As indicated in the chart, over three-quarters of the respondents (76.9 percent) can replace their construction equipment for less than $5 million. Once again, the single-greatest category of responses represents the smallest in terms of financial investment — under $500,000. Nationally, 43.8 percent of respondents could replace their equipment for under $500,000. These results are important in recognizing that the vast majority of respondents have a small (dollar-value) inventory of construction equipment. This trend has been noticed for several years. The interesting change to note is that this year the number of firms participating from the largest category, over $10 million, has once again increased. After last year's 11.5-percent response had more than doubled from 4.8 percent the previous year, it is interesting to see the rate increase to 13.8 percent this year. The very large-inventory contractors are increasing their presence in the survey results.

2. What is your job title?

Although presidents and owners of firms are still likely respondents to the survey — their combined responses equal 38.8 percent of the total — their response rate signals a reduction in comparison to last year's 47.1 percent and the previous year's 55.5 percent. For the second year, managers are responding to the survey with greater frequency, with 30.6 percent reporting themselves as managers, an increase from last year's 27.0 percent and the previous year's 20.7 percent. The 2008 survey presents organization-wide viewpoints of the coming year as mid-level and upper-level managers throughout organizations participate in the survey.

3. Which of the following best describes your authority to specify or approve the purchase of capital investment equipment for your firm?

Nationally, 82.5 percent of respondents either have sole approval authority or participate in approving capital investment equipment, in keeping with the last two years of responses. The respondents who request new equipment remain stable, representing 10.6 percent of respondents, a slight decrease from last year's 11.5 percent of respondents. The percentage of those who do not participate in the process (6.9 percent) has decreased slightly from last year (8.6 percent). Considering the responses this year and last year, the levels of management responding to the survey have created a stable respondent base.

4. Which of the following best indicates your firm's annual contract volume?

This year's respondent pool shows significant growth again in the largest category. Annual contract volume in the under $500,000 category received 13.1 percent of responses (14.9 percent last year); $500,000 to $1 million, 14.4 percent (14.5 percent last year); $1 million to $5 million, 20.6 percent (25.7 percent last year); $5 million to $10 million, 13.8 percent (12.2 percent last year); and over $10 million, 38.1 percent of responses (32.6 percent last year and 23.2 percent two years ago).

Even though it is the second most-populated category, the category for contract volume between $1 million and $5 million has shown signs of decline over the last eight years with a brief rebound two and three years ago (36.1 percent eight years ago, 34.4 percent seven years ago, 33.5 percent six years ago, 32.8 five years ago, 21.5 percent four years ago, 24.6 percent three years ago, 29.8 percent two years ago, 25.7 percent last year, and 20.6 percent of respondents this year).

Eight years ago, the percentage of responses estimating annual contract volume to be between $5 million and $10 million was 14.2 percent, seven years ago it was 10.9 percent, six years ago it was 11.5 percent, five years ago it was 11.3 percent, four years ago it was 10.7 percent, three years ago it was 11.3 percent, two years ago it was 13.2 percent, last year it was 12.2 percent, and this year's response rate is 13.8 percent. This has been the category with the least amount of year-to-year fluctuation.

Continuing the trend that began two years ago, this year there are even more respondents representing large-volume contractors. In the over-$10-million category, eight years ago 23.8 percent of responses were in that bracket, seven years ago 14.7 percent of respondents reported annual contract volume of that magnitude, six years ago there was a slight increase to 15.3 percent of respondents, five years ago there was another slight increase to 18.8 percent, four years ago there was a significant increase to 31.8 percent, three years ago the number decreased to 24.4 percent of respondents, two years ago 23.2 percent of respondents were in this category, last year the number jumped to 32.6 percent of respondents, and this year the number increased to 38.1 percent. A category characterized by swings in participation rates, the largest contracting firms represent over a third of all responses this year, marking the third consecutive year of gains.

5. Which of the following statements best indicates your view of the 2008 construction market? Construction in MY market will ...

