Earnings Labs

Herc Holdings Inc. (HRI)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 22, 2020

$134.71

+8.11%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Herc Holdings Third Quarter and Nine Months 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Elizabeth Higashi. Please go ahead.

Elizabeth Higashi

Analyst

Thank you, Sara. Good morning. Thank you all for joining us and welcome again to our third quarter and nine months 2020 earnings conference call. Earlier today, our press release, presentation slides and 10-Q were filed with the SEC, and are all posted on the Events page of our IR website at ir.hercrentals.com. This morning I'm joined by Larry Silber, President and Chief Executive Officer; Aaron Birnbaum, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Mark Irion, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We'll review the third quarter, our view of the industry, and our strategic outlook. The prepared remarks will be followed by an open Q&A. Before I turn the call over to Larry, there are a few items I'd like to cover. First, today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the environment as we see it today, and therefore involve risks and uncertainties. I would caution you that our actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements made on this call. Please refer to Slide 2 of the presentation for our complete Safe Harbor statement, as well as the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. In addition to the financial results presented on a GAAP basis, we will be discussing non-GAAP information that we believe is useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. Reconciliations for these non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP equivalent can be found in the conference call materials. Finally, a replay of this call can be accessed via dial-in or through a webcast on our website. Replay instructions were included in our earnings release this morning. We have not given permission for any other recording of this call and do not approve or sanction any transcribing of the call. I'll now turn the call over to Larry.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thank you Elizabeth and if we can start with Slide number 3. 2020 will certainly go down in the record books as the year that Herc Rentals rose to the challenges of COVID-19 and numerous natural disasters. Faced with the impact of COVID-19 on economic conditions in our markets, our team has continued to deliver outstanding cost savings and efficiencies despite the challenges of extra safety precautions relating to social distancing and wearing protective personal equipment while serving the needs of our customers. Our inherent strengths and our quick reactions contributed to better than anticipated results in the third quarter, and we are cautiously optimistic about the balance of the year. As an essential service, our locations remained open for business and we have continued to provide our customers with rental equipment as and where needed, with the exception of our dedicated entertainment business locations. In the top tier, we are the third largest rental company serving North America with ample scale and capital resources to provide a broad range of equipment that supports a wide variety of customers and industries. We have made strategic investments and resources to build our specialty equipment rental business over the last four years. These investments were well placed and have expanded our ability to proactively assist customers in response to the pandemic and weather related events this year. Our strategic customer and fleet diversification has also helped to offset the COVID slowdown we experienced in certain parts of the business. Our national account customers are also weighted towards essential services, and many remained active during the shutdowns. Our national accounts represented 44% of our rental revenues. These customers are a strategic advantage for Herc with an average relationship now of over 27 years. We remain committed to providing excellent customer service and providing…

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Thank you, Larry. Our ability to manage our operations and sales in this operating environment highlights the traction of our business strategy and the experience of our operations team. We've been through downturns before, but this year has been a true test of our operating model and the resiliency of our team. Before I start my discussion of our results, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our team members who have continued to effectively serve our customers in this challenging environment, and we greatly appreciate all that they do every single day. Great job, team Herc. Now, please turn to Slide 7. Volumes improved each week and we began to see the more typical seasonal cadence of activity in the third quarter. We have made great strides in diversifying the customers and business segments we serve. Our diversification initiative was put in place to help offset seasonal and or severe economic events. This year that strategy paid off as our growing specialty business, particularly our emergency response initiatives helped mitigate some of the impact of COVID-19 business slow down on the general economy. The expansion of our business in the climate and remediation sectors, as well as other targeted industry verticals helped offset the downturn in rental revenue, experienced the non-residential construction and government spending. In September, we responded to the needs of our customers and dealing with the damage sustained by hurricanes Laura and Sally in the Gulf region, which contributed to our improved fleet on rent in the quarter. And at the end of the third quarter, our ProSolutions team was there to serve and assist as soon as the storms passed, and the floodwater receded. Recently, I visited our team in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and was so proud to be associated with…

