RSC sees bottom to softening of demand

Speaking to American Lift & Handlers, RSC Equipment Rental's president and chief executive officer Erik Olsson said the recession will last into 2010, but that RSC might start seeing the bottom of the softening in demand due to its non-construction industrial clients.

"Our industrial customers, such as petrochemical, paper/pulp, food processing and energy focus upon the high capacity utilization of their facilities and machinery, and as a result, they are more likely to outsource their equipment rental needs to a company like RSC that has experts who know the equipment and can service it in a cost-effective manner," Olsson said.

With aerial work platforms comprising 30 percent of RSC's fleet, the largest type of equipment in its fleet, Olsson said the long term trend is positive for aerial rentals. "We believe renting will continue growing as users discover the high total cost of owning equipment."

However, there has been no impact of the US stimulus package for RSC's business, Olsson said. "Much of the stimulus package is used for infrastructure and other heavy construction projects, where the types of equipment RSC rents is used in later phases. We expect the US stimulus package to have a positive effect later in 2009."

During the downturn, Olsson said, RSC has kept high scores of customer satisfaction by maintaining its on-time delivery score of 98 percent within a one-hour window. "To keep our equipment in peak condition, we also are over 98 percent current on manufacturer-suggested preventative maintenance," Olsson said. "Safety is still our main priority and RSC has won several National Safety Council awards based on our OSHA ratings. As of May 2009, our OSHA incident rate was 2.3 compared to our 2006 rate of 5.8."