Confidence among equipment managers remains steady, according to the Equipment Manager Confidence Index, published by Construction Equipment. The Q1 2021 Index is 108, relatively unchanged from the 109 reported in October 2020. The Index hit its low at 99 in June 2020, but climbed to 107 and has remained in that range for several months. 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.”
“Members of our group indicated their general sentiment at the tail end of 2020,” says Rod Sutton, editorial director. “The fact that the Index remained unchanged following the Presidential election and during the ongoing Covid season means managers of fleets of construction equipment are not moving from their outlook.
“According to our 2021 Annual Report & Forecast, equipment managers expect 2021 to be a better year for business,” Sutton says. “Eighty percent of managers also rated their current fleet health as ‘very good’ or ‘good,’ which further suggests manager’s confidence is based on exterior forces such as the economy rather than the state of the organization for which they work.”
The Equipment Management Confidence Index is published and available to the entire industry at ConstructionEquipment.com/EMCI. Other data trends are available only to members of the Index group. For example, maintenance data seem to indicate that fleets of construction equipment are not working as much as budgeted in 2020. Managers plan to spend less in 2021 than they did in 2020 on certain maintenance areas. The effects of such moves will play out in coming months as managers make maintenance and acquisition decisions.
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.
