2000
JLG pioneers the development of “green” technology with the industry’s first 60-foot electric boomlift with zero emissions.

Jan. ’00
No. 44 on the RER 100, Rental 1 files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Burdened by heavy debt for several years, the company was forced to close more than 20 locations in the past year. Based in Pompano Beach, Fla., the company has 25 branches in Florida, Georgia and the Caribbean.

Jan. ’00
NationsRent acquires City of Industry, Calif.-based J&J Equipment, formerly owned by Van Dossey, a former California Rental Association president.

Jan. ’00
After months of absence on the acquisition front, Rental Service Corp. acquires six small companies with a combined trailing 12-month revenue of about $4.9 million, bumping up its total number of locations to more than 200.

Jan. ’00
GE Power Systems, parent of GE Energy Rentals, signs a definitive agreement to acquire Showpower Inc. for $28 million. Showpower rents temporary power and temperature-control equipment on a worldwide basis for the entertainment, corporate and special event segments.

Jan. ’00
Phoenix-based Sunstate Equipment tops 50 locations with its branch opening in Yucaipa, Calif. The company is No. 13 on the RER 100 with an estimated $95 million in 1998 rental revenue.

Feb. ’00
United Rentals signs a definitive agreement to acquire RDO Rental Co., the rental division of RDO Equipment Co. It has 12 locations in Arizona, California and Nevada. RDO Equipment, Fargo, N.D., operates the largest network of John Deere construction and agricultural equipment dealerships and Volvo truck centers in North America.
Sources estimate that United paid about $45 million to acquire the company.

Feb. ’00
Louisiana Machinery joins the Cat Rental Store program with rental industry veteran Donald Charbonnet at the helm, making Louisiana the 40th state to join the equipment giant’s program. The company will focus on the construction and oil field markets.

Feb. ’00
Ace Hardware Corp. added 104 new members to its Ace Rental Place program in 1999, boosting total membership to 408 locations. At the start of 2000, the company adds 12 more members.

Feb. ’00
Consolidation has changed the look of the rental industry, but another prediction for the future is the emergence of equipment manufacturers who are getting directly involved in rental as a new distribution channel, either through encouraging rental dealers to set up rental businesses or by acquisition of rental companies of their own.
In addition, a shortage of skilled labor is changing how rental companies recruit and retain their employees. “There is a feeding frenzy for experienced people,” says Bud Howard, vice president of sales and marketing at RSC.

2000
In the biggest merger in the country’s history, America Online agrees to buy Time Warner, the nation’s largest traditional media company, for $165 billion in 2000.

Feb. ’00
Relationships between manufacturers and rental companies have been dramatically impacted by industry consolidation. Manufacturers are facing unprecedented demands for service, and price concessions from national rental chains. To stay competitive, smaller rental companies are joining hardware cooperatives, ARA’s Member Buying Alliance and informal locally-based buying groups, seeking price discounts comparable to those enjoyed by the larger players. Dan Kaplan, former HERC CEO, notes “This is not a good time to be a manufacturer.”

Feb. ’00
The Internet is changing both the way rental companies do business and what the expectations are of their customers. E-commerce is here and customers are using it.
“As I see it, the Internet is an awareness tool,” says Dave Griffith, president and CEO of Bristol, Pa.-based Modern Group, who calls his website “a critical gateway” for customers.

Feb. ’00
NationsRent announces five acquisitions that will expand its presence in the metropolitan New York, New Jersey and North Carolina markets, and establish a platform for growth in the Rocky Mountain region with the purchase of Rental City, formerly owned by Jim Ziegler.

March ’00
Ashtead Group, parent of Sunbelt Rentals, ends its five-month search for a partner to help expand its U.S. operation and says it will remain an independent company.

March ’00
Robert Buckner, former owner of Buckner Rental Service, which had more than 20 Gulf Coast branches before selling to Neff Rentals in 1997, returns to the rental business with Redfish Rentals, which will focus on the offshore oil industry.

March ’00
In what appeared to be a promising step in the right direction between two industry associations, talks between the American Rental Association and the Rental Industry Association on possible trade show cooperation are off once again.

March ’00
John Deere introduces its ZTS-Series compact excavators, which feature zero-tail swing, allowing the machines to operate in work areas where standard configuration machines can’t.
“The zero-tail-swing feature is the future of the compact excavators,” says Tim Worthington, manager of product planning, compact excavators for Deere & Co.

March ’00
Grove Worldwide and Skyjack Inc., two of the industry’s largest aerial work platform manufacturers, create a strategic alliance in hopes of boosting their combined marketshare to a clear No. 3 behind JLG and Genie.

