HOW BURLY HELPS GOVERNMENTS JOIN THE SHARING ECONOMY
The Sharing Economy: Implementing Equipment-Sharing Systems
With the sharing economy expected to generate global revenues of $335 billion by 2025, the direct and indirect impact on government is expected to grow as well and has sparked questions around some key issues: What could governments be doing to adopt sharing economy practices to improve the delivery of services?
Understanding the platform economy, and more generally, the new mechanisms of collective value creation will be crucial for the long-term existence of construction equipment manufacturers and brands. Experimenting with the sharing economy can help governments start to rethink their role in an increasingly complex world.
We believe that Burly helps foster collaborative government and efficient use of resources.
Government-to-Government Equipment Sharing
Surveys show that government equipment sits idle as much as 70 percent of the time, so why not share?
Government has a lot of stuff. Government units often have stuff, such as utility or construction equipment that sits around unused in one unit while it’s badly needed in another nearby unit. With no efficient solution to this allocation of equipment problem, states and localities continue to buy and rent expensive equipment.
The Burly solution, similar to other goods-sharing services, is to provide an online forum exclusive to government units to share surplus goods and equipment, instead of renting or buying it from the private sector. There are a lot of agencies out there that realize they have a problem with surplus equipment. A sharing service like Burly can reduce a unit’s equipment rental costs and help bring revenue to the unit lending the equipment. Burly leverages the sharing-economy concept for a specific government need.
Government agencies use Burly’s online platform to reserve and loan their surplus equipment, which can be anything from dump trucks and excavators to front loaders and guardrail cleaners. Units that join Burly’s equipment-sharing service boost the use of some of their idle equipment.
How it Works
After an agency signs up for Burly, authorized personnel can reserve equipment as follows:
-Access the Burly online platform and search for available equipment.
-Click to reserve equipment on specific dates. An e-mail is sent to the owner.
-Owner of equipment accepts the request (usually same day).
-Transportation is arranged between the owner and borrower.
-Burly’s platform handles the scheduling and paperwork, including insurance, rental contracts, and payments.
Burly’s platform empowers equipment owners to increase revenue and value by improving the utilization of their equipment. For equipment renters, Burly can accelerate their search with fast real-time searching of equipment available in their area while providing an extensive equipment rental offering, with or without operators, and give a much larger pool of equipment to harness for their project.
Government < > Startup
The fresh thinking and creativity of startups can assist governments to modernize how they operate. In addition, working with startups is a fantastic way for governments to support their homegrown tech ecosystem and drive economic growth, in a way that could potentially be far more influential than tax incentives, grants, and capital investment — however valuable those may be.
Conclusion
Burly is all about collaborative government and making it quick, easy, and affordable to share assets. Our technology empowers governments to reduce costs, increase utilization, and improve efficiency. Contact Burly today, and let’s explore how we can improve the utilization of your surplus equipment and get more value from your equipment purchase and rental budgets.
