Renting Equipment

[CEwriter]

I haven't seen any discussion on this board about equipment rental, but a good friend asked me last week what I thought about some of the big regional rental companies. He's the kind of equipment manager who has a unique talent for identifying vendors with staying power, and then figuring out ways to partner with them so that the vendor really contributes to his company's success.

Specifically, he wanted to know what I thought about Sunbelt and Neff. I had to confess that I don't know enough about either to make any really insightful judgements about their companies' durability or quality, so I thought I'd throw the topic open for discussion.

I passed along a link to the Heavy Equipment Forums to him as well. So if we get some talk going about rental companies, we have an opportunity to impress a new member.

Thanks a lot,

L

[Steve Frazier]

I've been bugging my Cat dealer about becoming a Cat Rental store. When I bought my 248, I was promised that attachments for rental would be available, but that hasn't come about. They say that there's something to do with the union contract that there's too much handling involved every time an attachment goes out.

I've ended up renting attachments from their competitor and have actually bought one from them as well. I agree that if a vendor does a little market reasearch, local contractors can be an asset to his business and vice versa. I don't know the names you've mentioned, most of our rental stores are locally owned and operated.

[cat320]

I have heard of Neff but I thought they were out west I thought I saw them in Vegas. never heard of sunbelt. I deal with Nations rent .

[2004F550]

H.O. penn has one here in CT and to be honest it sucks. We've called a number of times for differents things and their response was we'll just wait a little while we'll have it back or, call back tomorrow.......thats not the way a rental place needs to be run.....once was for a 308, oh yea we got it, it should be in tommorrow call back, called, yea not today, but definatly by next week, what bullsh**....so one call to United and boom got a machine out here that day, then it blew a line, 2 hrs later they had another machine on the job, thats service....then we needed a mini ex so we called, yup we got a 304.5 come get it Monday, so trailer driver gets out there, no machine, someone walked in and rented it that morning......ok thanks for nothing dont bother coming around our shop anymore with your offers.........then Bobcat could deliver a machine that afternoon so we went with them and ended up buying a machine from them....thats our story with penn rents..**** poor........for a Cat rental store and always advertising how much equipment they have you think they might stock some more of it and be ethical when its being rented, but i guess its not their business so we dont deal with them anymore..... :spaz

[Dwan Hall]

I personaly do not like rental stores. I buy a small excavator because of the cuminity needs and run it in my business. along comes a rental store and rents 10 small excavators to the public even if they don't know how to run them. there goes the payback on the $60,000 investment I made. in some ways it hurts the equipment owner, but it is nice to have equipment avalable when needed and not have to own it.
I suspose it is a double edged soard.

[littledenny]

I rent quite often, since I'm still in the market for a deal on my own equipment. No big chains locally.

With a previous employer, we rented quite often at this place, especially smaller machines. Since then, I've become quite friendly with the owner. Since I'm now starting out on my own, I asked him what he does with people who want to rent, but are a bit intimidated with operating themselves. I'm now the guy who gets called in these situations.

He benefits by not loosing rentals, and having a known quantity in the seat, and I get the seat time. We're pretty happy with the arrangement. Have 2 and 1/2 jobs lined up from recommendations this past week.

[coopers]

Sunbelt has put its foot in our state, they have a couple places now in our state and they are sure getting around. They still have a lot of competition though with Hertz and United Rentals in our state, then you get RSC and us, up here in the north end of our state.

Blake
WA

[CEwriter]

FYI

In May, 2004, Sunbelt ranked No. 4 on RER magazine's list of the 100 largest rental firms in North America, with annual rental revenue of $530 million (the same revenue reported in 2003). The company ranks No. 17 on the 2004 Construction Equipment Giants list with a fleet replacement value of $1.1 billion. Sunbelt operates over 200 locations in 26 states. See this map for locations:

http://www.sunbeltrentals.com/locations/

Neff ranked No. 9 on RER magazine's list of the 100 largest rental firms in North America, with annual rental revenue of $173 million (up 4% from $166 million in 2003). The company ranks No. 53 on the Construction Equipment Giants list with a fleet replacement value of $425 million. The Neff fleet includes machines from Case, Genie, Gradall, JCB, John Deere, MultiQuip and Volvo. The company has 69 locations in these states

Arizona
California
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Nevada
North Carolina
Oregon
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington

L

[littledenny]

As a followup to my previous --

I'm renting a Cat D3GXL this week, from my usual guy. Really nice machine,
think this week will be fun.

But the meat of the story -- We're all trying to get things in between the usual rain showers and thunderstorms that plague us here in Spring time North Georgia. Dozer was just off a job Sat, I needed it Sun for a week.

My guy hauled it in on Sun Morn, straight from the other job. Tracks were full of sticks, less than half a tank of fuel, but I needed it now. Usually his equipment comes in practically polished, always clean, filled, lubed, ready to go. (But I wanted it now.)

He knows that I'll take an hour to clear the tracks, lube it, check the fluids, lines, and hoses, etc. This AM, he's out in a borrowed fuel truck, 35 mile round trip, through the hills and back roads, just for me. He fills the tank, even though I've already put eight hours on it. Lubes it while I take a break, wipes off the seat and floorboard.

This is an example of him and I taking care of each other, He'll deliver anything I need, usually now, and I'll deal with the papers when I get to town. I take care of his equipment, like it was mine.

I'll vote for the good, home town rental guys. Mark, in particular - Not sure I'd get this kind of service from one of the chains.