Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Construction Equipment Rental Revenue Benchmark
Rental and leasing of construction, mining and forestry machinery to contractors and operators.
Average Construction Equipment Rental Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every construction, mining and forestry machinery rental business with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.
≈$7,094,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
5,130
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $36.4 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $36.4 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 5,130 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $7,094,000 per employer establishment. A yard renting excavators to contractors carries a fleet worth many times its annual revenue, which this figure does not show.
Scope: Construction, Mining, and Forestry Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing, NAICS 532412. Classified separately in group 5324: 532411 Commercial Air, Rail, and Water Transportation Equipment Rental and Leasing; 532420 Office Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing; 532490 Other Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed July 2026
Employer Establishments at Year Five Varies by cohort
Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing, NAICS 5324, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.
69.2%the year-five count as a share of the starting count
Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 58.7 to 70.3 percent. This benchmark covers Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing, NAICS 5324, as a whole, and this category accounts for 5,130 of the 16,504 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈17% |
Payroll share of receipts, Construction, Mining, and Forestry Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 17.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, which is low because the fleet, not the crew, is what customers are paying for.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes the cost of the machines themselves, their financing and their maintenance, which dominate this business.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 15.6 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.98 |
Scale and ownership, Construction, Mining, and Forestry Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 15.6 people, and the industry counted 2.0 employer establishments per firm, well above one establishment per firm.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Construction Equipment Rental: what to verify before relying on this.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- What is fleet utilization across the year? Machines earn only when they are out, so utilization and the rates actually realized both bear materially on fleet economics.
- How is the fleet financed and replaced? Heavy equipment may be financed, leased or bought outright and later sold, so financing terms, purchase timing and resale value materially affect fleet economics.
- What does maintenance and damage cost? Equipment often returns needing work. Routine maintenance falls between rentals, while damage beyond fair wear may be chargeable depending on the contract.
- How concentrated is the local contractor base? A yard depends on the builders within delivery distance, so one large project ending can empty the schedule quickly.
- What is the delivery radius? Transport radius defines the market, and machines spent on the road are neither earning nor available to the next customer.
- Who verifies fuel and meter readings? Machines return with meter readings that determine the invoice, and those readings may be disputed.
Explore More on BusinessNES
Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.
Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each staffed yard rather than each company, so a regional operator contributes one establishment per branch.