Mark Irion

Analyst

Thanks, Aaron, and good morning everyone. We were very pleased with our performance in the third quarter, as we continue to demonstrate that we have a business of scale and a resilient business model that is less volatile than many other industries in this challenging operating environment. Our results exceeded our expectations and the assumptions we use for full-year guidance. We've been really focused on margin improvement over the last couple of years. And I'm pleased with how quickly we were able to adjust to the COVID-19 shutdowns by accelerating initiatives that were already in place, managing variable expenses, as well as other cost saving measures to contribute to our margin improvement. Slide 14 shows the financial summary of our third quarter in nine months 2020 results. Equipment rental revenue declined 12.5% from 459.6 million to 402.3 million in the third quarter of 2020. The trends improved throughout the quarter with rental revenues improving sequentially each month. We will cover some of the rental revenue drivers in the next slide. Total revenues declined to 456.7 million, primarily due to lower rental revenue. Sales of rental equipment in the third quarter were 9.9 million higher than last year, as used equipment markets began to stabilize and we focused on tightening up the fleet. We reported net income was 39.9 million or $1.35 per diluted share in the third quarter. Our adjusted net income in the third quarter of 2020 was 39.8 million or $1.35 per diluted share, compared with net income of 43.2 million or $1.48 per diluted share last year. More details regarding our income bridge, and the non-GAAP reconciliations are included in our appendix. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter of 2020 declined 6.1% or 12.7 million to 196.7 million over the same period in 2019. Despite lower year-over-year…

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thanks Mark. And please turn to Slide 20. Before we go to Q&A, I'd like to summarize where we are. You've seen this slide before. It's the blueprint of the five strategic pillars we developed nearly five years ago to accelerate growth and close the gap in financial performance between Herc and our larger peers. That strategy has really delivered. Now on Slide 21, since the 2016 spin-off, we've made substantial progress. As you can see from this slide, from 2016 to 2019, we achieved 8% compound annual growth rate for rental revenue, all through organic growth. With improving efficiencies each year, we increased [adjusted EBITDA] and even a faster CAGR of 11.4% in the same period. In 2016, we set a goal of closing the gap and adjusted EBIT margin with our larger peers. And as you can see, we've made substantial progress. We were burdened with high debt at the time of the spinoff, and with disciplined capital management, we've reduced net leverage from 4.1x in 2016 to 2.5x as of the third quarter of 2020. We've accomplished all of this with a consistent and steady strategy that delivers results. Our business model is resilient with a strong balance sheet and improving free cash flow. We have the flexibility to continue to invest in our fleet, particularly in our specialty businesses, and to take advantage of other opportunities for growth. Through solid execution, we intend to continue to improve value for our shareholders, customers, and employees in the long term. And now, I'd like to have the operator open the line for questions. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Jerry Revich with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Hi, good morning, everyone.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Good morning, Jerry.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Good morning.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

I'm really pleasantly surprised by the fleet on wreck progress that you made over the course of the quarter and the outlook for the fourth quarter which, you know looks like implies a sequential increase in fleet on ramp, which is better than normal seasonality. I'm wondering if you could just talk about which end markets are driving that sequential improvement into the fourth quarter and the trend that's obviously better than we normally see in the fourth quarter.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Hi Jerry, this is Aaron. In the third quarter, what drove that was just a stronger comeback to the non-res commercial markets that we participate in, as well as the markets for the emergency response, such as down the hurricanes. And those were the bigger drivers. We also saw just our industrial manufacturing segment start to pick back up as we mentioned, it was starting to close the gap on pre-COVID levels.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

In the fourth quarter, so it looks like here – based on the year-over-year comments you made on fleet on rent, you're looking for sequential increase in fleet on rent 4Q versus 3Q, which is very good versus normal seasonality. Can you comment on what's driving improvements into the fourth quarter?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Yeah, the same, the two of the three are growing specialty business. The commercial markets still are trying their best to improve. We're participating in that. And we see our industrial manufacturing, you know come back to emergency response piece that probably won't repeat, but we do see the fourth quarter, as long as there's no other COVID impacts closing down of cities etcetera, we continue to see improvement in the fourth quarter.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Yeah, Jerry, we're also seeing, you know, a slow beginning of improvement in our entertainment, especially the primarily TV and film as that slowly comes back as those content producers get back to [indiscernible].

