How Ardent Hire Solutions is transforming the construction equipment rental market in the UK
When we last spoke to Jeremy Fish, CEO of Ardent Hire Solutions (Ardent) in November 2023, he explained his mission to transform industry-wide rental practices with innovative technologies and sustainable solutions. One year on, Jeremy sits down with the Construction & Civil Engineering team to share the company’s latest developments.
“Since Ardent was established in 2015, via the merger of two family businesses, we’ve been on a mission to establish ourselves as the UK’s premier hire company, not in terms of size, but in terms of service, quality, and professionalism,” Jeremy begins. “When we last spoke, we had a fleet of around 5000 machines: 2500 telehandlers, 1000 excavators, and just under 1000 dumpers among other specialist equipment.
“Over the last 12 months, however, we’ve taken the decision to exit the market for excavators, dumpers, and rollers, and instead focus on establishing ourselves as a specialist rental provider of telehandlers and roto telehandlers. In other words, we are now a materials lifting and materials handling specialist providing innovative solutions for our customers.
“Over the last 12 months, we’ve invested £30 million in our fleet of telehandlers and roto telehandlers,” he states. “We’re expecting to make an even larger investment in 2025 as part of our mission to maintain our status as managing the UK’s youngest fleet of hire equipment, as well as targeting new business sectors. Throughout these investments, we continue to collaborate with our key partners like Manitou to ensure we stay ahead of the curve in terms of innovation and meeting emerging demands.
“While we’ve also consolidated our depot footprint, we still provide national coverage across the UK, but with less variation in our portfolio, we now emphasise an elevated level of service. We want our customers’ experience to be robust, reliable, and consistent, and we believe we can do so by utilising data, strengthening our industry expertise, and providing consultative advice.”
Free trial
With help from some of its strategic partners, such as Western Global and Pow Technology, Ardent has developed the most advanced fuel tank currently available in the UK, called Fuel-IT. By incorporating the latest smart technology, Fuel-IT enables precise fuel tracking and level monitoring at an individual asset level, promoting accountability and transparency in fuel dispersals.
“We already had an excellent reputation for leveraging telematics information to help customers improve their productivity, mitigate risk, and reduce costs,” Jeremy explains. “We then wanted to apply this expertise to fuel management, and after searching the market for an appropriate solution with no luck, we decided to create our own solution for fuel monitoring.
“Where Fuel-IT differs from other fuel monitoring tools, however, is that it also enables fuel dispersal tracking at an asset level. As a smart tank, Fuel-IT allows site managers or operators to account for every single drop of fuel and know which vehicle has consumed it. This flags any anomalies in fuel usage, whether caused by a data issue or human error, and means problems can be quickly addressed. The appropriate data is immediately processed to the cloud, which displays a range of analytics that can be accessed via secure individual profiles.
“Fuel-IT applications are already showing unbelievable results, with businesses saving tens of thousands of pounds on their fuel costs. We use Fuel-IT in house to manage our own fuel consumption and costs, but as more people realize the impact Fuel-IT can have on their fuel management, it will make a substantial difference to how people across the industry think about fuel management.
“Indeed, we’re so confident that customers will make savings by implementing Fuel-IT that we’re offering free one-month trials,” Jeremy reveals. “We ask the
customer to measure their fuel consumption and cost before the trial, and the same measurements are taken afterwards to allow us to compare the data measurements. The customer can then make the judgement on whether the savings are enough to justify implementing Fuel-IT on all vehicles – but customers are typically blown away by the substantial savings they achieve in just one month, even those that previously didn’t consider fuel management as a key strategy.”
Focus on service
Fuel-IT also advances Ardent’s mission to provide products and services that aid both internal and external sustainability strategies. With a dedicated sustainability strategy and carbon offsetting schemes, Ardent is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2035, whilst engaging in several initiatives to reduce the company’s overall carbon footprint by ten per cent during the same period.
“In 2025, we plan to focus on enhancing our already-outstanding approach to customer service,” Jeremy explains as our conversation comes to an end. “Specifically, we’re looking at digitising our processes and simplifying documentation to make it easier for customers to do business with us. On the products side, we’ll aim to strengthen our digital and telematics offerings to help customers reduce their operating costs and improve on-site safety.
“We’ll continue to invest in our fleet beyond 2025 to ensure we provide our customers with the latest equipment that keeps them at the forefront of industry best practices. With the ongoing housing crisis in the UK, infrastructure investment is needed to ensure the country’s future economic prosperity, so we must ensure we’re ideally positioned and prepared to supply equipment for these projects.
“As the industry increasingly leans towards digitalisation, we’ll continue to use data to help our customers gain value by improving the ways in which they use equipment,” Jeremy concludes. “Fuel-IT is a great example of how we can leverage technology, combined with our industry experience, to enable more productive operations and cost savings upon project completion without compromising quality or safety.”