2000
The price of a U.S. stamp is $0.34 in 2000.

March ’00
NationsRent acquires F.W. Gartner Co., one of Texas’ largest remaining independent rental firms, and No. 83 on last year’s RER 100. Terms of the deal are not disclosed.

March ’00
Denver-based RentX Industries acquires The Rent-All Shops, Columbia, S.C., from Joe and Pam McKenney, who was the first woman ARA president.
At the same time, French building materials giant Saint-Gobain offers more than $1.7 billion to acquire Meyer International, which operates 150 tool rental locations in the United Kingdom and owns RentX.

April ’00
A group of Neff investors files a class-action lawsuit against the company alleging that a proposed buyout led by Neff president Kevin Fitzgerald is unfair and the result of insider dealing.
The suit alleges that shareholders “have suffered and will suffer irreparable damage unless [Neff is] ordered to put the company up for auction in order to maximize shareholder value.”
Neff remains on the selling block after almost a year without a taker.

April ’00
United Rentals becomes the first company to top the $1 billion rental revenue mark with $1.58 billion in 1999 rental revenue, and $2.23 billion in total revenue — an 82-percent increase from 1998.
The company also announces it is reducing its vendors and cutting costs in equipment purchases and other services in a cost-cutting effort that should save the company $150 million this year. The company has chosen preferred vendors in several equipment categories, in some cases reducing its number of suppliers from seven to one.

April ’00
NES breaks ground on a new rebuild center for aerial work platforms in McConnellsburg, Pa., just across the street from the headquarters of aerial manufacturer JLG Industries, a major NES supplier. The company’s first rebuild center is located in Paducah, Ky.

April ’00
Twenty-eight-year ARA veteran Jim Irish announces his retirement from the association. Irish served as executive vice president since 1987.

April ’00
Hoping to capitalize on growing consumer interest in the rental option, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based NationsRent and home improvement retailer Lowe’s Companies form a strategic alliance to rent equipment within select Lowe’s stores. NationsRent will offer about 240 items to contractors and homeowners.

May ’00
Ashtead Group Plc, the United Kingdom-based parent of Sunbelt Rentals, agrees to acquire Initial Plant Services (formerly known as BET) from Rentokil for $506 million on a debt-free basis. The deal would create the fifth-largest rental company in the United States. Rentokil’s U.S. equipment rental division is composed of Aggregate Equipment, Ivy Hi-Lift and BPS Equipment. The deal is finalized in August.

May ’00
Intermat 2000, the international construction and engineering trade show, attracts an estimated 190,000 people to its 3-million-square-foot exhibit area.

June ’00
Furthering its recent ventures into specialty rental markets, United Rentals makes 15 acquisitions, including seven traffic control equipment companies, two trench-shoring specialists and a special events rental company. Total revenues for the acquired companies are about $100 million.

June ’00
Maun Peterson and Lorin Winegar, owners of Salt Lake City-based Diamond Rental & Sales, sell the company to Rubicon Ventures, a locally based investment group, headed by Mark Clawson.

June ’00
Compresores & Equipos, No. 47 on the RER 100, moves into new headquarters in Toa Baja, near San Juan. The company has seven branches in Puerto Rico and one in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

June ’00
Anthony Crane Rental, the largest crane rental company in the U.S., changes its name to Maxim Crane Works. Based in Pittsburgh, the company has acquired eight companies since Boston-based investment group Bain Capital bought controlling interest in 1998.

June ’00
RER continues its international coverage with a visit to a rental company in El Salvador.

June ’00
Neff Corp. promotes Pete Gladis to president and CEO, replacing embattled Kevin Fitzgerald, who resigns after a buyout bid he led failed. Fitzgerald’s exit officially kills the buyout he proposed with 24-percent equity shareholder GE Capital.

June ’00
Larry Pederson, newly elected president of the Rental Industry Association, promises to make new efforts to develop a revised trade-show agreement with the American Rental Association.

June ’00
RentX Industries president/CEO and rental industry veteran Skip Evans retires. RentX acquired Evans’ Zodiac Rentals as its platform company in 1996. Evans is also a past ARA president.

July ’00
Rental dot coms are popping up everywhere. RER reports on some of the big ones — Ironmax.com, RentOnTheDot.com, RentalRiver.com and Masterental.com. When it’s all said and done, industry executives say reliability and trust will determine which ones are successful and which ones will fade away.

Aug. ’00
Continuing on its specialty rental acquisition path, United Rentals acquires four Texas-based traffic control companies, making it the largest traffic safety company in Texas.