Jerry Revich

Analyst

I think we all look forward to that content coming back. And in terms of the EBITDA guidance for the fourth quarter, you know, your margin execution has been really outstanding this year, and you know, I think the guidance points to margin compression in the fourth quarter, compared to normal seasonality. And I'm just wondering is that just because we're so early in the cycle there's a lot of uncertainties or do you have any costs that are coming back? Can you just give us a bit more context there?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

I mean, I think Q3 is typically the seasonal peak in margin as it is in rental revenues and rental volume. We are looking to see some losses on equipment sales in Q4, which will have an impact on Q4 EBITDA margins. And other than that, you know, just I think conservative forecasting the environment still – it's becoming clear, but it's still a little bit cloudy out there as to which way things are going to go.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Okay, I appreciate the color. Thank you.

Larry Silber

Analyst

Thank you, Jerry.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst

Thanks Jerry.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mig Dobre with Baird. Please go ahead.

Mig Dobre

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking a question here. So, I just kind of want to follow up on the [fleet discussion]. If my math is right, then fleet ending OEC is down, call it 5.5% versus the prior year exiting the third quarter, and you know, you're also saying here that you're going to further tap the auction channel and sell a little more equipment and forth, so in theory that should put pressure on fleet yet again. So, if I'm thinking about that, and then I'm looking at your comment that the guidance is embedding a fleet on rent decline of 4% to 6%, should we interpret all of this as utilization being flat to up year-over-year in the fourth quarter?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

We don't really guide to utilization or time utilization. I think I mean, I think the best way to phrase it is, you know, we've seen a massive whack to rental demand in Q2; we're still working on catching back up to year-over-year levels, and Q3 and Q4. So, closing that gap, but there is still a gap. And within that there's room to adjust our fleet. So, I think running a reduced fleet size and their environment is completely appropriate. We typically take down fleet in Q4 in any sort of normal year. And we're sort of just working our way back to that normal fleet management in Q4 of this year.

Mig Dobre

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Right. And I understand you don't guide to utilization? It's just that that's sort of to me what the numbers would imply, and really, the essence of my question is more along the lines of equipment supply and demand versus where you see current market levels of market activity. And frankly, what that implies on a go forward basis in terms of equipment and investment beyond the fourth quarter? So that's really kind of what I'm trying to get at. I'd appreciate some color there, if you could.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Yes. So, we are looking to close the gap to 2019 as fast as possible. We're looking to increase our rental fleet on rent. The actual size of the fleet doesn't necessarily control that. So, we can increase volume and take the fleet size down. We're seeing 2021. I mean, you look at the macro, the macro stats is looking flattish of 2020. We're looking – we're probably going into 2021, you know, relatively balanced in terms of our CapEx, sort of expectations and we can adjust that as necessary. So, you know, if we go on with a small fleet, we can adjust to the actual demand that we see as that shows up during the year and react accordingly.

Mig Dobre

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Understood. And my last question, since you brought up that Slide 18, you know, I understand that these forecasts that you have on the slide are not yours, they’re source from third parties, but if you kind of think about the industry, if, say for instance, the non-[residential building starts] forecast for 2021 is correct, and industrial is obviously recovering, should the North American equipment rental market be flat in 2021 versus 2020? How do you think about the moving pieces there?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Yeah, I'm not really that good an economist to be able to sort of put it together myself. I think, you know, there has been a big impact to the U.S. economy this year, for sure. That's going to have an impact on 2021 that we really don't know. I think our end markets are probably more resilient and in better shape than a lot of the end markets, but as I said, you know, I think we'll just position our fleet, you know, as normal in Q4, and we'll be ready to react to the activity that we see in 2021. I don't think it's going to be a bad year. There's going to be challenges [certainly end markets], and there's going to be opportunities in [certainly end markets].

