Confidence among equipment managers improved slightly in June compared to the previous month, according to the Equipment Manager Confidence Index, published by Construction Equipment. The July 1 index was 107, compared to 99 on June 1. The Index measures equipment manager confidence on a scale of 0 to 200, with 200 indicating full confidence that the next month will be “better.”
The Index gauges the sentiment among construction equipment users who provide opinions on confidence as well as other asset-management topics in exchange for free access to the group’s insights in a secure intelligence software platform. Participation in the Index is free for those who manage fleets of construction equipment. Interested? Sign up here.
“Confidence seems to be improving as the nation opens up from the coronavirus lockdowns,” says Rod Sutton, editorial director. “We are seeing more equipment managers focusing on fleet preparedness so they can put the machines on the jobs as they open up.
“Additionally, although the actual numbers are available only to members of our Index group, respondents in June were also a bit more optimistic about the overall economy than they were last month. Even so, more respondents say it will be worse than better. Because of varying responses from government and health officials who are monitoring the Covid-19 situation, there is no real sense of where the economy is going over the next few weeks. In fact, the uncertainly of the overall economy is dragging on equipment manager confidence even though construction workers are ‘essential’.”
Additional insights available to members:
- Overall economy health
- Current fleet health: now v. last year
- Future fleet health: now v. next year
- Equipment acquisition: better or worse to buy new
- Equipment disposition: better or worse time to sell used
- External rental: better or worse time to rent
- Peer to peer rental: better or worse time to generate revenue
- Planned maintenance: spend more or less than last year
- Rebuilds: more or less likely than last year
In addition to the Confidence Index, members of the platform also provide opinions on trends within asset management, including acquisition expectations, rental plans, and maintenance. In June, for example, the index showed that managers are not looking at the next few weeks as a better time to rent equipment. With the free access, managers can see how the trend is unfolding and compare themselves to others in the platform.
Equipment end users can have access to these insights for free. Others, such as manufacturers or dealers, may gain access to the data as observers by registering here. The next Index computation occurs at the end of the month. Equipment managers can join the group anytime this month in order to provide opinions and access month-over-month trends. Baromitr’s visualization features also allow members to analyze performance and compare how they are doing relative to others in the group.
The data-driven Index is powered by Baromitr, a scalable, peer-benchmarking platform. The Equipment Manager Confidence Index is a custom algorithm that combines multiple inputs to calculate a score from 0 to 200. The higher it is, the more confident equipment managers are.