crucial requirement of that plan is having space for parking one or more semi trailers. Many—perhaps most—companies don’t have that kind of spare real estate. They likely lease a building for their operations, and that space comes with enough parking for their employees and visitors, but that’s about it. Even those companies that own a building may not have enough additional space on their property to accommodate semi trailers for storage.

But who says your semi trailers need to be parked immediately adjacent to your operations? This question creates another “Ah, ha!” moment for business decision-makers. Certain assets may need to be onsite, but others would be fine stored somewhere nearby. That idea opens up a whole new way of thinking about storage capacity!

As long as there are no laws, regulations, or zoning restrictions preventing you from doing so, you can lease or buy a small parcel of land, get one or more semi trailers from Boxwheel Trailer Leasing, and have an offsite “warehouse” operational very quickly.

This approach can benefit your company in several ways, including:

• Flexibility. If your business, like most, ebbs and flows with market conditions, seasonal surges, etc., you can add or release trailers as needed. This agility means you’re much less likely to be caught without enough space or forced to pay for capacity you’re not using.
• Security. Obviously, you’ll want to choose your storage location carefully, avoiding high-crime areas—especially if you won’t have a 24/7 presence there. But the semi trailers themselves are sturdy and lockable, which means their contents will be protected from anything from weather to most would-be thieves.
• Affordability. There are costs associated with renting or buying land, renting or leasing semi trailers, and making trips to and from offsite storage locations. But when you compare those expenses to the potentially high cost of renting warehouse space and the even higher cost of building a warehouse or expanding an existing facility, positioning semi trailers on a plot of land can be a very cost-effective storage option.

Considerations for Finding the Right Semi Trailer Provider

Using semi trailers to expand your storage capacity is a strategy that requires working with the right provider. For example, you should look for a semi trailer company with streamlined trailer rental and leasing processes. That will help maximize your flexibility. The last thing you want is to experience a surge and find that the red tape involved in getting a trailer will take many days or more.

You should also look for a semi trailer provider with a large inventory. Today you need a certain type of dry van semi trailer. Next week your requirements may change. If they do, you don’t want to go through the whole process of vetting another provider. To that end, it’s also helpful to work with a semi trailer company with an extensive network of industry contacts they can tap into, as needed, for information or equipment. You’ll typically find that company owners who have been in the business for many years have those connections.

And finally, you’ll want to be sure the semi trailer company you choose for your storage trailers has a reputation for taking excellent care of their equipment. You may plan to use the trailers in “stationary” mode only, but they still need to be in excellent working condition.

Talk With the Semi Trailer Experts

You can have vastly expanded storage capacity in a matter of days if you’ve got or can get a small parcel of land and if you obtain equipment from Boxwheel. Contact us today, and let’s discuss your storage needs and how we can help you meet them.