Mig Dobre

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Alright. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Ross Gilardi with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Ross Gilardi

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Thanks, guys. Good morning.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, Ross.

Larry Silber

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Ross. How are you doing?

Ross Gilardi

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

It's been great. Thank you. I just wanted to ask you, I think I asked a similar question last quarter, just with Q4 your fleet on rent down 4% to 6% in Q4 and your rental revenue down 6% to 8%, is the Delta more rental rate erosion or are those mixed or other impacts, can you elaborate on that?

Larry Silber

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Yeah, I would say it's more mix and other impacts rather than rate where we're seeing positive movement in rate and will continue to drive rate, you know, as aggressively as we have been over the last, you know, 16 quarters or 20 quarters. And so I think it's more the other areas.

Ross Gilardi

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Got it. And then, your SG&A like, where do you exit the year on a quarterly basis because as some of the other questions, you know alluded to, you know, rental revenue certainly seems very [indiscernible] into Q4 it's not a little bit counter seasonally positive, but if my math is correct, I think you've still got EBITDA down like 20% at the mid-range on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter, is most of that just SG&A coming back in the business? And whatever you do in Q4, should we view that as sort of an appropriate run rate for 2021 at this point?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Well, I'll let Mark comment to the specifics. But, you know, we are having people back out, traveling back seeing customers, you know, more things are happening. So, it's natural to assume that, you know, our SG&A will – you know, cost will pick up. You know same with the OE. You know, as we, you know, begin to ship more gear, as we begin to, you know, utilize the different types of services that maybe we were able to contain and completely, you know, turn off during the high peak of COVID. But as we return to normalcy, I would expect, you know, some of those categories to also return to, you know, more normalcy. That said, we've been able to, you know, sort of figure out some new things, adjust our business model, learn some new ways to contain cost, and we'll expect to continue focusing on those new methodologies to keep costs down. But, Mark, you may want to comment on [specific request].

Mark Irion

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

I think – I mean, there will be some costs coming back as the volume increases. We are focused on margin improvement, and you know, I think you'll continue to see margin improvement as a result of that. So, some of these cost changes are permanent and are just utilizing operating leverage as revenue base comes back. So, you know, we'll look to give you 100 basis points to 200 basis points of REBITA improvement over the next couple of years. You know, it's going to be a little bit challenging to sort of keep on running at this sort of plus 300 basis point pace. But we will continue to sort of, you know, look for 100 basis points to 200 basis points each year.

Ross Gilardi

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Got it. Thanks Mark. And then, just lastly, can you guys elaborate a little more on the ProSolutions, up 14%. You know, that's obviously pretty impressive in this environment and the number look like if you maybe stripped out the emergency, you know, response tied to COVID, and you know, the hurricanes?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Well, we've invested in the ProSolutions business for the last four years with fleet. Footprint across North America, opening up new locations, adding in, you know, technical expertise and professional sales people into the business. So, we've invested more rapidly than our [indiscernible] business, so, you know, we do have expectations for it to continue to grow faster than the rest of our business. And I think this year, that model is proven out, and anytime there is a emergency disaster, like we saw with the hurricanes, you know, they do have relationships where they can move in and really solve the problems of those communities pretty quickly. And so, we like that part of our business very much.

Ross Gilardi

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Is your CapEx in that part of the business actually trending up yet at this point? And it would certainly seem given the growth there that's probably on [the comment] and I was wondering if you agree with that and what types of equipment would that entail if that was the case?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

So that's true, and we gathered together when the COVID situation began. And in March, we decided, you know, where should we reduce our CapEx and where should we not and we did not pull back on our ProSolutions CapEx.

