Fleet Rentals: A Financial Game-Changer

In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, waste and recycling haulers seek strategic ways to optimize capital and strengthen cash flow. One often overlooked strategy is renting trucks instead of purchasing them outright. This effective approach frees up capital for other investments, such as integrating new technologies or acquiring companies, and provides haulers with the flexibility to efficiently scale operations.

Haulers often are faced with challenges such as securing capital and paying the upfront costs to purchase new trucks. Renting can help alleviate some of these pain points. By renting instead of purchasing trucks, haulers easily and quickly replace their aging vehicles without large, upfront capital requirements, improving capital efficiency and creating more predictable cash flow for their businesses.

Guiding Smarter Fleet Decisions

To assist haulers in making informed decisions for their operations, BTR has a rental calculator for easy cost comparisons.

“Our rental calculator shows the cost of running a rental truck versus an older truck after repair, accounting for the high operating expense per engine hour post repair,” explains Pete Hendrickson, vice president of environmental sales at BTR. “By renting, you can take advantage of the speed to market, eliminate capital hurdles and maximize operational and financial flexibility.”

When repairing a 13-year-old truck, for example, a hauler can spend between $40,000 and $90,000 to extend its useful life by one to two years. When renting through Tampa, Florida-based BTR, a leading provider of capital, growth and operational fleet solutions across the U.S. and Canada, haulers receive affordable, short- and long-term rental trucks with an average age of 10 months or less.

Fleet Rental Advantages

A common misconception about renting is its perceived negative impact on EBITDA. However, rental expenses often can be added back to EBITDA at the time of sale, resulting in a net equity impact of zero, says Hendrickson. Renting can give haulers a competitive operating edge in the market.

For example, Colorado-based Eagle River Capital achieved significant year-over-year growth by leveraging rental trucks. Through BTR’s rent-to-own program, Eagle River Capital:

• Reduced maintenance costs with new or like-new trucks with no impact on capital structure.
• Leveraged the asset to generate cash flow and expand its borrowing base.
• Allocated capital resources toward additional growth.
• Built equity on the asset throughout the rental period, with a predictable future purchase price for budgeting.

This success story showcases how renting trucks presents haulers with a strategic opportunity to optimize their capital deployment. As more haulers focus on capital efficiency, rental options are evolving to meet their needs.

“We’re seeing a higher demand for longer-term rental options and enhanced rental services, such as real-time data tracking, as haulers shift from urgent, temporary needs to more long-term solutions,” says Hendrickson.

Haulers incorporating flexible fleet options into their business strategies will be better positioned to excel in the increasingly competitive waste and recycling industry.

To learn more about BTR’s capital, growth and operational fleet solutions, please visit bigtruckrental.com or call 813-291-3275.