The U.S. has the second largest construction market in the world, so there are a lot of opportunities for construction equipment rental services. Many homeowners occasionally need to rent construction equipment, and commercial contractors, especially smaller ones, have a constant need to rent equipment. This provides a great opportunity for companies in this space.
More and more companies are buying their own light construction equipment, with that sector growing by more than 11%, but there are still plenty of companies that can’t afford to spend that kind of capital. And then, of course, there are larger items as well as specialty items that it doesn’t make sense for any but the largest construction firms to buy. Those are areas where a construction equipment rental services business can really thrive.
There are many do-it-yourself homeowners out there who like to tackle their own projects, even big ones. A person who wants to redo their own driveway or dig out a septic system is going to need equipment, such as a backhoe or bulldozer to do the work. It would not make sense for a homeowner to buy such equipment, because the person would never use the equipment enough to justify the cost, which is why a rental makes so much sense.
For a construction business, it makes more sense to own pieces of equipment like that that might get daily or weekly use. But even those businesses may need specialized equipment that they can’t justify buying. There also are pieces of construction equipment, such as cranes, that are just too big and unwieldy to keep around. In these cases, it makes sense for these businesses to rent the equipment.
Companies that choose to get into the construction equipment rental business have to keep in mind that it is a capital-intensive business. There is a reason the customers renting from you don’t just buy the equipment themselves. It’s also a very cyclical business, because anytime the economy slows down, the construction industry tends to slow down, too. However, with the global construction business nearing $150 billion annually, there also is a lot of opportunity, and a savvy entrepreneur can make quite the mark in the equipment rental business.
