U.S. contractors to grow fleets over next 12 months

U.S. construction industry end-users will increase equipment fleet and staff sizes in the coming year, according to a survey conducted by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. Overall, smaller-sized companies have a more positive outlook than some of their bigger competitors. Companies that listed lifting or hoisting as one of their core categories seemed more positive about the future than others.

More than 1,200 responses were farmed by the AEM with about 680 of those heavily analyzed.

According to the survey, about 40-43 percent of companies with less than 1,000 employees indicate that they will increase their fleet size over the next 12 months and +/-30 percent said they are maintaining their fleet size. However, for larger companies with more than 1,000 staff members, the number was smaller, indicating only 25 percent of those responding will increase their fleet.

Around 47 percent said they will boost numbers through buying equipment while 13 percent will rent equipment and 22 percent will buy and rent equipment.

Other key findings included:

• More of smaller companies (based on employment size) are planning to increase staff levels compared to the larger (1,000+ employee) companies.
• While overall, 40 to 45 percent of companies indicated that they planned to increase fleet size, 54 percent of those that listed Lifting or Hoisting equipment categories indicated growth.
• Across the equipment categories the amount of core equipment people might rent is roughly the same. However, when the employee breakout is looked at, smaller companies (less than 1,000 employees) are more inclined to rent core equipment.

The AEM Snaphot Survey’s seven questions ended with an inquiry into telematics use. Asked if they would use telematics in the next 18 months, 35 percent of respondents said they had no plans to incorporate the technology in the next five years while 27 percent said they don’t know how and don’t plan to use it. Only 22 percent said they know how and plan to use telematics and 15 percent were inclined to only answer “maybe.”