United Rental Notes Strong Acceptance of Digital Tools
More than 70% of first-quarter revenue was generated by customers using its digital tools, according to United Rentals. The rental giant reported $3.49 billion in revenue during the period.
Customers use its digital platforms, including Total Control, United Rentals Mobile App, and the online marketplace to support their safety, productivity and sustainability objectives, according to the company.
United Rentals supplier Bobcat uses its machine-monitoring system to control access to equipment.
“The industry is continuously evolving, and digital solutions have helped strengthen our partnership with customers,” said Paul Maddison, director of digital innovation, in a statement. “Our team is focused on simplifying the customer experience, as well as providing relevant alerts and notifications throughout the rental process.”
Speaking on a panel hosted by Trackunit, “Future of Safety and The Connected Jobsite,” John Mongan, director, advanced concepts, said that United Rentals is working to provide more customer insights with data, specifically to guide productivity metrics using utilization data.
“Where I see it going is toward more sophisticated information,” Mongan said. “Our customers want that information about how the equipment’s being used, where there are maintenance problems. Ultimately, that’s the best kind [of] eliminating downtime we can get to: If we provide equipment to a site, we want to be able to guarantee that it’s up and running at all times. Those unplanned breakdowns—avoiding those is critical for us.”
The panel discussion also included Cody Meeker, global fleet manager for Bechtel, who described that fleet’s efforts to create a carbon intensity metric.
Customers are using United Rentals’ digital platforms throughout the rental experience, according to the company: from renting equipment, checking real-time status of deliveries, placing service calls and tracking status, taking equipment off rent, to making payments. In addition, customers can monitor usage remotely through telematics to right size the fleet on the project, ensuring that the rented fleet is utilized effectively.
About the Author
Rod Sutton
Sutton served as the editorial lead of Construction Equipment from 2001 through 2025.