The evolution of BTR: A journey of growth and innovation

“While working for Trucks & Parts of Tampa, I recognized a gap in services: customers often needed temporary trucks while waiting for their reconditioned vehicles,” says Dols, founder and chairman of the board at BTR. “To address this need, I founded Big Truck Rental [rebranded as BTR in 2023] with the goal of providing reliable rental trucks to small and independent waste haulers facing unforeseen challenges.”

Innovative Solutions for an Ever-Changing Industry

In its early years, BTR offered three service options: short-term rentals, long-term rentals and rent-to-purchase agreements. Over time, the company expanded its service offerings to include Complete Fleet, a comprehensive fleet management solution providing customers with new trucks every 18 to 25 months, on-site preventative maintenance, regular fleet updates and more—ensuring high efficiency, reduced downtime and lower maintenance costs.

This growth did not come easily. However, by establishing a robust service network across North America and redefining industry perspectives on asset ownership, BTR overcame significant challenges.

“Through strategic partnerships with original equipment manufacturers and strategic service providers, as well as by quantifying the value gained through our services, we successfully implemented creative sales strategies, digital marketing and print campaigns. As a result, we were able to navigate growing pains and continue leveraging these strategies to further expand our market presence,” says Zach Martin, CEO of BTR. “Being an early adopter of technology such as Salesforce and predictive maintenance analytics tools also propelled our growth by providing greater visibility into business trends.”

Empowering Growth by Leading with Purpose

As BTR expanded across North America, one thing remained consistent: the company’s customer-first mindset. Guided by three pillars—flexible, supportive and dependable—BTR upholds its mantra, “People Serving People,” which reflects its servant leadership philosophy.

“BTR prioritizes hiring the right people, fostering a positive work environment and providing the resources needed for success,” says Martin. “This people-centric approach has helped us build long-term relationships with our customers and partners.”

As BTR continues to evolve and expand into other markets within the environmental sector, the company aims to leverage technology and data to help customers make informed decisions and ultimately achieve their business goals.

“Our North Star is driving fleets toward a more efficient tomorrow—and we’re doing that through the use of technology,” says Martin.

From its humble beginnings to becoming a leader in capital, growth and operational fleet solutions, BTR’s journey is a testament to innovation, resilience and a steadfast commitment to servant leadership. As the company looks to the future, BTR remains focused on enhancing customer partnerships, driving innovation in equipment rentals and logistics solutions, strengthening its position as a trusted industry leader and maintaining its commitment to adaptability, customer service and operational excellence.

Waste and recycling haulers no longer view fleet rentals as quick fixes during crisis situations—they’re using them as strategic solutions for their operational needs. Whether a short-term solution while a truck is serviced or a long-term capital strategy as a company expands, haulers are shifting from crisis-driven rentals to making them a key part of their business.

Traditionally, the approach to fleet management has been full ownership, with haulers purchasing and maintaining their own fleets. However, as operations evolve, so do fleet strategies.

Fleet Rentals as a Strategic Financial Advantage

As a leading provider of capital, growth and operational fleet solutions across the U.S. and Canada, Tampa, Florida-based BTR is helping haulers optimize fleets through short-term rentals, long-term rentals and rent-to-purchase agreements. These flexible options provide haulers with a more practical and efficient way to keep operations running smoothly while reducing maintenance costs and minimizing downtime.

These service offerings also provide significant financial advantages, such as freeing up capital for growth and improving cash flow predictability. By preventing fleet-related large capital expenditures, haulers can focus on other areas of their businesses, such as expanding route coverage, integrating new fleet technologies or enhancing customer service offerings.

“Rentals play an important role in maintaining service capabilities and cost-effectiveness,” says Pete Hendrickson, vice president of environmental sales at BTR. “Historically, when a truck broke down, the solution was to repair an older truck and put it back on the road at all costs. Now, rentals provide haulers with a more affordable alternative that reduces the risks and costs associated with running older trucks more prone to breakdowns.”

Another key consideration of rentals is their impact on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

While renting trucks can negatively impact EBITDA, in many cases, rental expenses can be added back to EBITDA at the time of sale, maximizing equity value and financial flexibility.

“There are multiple ways to offset rental costs,” explains Hendrickson. “For example, when working with both large and small haulers, rentals can help accelerate their conversion to automation, which increases route efficiency, reduces labor costs and improves safety.”

Customized Rental Solutions for Evolving Operations

With more than 20 years of experience, BTR understands that no two operations are the same, and each operation has different needs. This understanding led to BTR’s three core pillars—flexible, supportive and dependable—allowing the company to craft solutions that work for each customer.

“As we continue to work with our customers, uncover the pain points associated with full fleet ownership and identify more ways rentals can solve these problems, we continue to see rentals become a more accepted part of fleet and capital management strategies, just like in other industries,” says Hendrickson.

Through its consultative, customer-first approach, BTR will continue to help haulers overcome their fleet challenges, unlock the benefits of rentals and ultimately enhance their operations.

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.

As demand for remote fleet monitoring and management increases, Tampa, Florida-based BTR continues to lead as a technology-first fleet partner, providing capital, growth and operational fleet solutions across the U.S. and Canada.

Every truck in BTR’s fleet is equipped with the latest in telematics technology that collects a wide range of data, from historical data on compliance, mileage and engine hours to potentially urgent data such as maintenance alerts. This real-time monitoring combined with predictive maintenance tools helps minimize downtime, optimize cost management, maintain fleet efficiency and keep drivers safe.

Using Data to Drive Smarter Decisions

“Our robust Virtual Dealer Network, which expands across the U.S. and Canada, allows us to quickly address issues, whether through remote updates, on-site repairs, replacement vehicles or extended service offerings provided by our dealer partners,” says Mike Zukusky, chief operating officer at BTR.

This unique service model helps BTR deliver exceptional customer service while consistently delivering uptime rates of more than 98 percent. BTR has also developed an internal cost-analysis calculator powered by an algorithm that allows customers to evaluate real-life scenarios.

“We created an unbiased algorithm that analyzes BTR’s proprietary data and industry data to recommend the most cost-effective option to the customer, such as if it’s a better decision to repair or replace a truck,” explains John King, vice president of enterprise systems at BTR.

These flexible and customizable analytics not only allow customers to make smarter data-driven decisions but also provide more visibility into their rental assets, helping prevent rental bloat and allowing better use of existing fleet inventory. For example, when deciding whether to invest in repairing or replacing older vehicles, customers can use the calculator to gain insights into short- and long-term costs and trade-offs to determine the best outcome.

Increasing Fleet Management Transparency

To provide customers with even more visibility, BTR is focused on improving its customer service experience by enhancing the data and reporting it provides to its customers.

“Haulers should be focused on day-to-day operations instead of trying to figure out how to secure a rental truck, how to pay for a rental truck or how to maximize utilization of their rental truck,” Zukusky explains. “We want to make the process as easy as possible, and that’s really our focus from a technology standpoint right now.”

BTR also is piloting new monitoring capabilities to expand its offerings. One of its current pilots includes an advanced oil monitoring system that could potentially provide BTR with more real-time data on the health of its trucks.

“Ultimately, our mission is to simplify fleet management,” King says. “We’re trying to make our business about the customers’ business, and we’ll continue to use advanced technology and user-friendly tools to accomplish that goal.”

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