On the face of it, a 30 tonne excavator and a high head slurry handling pump with a choice of four fittings – would seem to have little in common.

In fact they’re among over 40,000 pieces of rental equipment which will eventually find their way onto the resale market thanks to a ground-breaking asset recycling channel to be launched in early February by National Hire .

Once selected for resale, each unit will be listed in National Hire’s new online equipment sales site; which will be accessed from a link on the group’s main website.

Each product listing will be accompanied by a detailed inspection report - plus up to a dozen photographs.

Available at a fixed price initially, products will be available in an eBay style auction in Phase 2 of the project.

“In any equipment hire business, assets sit in the hire fleet until the end of their optimum life cycle, and are then sold into the ex-rental market – usually via third party traders and auction houses,” National Hire’s Rental Assets Manager Graham Turner says.

“As we’re known for the quality of our rental fleet - and understand it better than anyone, it occurred to us that we’re best-placed to coordinate the divestment of it.

“Because the new online equipment sales will be core to our business, we’ll be managing the entire process in-house. That way we can be sure that retailers and end-users get a chance to enjoy the best ex-rental deals without the time and travel costs involved in attending third party auctions.”

The new online equipment sales store will go live with over 200 pieces, and then continue to grow to the point where up to 1,000 pieces will be made available at any one time.

Now with over 70 branches nationwide, National Hire is Australia’s second largest equipment rental group, and has been on a steep growth and acquisition curve since receiving a major investment from WesTrac in 2004. National Hire Group Ltd (ASX listed as NHR) now includes lighting tower, water pump and gen-set specialist Allight Holdings Pty Ltd, WesTrac’s Cat Rental Stores and AH Plant Hire.