Ross Gilardi

Analyst · Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Brian Sponheimer with Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Elizabeth Higashi

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Gabelli. Hi, Brian.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Good morning.

Larry Silber

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Brian.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Look, another great quarter. I'm just curious about the visibility you have on the entertainment business and to the extent that you can – if you can kind of dimension what you expect to come back and what still, whether it's the festivals or things like that would still potentially a concern for 2021?

Larry Silber

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

You know, look, I think our visibility on TV and film is pretty good in terms of what we see coming back and where that's coming back in the, what I'll call the pure entertainment area, you know, live events. You know, that's probably a little more cloudy at this point and no certainty as to when that might come back, you know, in terms of any great strength, until, you know, we have more visibility on, you know, the pandemic, and that – you know, that diminishing or there being some kinds of vaccines. But, you know, you can just watch on sports and things that you're watching on TV. You know, there's not many people at these venues today, so that's a little more cloudy. But TV and film is slowly coming back. Aaron, any more color on that?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Yes. During the five months after, you know, the COVID began, they went from growing pretty well to zero. And in the month of September, we started to come back to life, as we said, you know, maybe it's 25% or 30% in normal. But we believe from talking with our teams that it'll continue to pick up pace, and maybe sometime in the first quarter, if nothing else comes along, that disrupts business, we'll be getting a lot closer to what it was. On the live event business, I think there might be a slower turn. That's – you know, we kind of divide our entertainment into film, TV and commercials, and then, live events. So, live events, we'll have to wait and see. I know there's things being planned for next year and our customers are talking about needing equipment, but we'll have to see if how much of that materializes.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Thank you. That's really helpful. And this is about a low-to-mid single digit business when it's normalized as a percentage of your total revenue?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Yes, that's correct. Yes.

Brian Sponheimer

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Okay. Alright, well, best wishes for another good quarter. And thank you very much for answering my questions.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Larry Silber

Analyst · Gabelli Funds. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Brian.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Steven Ramsey with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Good morning.

Larry Silber

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Steve.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

I guess, yes, to start with on the unique factors for Q3 results, like energy, hurricane, and then entertainment coming back online. If you add those up, you know, what did rental revenue do maybe ex-those items?

Mark Irion

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

I think that's a little bit granular for us to really be able to respond to it. I mean, as Aaron alluded to, the entertainment business was coming off at zero. So that might have, you know, had a better percentage increase. But I think, just in general, those – you know, the economy was shut down and the economy is reopened, so most of the end-markets grew at a similar sort of pace outside of maybe the entertainment and film, which was really locked down.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

And to give you a little bit more color on the number, our – the revenue attributed to the hurricanes and the fires was only about 1% of our third quarter [res].

Steven Ramsey

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Got you. Okay. And I guess, maybe thinking how some of these, you know, unique factors of hurricane and entertainment coming back online, how does maybe that carry over for Q1? You know, I know there's generally a sequential decline from Q4 into Q1, but given this is an odd year and those starting to come back, will that seasonality change much from Q4 into Q1?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

I mean, I think we'll see the normal seasonality. You know, it's been an unusual year, but there's still going to be a winter, so it'll drift off towards the end of Q4, as it normally does, and continue to sort of, you know, drift down into January and start picking up again, you know, in March, April. The question or the real – you start to see the real impact to or the real strength of 2021 into that sort of spring season, and we'll be, you know, working our way through the winter, and, you know, keeping a keen eye on just activity sort of kicking back into the spring.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Great. And then, last question from me on pricing specifically for the entertainment market, as that business comes back on, is pricing similar to what it was pre-pandemic as you put that fleet back out for rent?

Mark Irion

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Yes. I think you can see from our results in the third quarter, with all the businesses coming back in that pricing is being relatively stable.

