Digital transformation in rental has rarely been short of ambition. For years, construction businesses have talked about modernizing workflows, capturing data, and creating meaningful insights. But few have reached the point where those ambitions converge into a genuine, enterprise-level platform strategy.
For director of asset connectivity Matthew Ross, the change is not simply technological. It represents a fundamental shift in how the industry will operate in the years ahead.
“Sunbelt Rentals’ five-year growth strategy, Sunbelt 4.0, is built on two overarching pillars: our people and our customers, with five actionable components; growth, performance, sustainability, investment and technology,” Ross says. “Under our previous growth strategy, Sunbelt 3.0, we learned a lot about what our customers and people need. But 4.0 takes us to 2029, and the core question is: can we digitize, modernize and become more efficient, while not losing focus on what we do best, which is rental?”
It is a question Ross has spent more than two decades developing an answer. “I’m born and bred rental,” he says. “I’ve loved it ever since I left school; I’ve only ever been in rental. I started at 16 as an apprentice, not really thinking it would become my career path. But here I am, 22 years later. Once you’re in, you tend to stay.”
His grounding in the operational realities of rental colours every part of the Sunbelt 4.0 vision. Ross and his team are building from customers’ requirements outward. At the heart of connecting assets is a platform-led approach, integrating connected assets, telemetry, AI-ready data governance, digital workflows, and Trackunit’s operating data platform IrisX to create a unified operating system for the business.
For Ross, the direction of travel in the industry is clear. “We can’t keep doing business the way we’ve always done it,” he says. “We have to digitize because our customers and the industries in which we operate in are digitizing, and our people in their personal lives are digitally connected.
“The construction industry is moving there, too. So we need to modernize, not in a way that ignores the work of the past, but in a way that builds on what we’ve always done well.”
“We have to digitize because our customers and the industries in which we operate in are digitizing…”
That modernization of connected assets centers on the platform journey. Sunbelt Rentals’ ambition is to connect every asset, from high-end machines to the simplest mechanical tools. The logic is simple: efficiency, safety, utilization, and sustainability gains multiply exponentially when the smallest assets are as visible as the largest.
“First, we want to connect more of our products, especially those that haven’t traditionally been connected,” Ross says. “It’s not about putting a high-end telematics box on a basic mechanical item. But knowing where it is, whether it’s on the right contract, in the right part of the depot, that gives us efficiency straight away. So, we’re moving deeper into the IoT space.”
This is where platform thinking becomes transformative. A single connected-machine provides useful data; thousands of connected assets feeding a unified platform provide intelligence, automation, and entirely new operating models. The result is the potential for a more fluid, data-driven rental ecosystem where utilization, idling, maintenance cycles, and safety trends become real-time levers rather than static reports.
“Utilisation or idling is a great example,” Ross says. “We’ve had this form of data on larger machines for a decade. The question for the future is: how do we translate that into something the customer actually acts on?
“It’s about giving more data, with the right level of insight, to customers so they can make smart decisions, and enabling our people to make better decisions with information they can access more easily,” he says.
Industry-specific platforms like IrisX create that missing layer of insight. Surface-level telematics becomes decision-support; disconnected data becomes a single truth.
“We’ve reviewed all our data governance processes, because AI is only as good as the data you put into it,” Ross says. “We’re a long-standing rental company with decades of data, but that data needs to be formatted in a way that new systems can read it. So, we’re putting in dedicated AI roles focused on governance, ensuring the data is right and that our systems are geared to capture the right data.”
AI can enable automated anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, demand forecasting, safety risk modelling, and even proactive customer advice. But the deeper value lies in bridging systems that traditionally sat apart: rental ERP, telematics feeds, workshop records, logistics, inspections, customer portals, and project-level plans.
“The key is the platform journey, linking all the systems together,” says Ross. “That’s where the transformation really happens.”
That transformation includes new business models. On major projects, Sunbelt Rentals is exploring semi-autonomous on-site depots, machine sharing between prime contractors, and efficiency-led rental models that reduce wasted motion, unnecessary transport and avoidable carbon.
“The key is the platform journey, linking all the systems together. That’s where the transformation really happens.”
“We’re having more conversations with customers about consolidating deliveries,” Ross says. “Can we leave stock on site? Can we create on-site depots? And with machine sharing: how do we do it safely and in line with manufacturers inspection regimes?”
The shift could eventually lead to a rental model closer to a utility service than a transactional exchange where the problem comes first.
“It’s not quite pay-by-the-hour, but close,” Ross says. “You’d come to the team at Sunbelt Rentals and tell us your problem, I have this piece of work; can you give me the solution and then you pay for the efficiency. It’s a big cultural shift for depots and customers. But it’s where we could get to.”
Sunbelt Rentals sees enhanced efficiency on their customer sites not just as a commercial metric but as a sustainability, innovation and safety driver. Fuel burn, idling time, equipment mix, and unnecessary movements all compound into CO₂ emissions, site risk, and operational drag.
“It’s one thing to say on paper that you want efficiency and low-carbon solutions,” Ross says. “But we still see customers, especially at project level, defaulting to what they’ve always ordered.
“That’s where we need to use the data available to us to switch the culture to embrace technology and equipment of the future,” he says. “Yes, the more sustainable and innovative items may have a higher initial hire rate, but they can save in the long run on fuel, carbon, and safety.
“This is where ‘intelligent partnerships’ come in. We’re looking for collaborators in areas where we might not want to build capability ourselves,” Ross says. “How do we work with partners to fill gaps and link everything together? And how do we segment customers. Those who really want to lean into this versus those who just need day-to-day hire?”
For Sunbelt Rentals that means giving data-backed advice to customers that, for example, could recommend the off-hire or re-distribution of a machine that is being underused. While that is something that would traditionally have been unheard of, it only works if the customer and supply chain work as one and can see the full picture. It also requires the majority of the equipment on site also being connected, or it could lead to misleading insights.
“In the current rental climate, everyone goes after every penny,” he says. “But imagine saying to a customer: ‘You don’t need that machine; I’m going to suggest you off hire it.’ If we build relationships like that, it’s powerful, and enables a more trusted relationship and gaining us more work overtime.”
But digital transformation isn’t just for customers. It’s also how Sunbelt Rentals attracts the next generation of employees to their business.
“With younger people coming through, the question is: how do we attract them?” Ross says. “A big driver will be that we are digitizing across the board. There will be uses of AI and other technologies that are new in their world but now coming into ours.”
That future workforce is central to Ross’s thinking. He sees digital tools not as replacements for people but as extensions of them.
“Where we can digitize and make ourselves efficient, it’s not about focusing on people as a problem,” he says. “It’s about enabling people. ‘Digital labour’ is a term I’ve heard recently that I really like. It’s about giving people their own digital assistants to drive consistency.”
“Once all the systems talk, once the insights flow, once customers and our people can act on the same information, that’s when digital transformation becomes real.”
So, while Sunbelt’s 4.0 strategy is ambitious, it is also pragmatic. It recognises the realities of construction: shifting project timelines, complex logistics, variable machine behavior, and customer pressures that don’t always align neatly with idealised workflows.
But in Ross’s mind, that is exactly why a platform-first approach is essential. The rental industry is changing, and for Ross, the path forward is clear.
“The platform journey is where everything is connected, machines, data, people and customers,” he says. “Once all the systems talk, once the insights flow, once customers and our people can act on the same information, that’s when digital transformation becomes real.”
And at Sunbelt Rentals UK & Ireland, that future is closer than it has ever been.
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