As the rental equipment market continues to shift and evolve in 2025, the demand for connectivity, autonomy, productivity, safety, labour challenges and compliance will shape the access industry's future.
Long term strategic supplier of Kennards Hire and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of access equipment, JLG, shared with Kennards Hire what they believe will be the global trends in 2025.
As smart construction technologies evolve, access equipment will become more integrated with the broader digital ecosystem on job sites. Rental companies and contractors will increasingly rely on advanced fleet management systems to become more efficient in their daily operations by optimizing equipment availability, scheduling and servicing. This trend will be enhanced by cloud-based platforms that enable owners to access data and manage fleets remotely, driving down costs and increasing utilization.
Integrating autonomous access equipment on construction sites is coming. Although we don’t see common use of these machines yet in 2025, contractors will begin to consider different ways that machines that can navigate job sites and/or position themselves with minimal human intervention could be used on their sites in the future.
In anticipation of this impending demand, access equipment manufacturers will look for new ways to collaborate with other players in the construction ecosystem this coming year — including general contractors, equipment rental companies and other technology developers to create more integrated, efficient and productive work environments.
Moments of Autonomy: While full autonomy is still a few years away, semi-autonomous features like variable tilt technology in JLG scissor lifts, remote driving or booming capabilities and precision placement will likely become more common.
Non-residential construction work has shifted over the last four years. Pre-COVID, office building construction and fit-out jobs were the major drivers for renting certain types of access equipment. Today, work on mega sites, data centres and large-scale projects is more prevalent. This has resulted in changes in what machines are needed on-site, a shift that has led to a change in rental fleet mixes and increased utilisation rates for different sizes and categories of access equipment.
As these applications continue to grow, the need for MEWPs and telehandlers designed to work in space-restricted areas will also rise, and we see equipment capable of helping workers access work in difficult-to-reach locations (e.g., narrow aisleways or alleys between buildings) will be in high demand in the coming year.
The rental industry continues to face challenges related to skilled labour shortages. Companies have had to invest in more training programs, automation of manual tasks and better retention strategies to increase their workforce’s skills.
Safety is always at the top of the mind in an industry committed to putting people first. Working to keep operators safe at height means manufacturers develop integrated systems that actively protect equipment users and capabilities that help keep them out of harm’s way.
In the updated Machine Design sections in the ANSI and CSA standards — ANSI A92.20 & CSA B354.6, respectively — today’s mobile elevating work platform (MEWPs) come equipped with new features that influence the machine’s operation and/or functionality, including:
Over the last several years, robust deliveries have made ANSI A92.20 machines much more common in fleets. With many rental fleets aging out over the past few years, these new MEWPs are now showing up on job sites. For end users, changes like load sensing require advanced planning of work at height to make sure that it’s possible to complete with compliant equipment. This means rental stores must carefully consider how their customers will use the equipment before renting a MEWP to match the job site’s needs to equipment specs.
Content is reprinted with JLG’s permission.