Steven Ramsey

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Great, thank you.

Mark Irion

Analyst · Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Steven.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from John Healy with Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

John Healy

Analyst · Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Congrats, guys on just a strong year-to-date performance despite everything that's been going on. Just one question for me, when you look at kind of the change in revenue in Q3, I imagine you have a better handle of it versus what you saw on in Q2, but if you just looked at kind of like the industrial and the non-res customer activity, how would you describe, you know, the breakage in revenue? Is it projects that are delayed? Is it projects that are cancelled? Is it limitations in terms of the capacity in which these customers can act? I'm just trying to understand the composition of the revenue decline that you guys are seeing in the business kind of more of – you know, how and the tangibility of how it's developed?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

Sure. John, this is Aaron. To break it down a little bit, on the industrial side of the business, we've seen projects delay early on, right after March, and now coming back, we believe that that work has to get done. So whatever doesn't get done this year, it will probably happen next year. We've seen some industrial projects actually get delayed indefinitely. We read one yesterday that was related to the vaccine, and, you know, the pandemic, and they were just delaying indefinitely. But on the commercial side, we've seen our national customers on the non-res commercial side hold up better than our local customer business. And the way I would describe the non-res commercial business is just the projects that were in place are coming back and they're going back to work, and, you know, we'll see next year what the pipeline really looks like. But, you know, they're just getting back to work on the non-res side. On the industrial side, they're delaying more or less, but as we get into the latter parts of the third quarter of 2020 and fourth quarter, we're seeing them – those delays actually starting to kick back in.

Larry Silber

Analyst · Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

And there is some impact relative to the availability of workers, of construction workers, of trade, skilled trade, you know, as a result of the pandemic, with, you know, there being, you know, breakouts and things like that on various projects that has certainly impacted, you know, numerous projects across the nation. So, I think that's, you know, part of the delay and part of the issue relative to that returning more quickly.

John Healy

Analyst · Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

Okay. Thank you, guys.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

Thanks [indiscernible]. Thank you.

Larry Silber

Analyst · Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

That was…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Seth Weber with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Seth Weber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everybody.

Larry Silber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hey.

Seth Weber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I guess maybe for Mark, in the fleet ages up to 47 months, I think it was up from 44 and can you just talk about, you know, your ability to continue to sweat those fleet further? At what point does repair maintenance become prohibitively expensive? Or, you know, how much more room do you feel like you have to sweat the fleet? Thanks.

Mark Irion

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Might be a better question for Aaron, but I don't have a problem sweating fleet. So, [I’ll do the better for a CFO]. The maintenance does not ever really get prohibitively expensive. I mean, we've – you’ve seen it pushed out to 51, 53, 55 months, and other fleets before. You pick out maybe 1% or 2% of maintenance, of incremental maintenance costs, which doesn't really cost you a lot in terms of the replacement capital. The fleet's gotten better than it has – ever has been in terms of manufacturer quality and ability to age. The rental hold is maybe 30% of the actual life of that fleet, so, you know, once we sold it, there's another two owners probably. So, it's not – it's – we're flexible based on market conditions. But, you know, these downturns don't tend to go past two years. This one looks like it's going to be real short and sharp. 44 is not a problem at all, and you know, we'll be flexible as we go forward. But, you know, it's not a – fleet age doesn't provide an issue. It’s really just the economic environment that we're dealing with that puts most of the challenge on.

Seth Weber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Okay. So, you wouldn't be opposed to pushing it back into the low 50s. Is that what you're saying?

Mark Irion

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Not at all. But Aaron can jump in somewhere along the way here.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Well, yes. [Indiscernible] through the last downturn, 8, 10 years ago. Yes, I wouldn't be concerned about going 51, 53 months if we had to. But our fleet makeup is a lot different in this company than it was back then. Again, the specialty business, that fleet has a lot longer life, so the averages look a little different, but I wouldn't sweat 51 to 53.