Aug. ’00
Ira Mendelsohn and Dana Cowan, partners in Cowan Rental Services, acquire Shipley’s Rentals in Santa Ana, Calif. Cowan Rental Services opened in Long Beach in March 1997 and added a Greenfield branch in Pacoima, Calif., in 1998.

2000
Richard Hatch outwits and outlasts the other Survivor cast members and wins the grand prize of Survivor 1, $1 million dollars. An estimated 51 million viewers tune into the final episode.

Sept. ’00
United Rentals signs a letter of intent to acquire Horizon High Reach and Equipment for $90 million from parent company W.R. Carpenter North America, which also owns UpRight. Horizon is No. 21 on the RER 100 with 1999 reported revenue of $88 million, with $43 million coming from rentals. It has 17 locations.

Oct. ’00
Ford Motor Co. makes a $30-per-share offer to buy the 18.5 percent of Hertz Corp. it doesn’t already own.

Nov. ’00
NationsRent and Lowe’s expand their strategic alliance and announce plans to open 60 NationsRent rental departments adjacent to the entrances of Lowe’s stores in 22 major markets by the end of 2001.

Nov. ’00
Prime Equipment and Rental Service Corp., rental companies owned by Stockholm, Sweden-based Atlas Copco Group, will merge into one company with two distinct brands.
The combined company will operate as Rental Service Corp., USA. Prime Industrial Services will market to industrial customers, while RSC will concentrate on the construction market.

2000
The U.S. presidential election of 2000 is the closest in decades. Bush’s slim lead in Florida leads to an automatic recount in that state. The U.S. Supreme Court orders a halt to the manual recount of Florida vote, sealing Bush’s victory with a 5-4 vote and rules that there can be no further recounting.

Jan. ’01
Finning International reaches an agreement to acquire Hewden Stuart Plc, one of the U.K.’s largest equipment rental companies, for about U.S. $459 million. Hewden Stuart, with 370 locations in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, reported revenue of $365 million and operating profit of $61 million from continuing operations for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2000.

Jan. ’01
Fluor officials announce the possibility of divesting the dealership portions of Greenville, S.C.-based Ameco.

Jan. ’01
United Rentals submits a nonbinding proposal to acquire about 72 percent of the equity interest in Miami-based Neff Corp. for about $314 million. Neff, whose stock price is barely above a dollar and drifting steadily downward, is highly leveraged and needs to find a buyer quickly.
After several deadline extensions, the two companies end merger talks in late February.

March ’01
Ford Motor Co. announces it will pay about $710 million to acquire the publicly held portion of Hertz, including its equipment rental division. Ford, which already owns
81.5 percent of Hertz, will purchase the remaining shares for $33.50 each, up from an offer of $30 per share it made in September.

April ’01
United Rentals surpasses $2 billion in rental revenue and comes close to $3 billion in total revenue for 2000.

April ’01
The boards of directors of the American Rental Association and the Rental Industry Association vote to implement a cooperative agreement including a joint trade show in 2002 in Las Vegas. RIA changes its name back to California Rental Association and announces plans to function as a state association of ARA.
ARA and National Hardlines Supply decide to discontinue the ARA Member Buying Alliance program because of a lack of membership participation.

May ’01
Asheville, N.C.-based Volvo Construction Equipment North America announces it will establish a chain of franchised construction equipment rental outlets initially focusing on compact equipment over the next three to four years.

May ’01
In response to softening economic conditions, United Rentals’ announces its move to close or consolidate a number of struggling branches in the next several months could affect as many as 5 percent of its 755 locations and lead to an undetermined number of layoffs.
In the same month United Rentals is ranked by Forbes magazine, in its annual Forbes 500 issue, as the 456th most profitable company in the United States.

May ’01
Grove Worldwide begins voluntary restructuring under Chapter 11. The company reaches an agreement with its secured lender bank group and is negotiating with its senior bondholders on a financial restructuring of the company. Under the reorganization, Grove will trade $379 million worth of debt for company stock, lowering the company’s debt from $584 million to $205 million.

May ’01
Canadian auto-parts supplier Linamar Corp. signs an agreement with former SkyJack president Wolf Haessler and Haessler Corp. to purchase 4.2 million shares of SkyJack to become majority owners of the company.

June ’01
UpRight files a voluntary Chapter 11 petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The manufacturer of aerial work platforms, aluminum scaffolding and telescopic handlers, announces it has temporarily suspended production of new equipment at its Selma and Madera, Calif., manufacturing facilities.

