The Ins and Outs of Equipment Rental

Twenty years ago, contractors didn’t give much thought to renting construction equipment. But that’s no longer the case as the rental industry has seen a dramatic rise in recent years.
In this episode of The Dirt, we hear from Josh Nickell, vice president of the equipment segment for the American Rental Association, who gives us a more detailed look at who’s renting equipment and why and what contractors need to know about the rental market.
Nickell reports that about half of the equipment on today’s jobsites are rentals. One leading segment of this trend has been younger contractors, who are comfortable with the sharing economy. Also as uncertainty about the economy heightens, some contractors are finding rental to be an appealing solution.
To learn more about the equipment rental industry and if renting makes sense for you, check out the latest episode of The Dirt.
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In This Episode:
00:00 - Intro: How Renting Equipment Can Help Your Business
00:28 - How Has the Rental Industry Changed in the Past 10-20 Years?
01:37 - Why Is More Equipment Being Rented Now?
02:27 - Why Is Renting Equipment More Sustainable Than Owning It?
04:28 - What Are the Advantages of Renting Equipment?
06:00 - Is It More Expensive to Rent Equipment?
09:31 - Why Renting Equipment Is More Efficient
12:06 - How Renting Can Help Grow Your Business
13:02 - How Will the Rental Industry Change in the Next 10-15 Years?
15:56 - Final Thoughts
Video Transcript:
Bryan Furnace:
Hi everybody. Welcome back to Equipment World. You're watching The Dirt. I'm your host, Brian, and today we're here to speak with Josh Nickell about the rental industry and how it can actually have a pretty tremendous impact on your business as you start to grow, and it can impact your business in more than one way, as you'll soon find out. So without further ado, here's Josh.
So my first question for you is the rental market overall in the equipment industry, has it remained pretty consistent over the past 10 to 20 years, or is that something that we're seeing a lot of changes in?
Josh Nickell:
It's actually really changed a lot. Compared to a lot of other industries, including the construction industry, the rental industry's really young. I mean, the association [inaudible 00:00:49] itself really started in the fifties. Most associations are hundreds of years old. And the modern rental industry has really been coming out of the early 2000s.
I mean, there were no national rental companies over 20 years ago. There were no giant rental companies. So it's really been changing. Add on to that, America's always been an ownership economy. We wanted to own our house, we want to own our boat, we want to own our excavator. And it's not really until about the last two decades that that has changed that much. We've gone from most contractors owning everything to, in the last few years, rental penetration, which is the percentage of equipment on the job site that's rented versus owned being over 50%.
Bryan Furnace:
Wow.
Josh Nickell:
So in just a few decades, going from nothing being rented to over 50% of a job site being rented. So it's really gone through quite an evolution.
Bryan Furnace:
Interesting. So my next question is, do you think this is tied to the next generation coming into the workplace? Are they the ones that are really fueling this change, or is it existing contractors that are starting to just think about the way they are costing their equipment differently?
Josh Nickell:
The last 20 years I would say is the existing contractors realizing the value of rental. Realizing, hey, I'm a great plumber, I'm a great electrician, I'm not an asset manager. I don't want to deal with mechanics on staff or logistics and delivery drivers and equipment replacement cycles. So they have certainly started to change that, but younger generations are really accelerating it.
I mean, when you look at Millennials and Zennials, sharing economy as a term, it's something that they use regularly. The idea of access versus ownership isn't a new concept to them. It's a comfortable concept. And even things like sustainability, I don't know that rentals started with the idea of we're going to be a sustainable part of the construction industry, but we did a study a number of years ago and found that rental versus ownership cuts carbon emissions by 30 to 60%. And that's something a lot of younger people care about. So it's just-
Bryan Furnace:
How does that work? Explain that one to me. That's intriguing to me...

[@TheDavidarlen]

Nice job. I have two mini excavators that I own and maintain. Renting makes sense for some jobs

[@Wizefunds]

Great video! I’m young and am dying to start either equipment or dumpster rental. I think this helped me make my decision.

[@allterrainforklift]

We are a company specializing in the production of four-wheel drive terrain forklifts. We can provide 3-7 tons of outdoor forklifts and multi-purpose forklift attachments.

[@tylerkurfees4762]

Congratulations? I think?

[@KhusheKenworth]

I am interested in Teaming up in Canada to sell your forklift

[@mbeck9680]

Excellent video! Giving viewers the information they need to make the best decisions!

[@wiredequipment]

Thank you so much for this content. Discovering a problem to solve in the market spaces I'm looking to penetrate is a key to success. My equipment rental business will enjoy it's first full season this year and I'm always looking for information that validates the benefits to contractors to rent instead of buy.

[@tetradgroup]

Great information. I never looked at rental from an environmental prospective.

[@LennyTim]

Nice. I also have an equipment rental business.

[@scottiebumich]

I hold a large investment in Ashtead Group (which operates Sunbelt rentals here in the US). what are your thoughts on them?