Larry Silber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

All that said, you know, our preference would be let's see where this downturn is. If we see an end to it, we'll bring the age of the fleet back down again, you know, methodically over a period of time to make sure that if we encounter another downturn, we'd be able to sweat the fleet again.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Sure.

Seth Weber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Okay. That's helpful. And then, I guess, just, you know, the follow-up to that would be, you know, you're kind of entering the time of year when you start to have your negotiations with the OEMs. Is it fair to think that you might be more cautious even in your discussions initially, you know, to start on how you're thinking about CapEx for 2021 and just sort of, you know, relative to the traditional cycles or traditional years, you might hold off on putting orders in until you have better line of sight so maybe that happens early next year instead of late 2020?

Larry Silber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Well, look, I think it’s a little early in the game for us, you know, for – to really sort of comment on next year's capital. But, you know, I think we do have some categories that we'll get a jump on where we know we'll have the opportunity, and, you know, I think most of manufacturers, with their ability to respond quickly, would be readily available to supply gear when and where needed.

Seth Weber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Okay. Alright, thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Have a good day.

Larry Silber

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Rob Wertheimer with Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everybody. Can you hear me now?

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi, Rob.

Larry Silber

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi, Rob.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Hey. So obviously, really excellent results on cost control and the management in general. Just a couple questions on that, I know you've gone into it. But did you pull any levers more, you know, this quarter, you know, maybe in the SG&A line? We could see some in the rest of the business. And then, if we look at the SG&A line, how much of that save should we expect to sort of endure permanently versus bouncing back up and you find deficiencies from operations in the rest of the cost structure?

Mark Irion

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

I mean, it's a little bit hard to sort of get too granular on it. There were – you know, in Q2 and Q3, there were some really unusual SG&A savings, just given the amount of the shutdowns. So it is going to come back a little bit. I think you could probably run it at the same percentage of rental revenues going forward. So, you know, we'll continue to try and lock down the margin impact, but on an absolute basis, you know, there will be costs coming back into the businesses as the volume improves.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Okay, perfect. And what about the rest of the cost structure? I mean, is there a lot of extraordinary stuff in there driving this kind of margin game? And pricing [wasn't a help]. It has been for you, you know, obviously, it will be again, and your margins are great. So, just a little bit of a question of its maturation of all the efforts you have been doing or whether there was any – you know, any one time lumpiness, you know, that pulled costs down this – you know, this quarter outside of SG&A? Thanks.

Mark Irion

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Again, not really for the DOE we've been working really hard on a lot of those line items in terms of just, you know, maximizing operating leverage. So, they'll continue, I suspect, at the same sort of level of rental revenues. And I think maybe some of these questions are coming around in terms of the guidance for Q4 and it's more – I think the EBITDA margin that we're sort of guiding towards is being impacted by equipment sales. So, you're not going to see the same reduction in REBITDA margins going into Q4 as you will in the EBITDA margin. So it's not going to pop up on your cost lines. It's more in the used equipment losses that were factoring in.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Thanks. That was a helpful answer. My questions is more [indiscernible]. I mean, you've improved the cost position, you know, materially this year, a tough year. So, I was just trying to sort of keep hold on how much was permanent in the [result of ongoing] efforts versus, you know crisis related. But anyway, thanks for the answers.

Aaron Birnbaum

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Yeah, no, you got it. And I think, I mean margin, you will see margin improvement or we are definitely focused on continuing margin improvement in 2021 and 2022 after this sort of 20 to 2020 levels that you're seeing.

Rob Wertheimer

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks everybody.

Elizabeth Higashi

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Thanks Rob, and operator we've come to way past an hour, so which is typically when we end this. So my apologies for the others that are lined up to take calls, but we can, you know, give me [indiscernible] and we'll try to follow up with you afterwards. So, thanks again, everyone for joining us, and we look forward to speaking to you all soon.

Operator

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.