The Story of EquipmentShare: The Sharing Economy Reaches Construction

TechCrunch described it as the “AirBnB of construction.” Last year it had raised $26 million worth of funding. Barely a year later, EquipmentShare is already making waves in the industry.

 

Run by two brothers, William and Jabbok Schlacks, EquipmentShare serves contractors by providing them a platform with which to rent and lease their equipment. As William said to VentureBeat, “We’ve always had a foothold in construction and contracting, so we’ve experienced the frustrations of asset management, utilization, and rental. This is really a birth of those frustrations.” He rejected the comparisons to other companies in the sharing economy, citing the mobility of their assets and their b2b marketplace as differentiating factors.

 

EquipmentShare is also pushing the industry forward as a leader in the Internet of Things. Their newly unveiled system for contractors, called ES Track, automatically gathers data about equipment in all stages of a rental. Technicians install the system and contractors maintain it; data can be read on both mobile devices and PCs.

 

ES Track also complies perfectly with the new “ELD rule” law, which requires drivers to electronically log their driving time.

 

Data will also allow EquipmentShare to develop predictive analytics. Comparing performance data over time will eventually enable the company to predict when a piece of its machinery is about to break down. It also saves contractors money—not only in repairs, but also unnecessary maintenance work.

 

EquipmentShare is poised to change the way contractors work—and with it, push the industry closer toward a full embrace of the Internet of Things and the sharing economy… and a different way of doing things.