Robert Sloan, owner of Contractors Equipment Rentals Inc. (CER), usually goes to the ARA Rental Show to purchase replacement items. This year’s show was no different. As he put it, “If you want to keep your fleet current you have to replace 20 percent of it every year.”
So that’s what he was doing this year, shopping for replacement equipment, but also with an eye toward what’s new and different. “There seemed to be a lot of new battery and electric-powered equipment on display, either on the market for the first time this year or in a prototype stage,” he explained. “I think Wacker had an electric compactor and Ditch Witch had a prototype of an electric trencher. Certainly, it seems that electric and battery power is becoming more viable, although it is still expensive. For sure, the 'Tesla effect' is having an impact on the construction market.”
In business for 28 years, CER is located a few miles south of Chicago's O’Hare airport in Elmhurst and hence its market is driven by the Windy City. The store employs 14 people and rents primarily to small and mid-size contractors, many of whom work in the asphalt, concrete and plumbing industries. The one spontaneous purchase Sloan made at the show was something that would likely appeal to his concrete contractor customers, a track concrete buggy. “It may not be different for other rental stores, but it’s new for us,” Sloan added.
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