July ’01
The aerial rental market has changed dramatically with consolidation. Aerial equipment manufacturers are faced with the lowest pricing levels in this segment’s history. With consolidators dumping used equipment through auctions or trade-ins, the value of aerial products is 30 percent of what it was four years ago.

July ’01
Davis Service Group through its tool rental subsidiary HSS Hire Shops agrees to purchase RentX, No. 18 on the RER 100, and one of the original consolidators, for about $47 million.

Aug. ’01
Charlotte, N.C.-based Sunbelt Rentals acquires the eastern region operations of United Scaffolding, a subsidiary of Houston-based XSERV. The acquisition includes three full-service scaffold locations: Wilmington, N.C., Chesapeake, Va., and Richmond, Va.

Sept. ’01
Jose Perez, 47, co-founder of Miami-based Neff Rentals, dies from complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Perez founded Neff Rental with Jorge Mas Santos in 1988.

Sept. ’01
Terrorists attack the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001 as four commercial planes are hijacked. Two of the planes crash into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, one crashes into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the fourth plane crashes 80 miles outside of Pittsburgh.

[Web]
Sept. ’01: ARA inaugurates its Rental Hall of Fame at the Fort Worth City Conference and Product Showcase. The first five inductees are Daniel Cameron, the late George Gartner Jr., Leonard Hawk, the late C.A. “Ziggy” Siegfried Jr. and the late Klaus Wacker.

Sept. ’01
As typically occurs in time of disaster, the equipment rental industry is intricately involved in rescue efforts in the aftermath of the World Trade Center, Flight 93 and Pentagon terror attacks. As a preferred provider to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as a number of New York law enforcement agencies, United Rentals was contacted within a few hours of the attacks and plays a major role, sending more than 500 generators, 100 light towers and 1,500 diamond blade concrete cutters to help rescue efforts.
Many other rental companies, manufacturers and industry associations also contributed equipment, manpower and monetary donations to the efforts, including Piscataway, N.J.-based Hoffman Equipment, Deere dealership JESCO in South Plainfield, N.J., AB Volvo, Caterpillar, Associated General Contractors and Allmand Bros.

Oct. ’01
E*machinery.net signed a purchase agreement with Western Power & Equipment Corp. to acquire the business and certain assets and liabilities of Western Power & Equipment, its wholly owned subsidiary, which is No. 38 on the RER 100.

Oct. ’01
Apple introduces the original iPod on October 23, 2001, which sold for $399.

Oct. ’01
The industry is heavily impacted by a downturn in the economy and many manufactures cut jobs as a result. Deere & Co. announces plans to exit the Homelite consumer products business and restructure its construction and forestry division, cutting 1,985 more jobs as part of an effort to improve financial and operating performance.
Volvo Construction Equipment lays off 110 employees with a revision of its manufacturing operations at its Asheville, N.C., plant.

Nov. ’01
Tom Bennett, CEO of Rental Service Corp., announces plans to retire at the end of the year after a 37-year career in the equipment rental industry.

Nov. ’01
After two postponements in the wake of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the 2001 Emmy Awards are finally presented. NBC’s West Wing takes the award for Best Drama and HBO’s Sex and the City takes the Best Comedy prize.

Nov. ’01
Westport, Conn.-based Terex closes seven more plants and cuts an additional 725 jobs in its continuing effort at consolidating production to boost efficiency. In total the company is closing 11 facilities and cutting 1,225 jobs, about 16 percent of its workforce.

Nov. ’01
Miami-based Neff Corp. announces the New York Stock Exchange is suspending trading of the company’s stock and is seeking to delist the common stock from the Exchange.

Dec. ’01
Multiquip, which in Aug. acquired Sanders Saws, purchases Stow Manufacturing, a light construction equipment manufacturer, from Bomag’s Compaction America division.

Dec. ’01
French aerial manufacturer Pinguely-Haulotte makes a major move into the United States aerial market with the establishment of subsidiary Haulotte USA in Baltimore.

Dec. ’01
NationsRent files a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code to restructure the company’s debt, which totals close to $1.2 billion. Chairman and CEO James Kirk agrees to step down.
In Sept. ’02 the company’s creditors seek bankruptcy court approval to file a reorganization plan on its behalf.

Dec. ’01
National Equipment Services acquires the operations of Brambles Equipment Services, the North American equipment rental operation of Australian-based Brambles Industries. The deal, which cost NES $94 million in cash plus an agreement to pay about $28 million of accounts receivables, is finalized Dec. 31. NES CEO Kevin Rodgers served as CEO of Brambles for about seven years before leaving the company to found NES in late 1996.