WALTHAM, Mass. – March 19, 2001 – The e-rental train may have been slow to leave the equipment industry station, but it’s rapidly turning into the e-rental express as more and

"The typical contractor using Rentmaker is generally medium to large in size with multiple regional offices – since these are the same companies that tend to take an organized approach to the Internet at an earlier stage," said Jerome Meier, President and CEO. "But many of the smaller contractors, rental centers and equipment dealers are now utilizing Rentmaker and finding the experience successful. In fact, repeat usage has climbed to about 30 to 50 percent on a weekly basis, which indicates that almost half of all contractors who have tried Rentmaker became faithful, repeat users within just a week’s time."

Rentmaker provides several unique benefits to contractors, rental operators and equipment dealers. For contractors, Rentmaker provides a service to source rental equipment in a fraction of the time, as well as provide multiple quotes from reputable suppliers and ensure that equipment availability never holds up construction.

"Rentmaker has saved us a lot of time finding the equipment we need, which has assisted the timely delivery of some Army Corps projects," stated Richard L. Blake of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Special Projects Unit in Memphis, Tenn. "When we save time, we save the government’s money."

For rental centers, Rentmaker provides an additional source of leads to access new and/or existing customers – making salespeople more productive by allowing them to focus on other issues. And if you are an equipment dealer looking to increase revenues by getting into the rental business, Rentmaker allows you to enter the market without the added expense of hiring additional sales staff.

"Our relationship with Rentmaker has proven to be most favorable," said Mike Carter, President of All American Rentals. "We have experienced an increase in business via this market avenue, both with our existing customer base and in attracting new, first-time rental customers to our business."

Various other equipment industry (horizontal) portals have also seen the value in Rentmaker’s offerings and formed strategic partnerships with Rentmaker (in order to broaden their site’s services for their customers) by providing direct links to Rentmaker’s services. They include: Hard Dollar Corp., the world’s leading provider of integrated cost estimating and project management software systems for infrastructure construction contractors; OneBuild, the only Net business-to-business marketplace specializing exclusively in construction materials procurement; and Constructw@re, the first Application Service Provider (ASP) to offer a scalable, enterprise-wide project management solution for the construction industry.

Rentmaker is backed by reputable institutional and corporate investors, including: Gabriel Venture Partners, created to help build emerging market leaders in communications, information technology, and the Internet; The Phelps Dodge Corp., a global leader in the mining and manufacturing industries; The Metdist Group, which is involved in international non-ferrous trade and industry and has manufacturing and trading interests in South East Asia and the Indian sub-continent; and The Hindustan Construction Corp., India’s foremost construction company with expertise in various areas including water supply and irrigation, industrial, building and marine construction and environmental engineering works.

Rentmaker is a member of the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), as well as an associate member of the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (ABC) and the American Rental Association (ARA).

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