Tim Ford, president of Terex’s Aerial Division, said, during Terex’s third-quarter conference call last week, that the company is seeing significant improvement in the performance of independent rental companies as well as national public companies that have reported solid third-quarter results recently.

“Virtually every customer we talk to, whether it’s a big guy or a small guy, is experiencing very high utilization rates and improving rental rates,” Ford told investors. “I think you’ve seen that in some of the public releases that have happened over the past couple of weeks for the larger guys. That trend is consistent with the medium-sized players and even some of the smaller ones. It’s true in North America, and it’s true in Europe, but to a lesser extent.”

Ford pointed out that larger companies tend to have more visibility into the future and be more sophisticated in their fleet planning and therefore are coming to the table sooner than some of the independents to buy equipment.

“The trend for independent purchases is beginning to change,” Ford said. “We saw a slight shift in third quarter versus second quarter, in terms of what percentage of our business came from the larger guys. I think the fourth quarter will probably mirror the third. But as we get into next year, we’re hearing more and more from some of the medium and smaller guys that they recognize that the business is strong and going to stay strong. So I think that’s a healthy sign for us.”

Ford added that traditionally Genie’s sales to rental companies were relatively evenly divided between smaller independents and larger national players.