Rental Rates Relatively Flat in Fourth Quarter, EquipmentWatch Reports

Feb. 9, 2017

2 min read

Heavy Equipment rental rates overall remained relatively flat during the fourth quarter of 2016 according to the EquipmentWatch Rental Update. During the fourth quarter, pneumatic tire lift trucks had the largest increase among 10 equipment types tracked by EquipmentWatch. Standard crawler dozers had the largest decrease. In the fourth quarter monthly rates declined more than daily or weekly rates, which was not the case in the third quarter.

The two smallest equipment types on the EquipmentWatch chart, skid-steer loaders and electric self-propelled scissorlifts, remained relatively even during the quarter. Average weekly rates for crawler-mounted compact excavators, skid-steer loaders, compact track loaders, electric self-propelled scissorlifts, and pneumatic tire lift trucks increased during the fourth quarter, with the latter posting the largest increase. Telehandlers also increased weekly rates during the fourth quarter.

On a regional basis, Alaska posted the best increase in weekly rates, jumping 7.31 percent in the fourth quarter. Weekly rates in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington hiked 6.4 percent; Hawaii posted a 5.41-percent climb; Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah posted a 4.76-percent rate hike; while the Northeast Region of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont enjoyed a weekly rate increase of 3.92 percent in the top 10 equipment types charted by EquipmentWatch.

Northeast Canada posted the largest decrease at 22.6 percent, followed by Western Canada at 16.28 percent. The largest drop in the United States was in the Southeast – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee with a 2.1-percent rate decline.

EquipmentWatch predicts overall rental rate increases in 2017 with the likelihood of increased infrastructure spending and decreased regulations.

To download the Quarterly Recap of Retail Rental Rate Trends, click on: http://images.link.penton3.com/Web/PentonEquipmentWatch/%7Ba64c06c1-8ab4-4038-9d4c-f06a5f40bb71%7D_EQW_Rental_Update_2016-Q4.pdf

About the Author

Michael Roth

Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.