Equipment rental original equipment cost (OEC) measures the rental fleet using the original acquisition-cost basis assigned to the equipment.
OEC is one of the main capacity denominators in equipment-rental analysis because it expresses a mixed fleet in dollars rather than simply counting machines.
OEC is a fleet-scale measure
United Rentals reported fleet OEC of $22.48 billion at the end of 2025.
Herc Holdings reported a $9.5 billion rental fleet at OEC and used OEC to describe the mix of aerial, specialty, material-handling, earthmoving, and other equipment.
A larger OEC base generally means more capital deployed into rental assets, but it does not tell investors whether those assets are being rented productively.
That is why OEC belongs beside Equipment Rental Time Utilization and Equipment Rental Dollar Utilization.
OEC is not current market value
Original equipment cost is a historical cost basis.
It is not:
- current replacement cost;
- net book value;
- fair market value;
- expected disposal proceeds; or
- the amount of cash invested during the current period.
Inflation can make an older fleet appear smaller on an OEC basis than an economically similar newer fleet because the older assets were purchased at lower historical prices.
United Rentals explicitly adjusts its rental-revenue bridge for an assumed inflation effect on the revenue productivity of fleet recorded at OEC.
Average OEC and ending OEC answer different questions
Ending OEC is a point-in-time fleet measure.
Average OEC is more useful when the numerator covers a period, such as annual rental revenue or a year-over-year fleet-productivity bridge.
A company can acquire substantial fleet late in a quarter and report a much larger ending OEC without receiving a full quarter of rental revenue from those assets.
Fleet mix matters
Two rental fleets with identical OEC can have very different economics.
Specialty equipment, aerial work platforms, earthmoving equipment, power systems, trench safety equipment, and general tools can differ materially in rental rates, utilization, maintenance needs, useful lives, and residual values.
OEC therefore provides the capital base, not a standardized unit of physical capacity.
Primary-source examples
Equipment-rental OEC is most useful as the fleet-capital denominator that connects fleet growth with utilization, pricing, and revenue productivity.
Part of the Equipment Rental Operating Model
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