Rental Equipment Register highlights top rental companies of 2020

Rental Equipment Register magazine has released its list of the top 100 equipment rental companies of 2020, including 63 Rouse Services customers.

The 2020 RER 100 totaled $25.6 billion in revenue, making it the second largest year in the list’s history. However, this was down approximately 8.8% from the record US$28 billion reported in 2019.

The top 10 companies listed in the RER 100 make up approximately 74% of the list’s rental revenue, led by United Rentals (~US$7.1 billion), Sunbelt Rentals (~US$5.2 billion), and Herc Rentals (~US$1.5 billion).

Rouse customers featured on RER 100

Rouse has spent decades building its reputation as a trusted partner in the industrial equipment industry. It serves as a central hub for equipment rental data, using industry-leading software to collect and analyze fleet and transactional data. This gives Rouse a deep understanding of where the marketplace is at in terms of secondary market pricing and real-time equipment rental activity.

Rouse equipment values and rental benchmarks are considered the gold standard in the equipment industry. Here’s what some of the RER Top 100 say about Rouse and its services:

8. H & E Equipment Services (~US$662.9 million)

“The services offered by Rouse, and more specifically the data they supply for our equipment rental business, are invaluable to our company,” said Brad Barber, President & CEO, H&E Equipment Services. “Not only do they provide clean, accurate, actionable data in ways our business can use it, they also do so with a sense of urgency and professionalism that is unrivaled.  In my career, I have never worked with a more forward-thinking and pleasant team”

18. Cooper Equipment Rentals (~US$157 million)

“Rouse has provided incredible value in its strategic partnership with the industry,” said Doug Dougherty, CEO of Cooper Equipment Rentals. “The access to aggregated competitive data to benchmark our performance has enabled Cooper Equipment Rentals to maximize opportunities in each of our distinct markets and further support our expansion efforts across Canada.

43. Holt of California (~US$72 million)

“Rouse Services has been a game changer for the rental industry,” said John Johnson, Vice President, Holt of California. “Utilizing their software gives us a lot more knowledge at our fingertips which has enabled us to make better informed decisions to drive profitable revenue growth in rental and used equipment. A professional group of employees dedicated to customer satisfaction with industry leading technology.

62. Berry Companies (~US$48.7 million)

“We have found the Rouse Analytics dashboard to be powerful and intuitive,” said Adam Berry, COO, Berry Companies. “It has unearthed the insights we have needed to navigate the increasingly unpredictable environment. Their team has been knowledgeable and flexible in their approach and we wish we would have come on board sooner.”

All in all, 63 companies on the RER 100 are using and Rouse customers, including 8 of the top 10. To learn more about Rouse and its services, visit rouseservices.com.

The end of World War I, the start of prohibition, and the first presidential election in which women could vote were some of the events that marked 1920 as a year of changes.  The industrialization that would fuel the Roaring Twenties had begun to transform daily life.  In cities across America, cars powered by internal combustion engines now lined the streets and ever taller skyscrapers filled the sky.  Draught animals, an integral part of farming since prehistory, were being replaced by tractors with names like Fordson and Farmall.

Amid this wave of changes to the way Americans lived and worked Max Rouse saw the need to remarket the equipment that was driving the economy.  Industrial machinery was introduced, enhanced, and made obsolete faster than ever.  Max knew an effective auctioneer could give buyers and sellers the capability and capital to grow their businesses, so he founded Max Rouse & Sons in May of 1920 to facilitate that growth.

The size of Rouse’s auctions increased steadily throughout the 20^th century, and the scope reflected the events of the time.  Manufacturing facilities were liquidated during the Great Depression.  The military surplus was sold after World War II.  Drilling equipment was auctioned off in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis.

In the years after the Cold War, Rouse conducted its biggest auctions to date at McDonnell Douglas and Northrup Grumman’s multimillion square foot production facilities in Southern California.  Bidders were kept in small groups by security and prevented from wandering around the factory that had once produced the highly classified B-2 stealth bomber.  Although sensitive materials such as computer hard drives and sophisticated machining tools were previously removed or destroyed, bidders were banned from possessing cameras, tape recorders, cellular phones, or pocket calculators.

As the 20^th century came to an end, Rouse evolved from an auction into an appraisal firm.  This transition was made possible by the massive amount of auction and retail sales data collected over the years.  Construction equipment rental companies and the lenders who served them began to view Rouse Appraisals as a reliable source of information on equipment values.

When the biggest names in the equipment rental industry started to develop their own online marketplaces in the first decade of the 21^st century they turned to Rouse for the knowledge of what equipment to sell and what price to set.  In response, Rouse Sales developed a suite of pricing and remarketing tools to help their clients achieve higher returns at resale.

These same companies then pressed for more visibility into the equipment rental market.  Rouse Analytics responded with the introduction of an unprecedented service that provides product type level comparisons of rental rates, utilization, and other key performance metrics to industry benchmarks.

Today, Rouse tracks $55 billion in equipment fleet value, $24 billion in rental revenue, and $14 billion in sales transaction data annually.  It has over 170 clients in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  Expansion into Australia, Japan, and elsewhere is set to take place in the coming years.

“While our service offerings have evolved over the past 100 years, our focus has always been on providing the most accurate market intelligence for the industries we serve,” said Gary McArdle, Executive Vice President, and COO.  “Our inspectors, analysts, and engineers all strive to build tools that our clients will find informative and intuitive.  A lot is riding on the data we deliver, and we have great esteem for the trust our clients place in us.”

The 2019 RER 100 has been released, and Rouse is proud to announce that 61 out of the 105 companies featured are participants in Rouse Analytics’ Rental Metrics Benchmark Service.  These companies represent $23.0B out of the $28.1B total revenue tracked by RER.

“We’re very pleased with our clients’ continued growth and success,” said Phil Mause, Managing Director of Rouse Analytics.  “Our goal has always been to enable our clients to effectively drive profitable revenue growth through better-informed fleet management decisions.  Our service helps them understand local market dynamics and identify the types of equipment that have the highest return on investment in their territories.”

The information provided by Rouse has become even more valuable to participating rental companies this year as a result of the disruption caused by COVID-19. “Our benchmarking service started in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis as equipment rental companies struggled to figure out how the equipment market would recover,” said Mause.  “While the impact of COVID-19 has not been as prolonged or severe, the economic uncertainty that it has created has made the real-time information that we provide on local market supply and demand dynamics even more vital to our clients.  They need that visibility to make well-informed decisions on fleet purchases, disposals, and reallocations.”

Rouse Analytics provides over 200 rental companies and dealers with comparisons of their rental rates, utilization, and other key performance metrics to industry benchmarks. Rouse currently tracks $65 billion of equipment OEC on a nightly basis and $25 billion in annual rental transaction volume. Its clients in the RER 100 operate 3,693 rental outlets across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces.  Rouse is in the process of expanding the service to the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan.

Rouse partners with more than a dozen of the most widely used rental software systems to make it easy for companies to participate in the service.

For more information or to schedule a demo, email info@rouseanalytics.com or call 310-363-7513.