... remain stable, according to most respondents. Respondents this year are cautiously optimistic for 2008 and the responses create an almost-perfect bell curve. Last year, 80.3 percent of respondents expected market stabilization or growth — 39.2 percent predicted the market would remain stable, 31.2 percent expected some growth and 9.9 percent expected a significant increase. This year, 73.8 percent expect a stable market or growth — 36.9 percent think their market will remain stable, 23.8 percent think it will increase some and 13.1 percent think it will increase significantly. Those respondents expecting a significant increase have increased some — going from 9.9 percent of respondents last year to 13.1 percent this year.

Echoing the increase last year, this year more respondents are expecting a decreasing market. Six years ago, 28.1 percent of respondents predicted a decreasing market for 2002 (that survey immediately followed the events of 9/11), a jump from the 15.6 percent of the respondents nationally who said the market would decrease somewhat in 2001. Five years ago that percent fell to 21.4 percent, signaling a slow economic rebound for 2003. Four years ago, the number of respondents believing 2004 held a declining market decreased even further to 14 percent. Three years ago the respondents who viewed 2005 as a year of decrease further slipped to 10.7 percent. Two years ago, respondents expecting a decline in 2006 represent an even smaller percentage, 8.4 percent. Last year, respondents expecting a decline in 2007 grew to 19.7 percent. This year that number climbed again, with 26.2 percent of respondents expecting a decrease in 2008.

6. What percent of your equipment does your company rent, lease and/or own?

The trend still exists whereby respondents are increasing their renting and leasing of more equipment and owning of less equipment. Five years ago, respondents reported renting 11 percent of their construction equipment, leasing 8 percent of their equipment and owning 81 percent of their equipment fleet. Four years ago, 15.1 percent of the fleet was rented, 8.3 percent leased and 76.6 percent owned. Three years ago, 21.5 percent of the fleet was rented, 10.0 percent leased and 80.6 percent owned (slight overstatement of responses). Two years ago the trend continued — 18.8 percent of the fleet was rented, 6.8 percent leased and 69.5 percent owned (slight understatement of responses). Last year, 22.2 percent of the fleet was rented, 8.4 percent was leased and 69.5 percent was owned (slight rounding error). This year, 19.8 percent of the fleet is rented, 11.7 percent is leased and 67.3 percent is owned (slight rounding error). From the survey five years ago to the survey this year, the percentage of fleets rented has increased from 11 percent to 19.8 percent and the percentage of fleets owned has decreased from 81 percent to 67.3 percent. While equipment ownership remained stable this year, equipment rentals decreased and the use of lease options increased.

7.What percent of your equipment fleet do you purchase new and/or used?

The survey instrument allows respondents the freedom of not having their responses equal 100 percent, so there is a slight understatement of answers this year. Increasing from last year's 61.0 percent, this year respondents report that 65.1 percent of their equipment is purchased new and 32.7 percent is bought as used equipment. For the last two survey years, there has been an increasing trend toward purchasing equipment new rather than used.

8. What equipment does your firm plan to acquire in 2008? (May indicate more than one response.)

Respondents are planning to acquire an assortment of equipment in 2008. Thirty-seven pieces of equipment were included in the survey and all pieces were listed as planned acquisitions for 2008. Respondents were asked to check which pieces of equipment they plan to acquire in 2008 and indicate whether the equipment would be rented or bought. The 22 pieces of equipment listed in the accompanying chart are representative of the top 10 rent and purchase options listed by respondents. There are 22 pieces of equipment listed rather than 10 because not each piece of equipment fell within the top 10 for each category and there were ties within the categories. The list of the equipment includes aerial work platforms, air compressors, backhoe loaders, ride-on compactors, walk-behind compactors*, computers/software, hydraulic cranes, truck-mounted cranes*, crawler dozers, hydraulic excavators, high-reach/rough-terrain forklifts*, generators, GPS technology* (first time on survey), lasers, light towers, rubber-tired loaders*, skid-steer loaders, pressure washers, trench boxes*, heavy-duty trucks (over 26,000 GVW), light to medium trucks (to 26,000 GVW), and welding equipment. Equipment followed by an asterisk (*) denotes equipment not mentioned in the top 10 lists from last year.

9. From what type of business do you acquire equipment? (May indicate more than one response.)

Based on the responses, companies use a wide array of businesses for purchasing equipment. The favorite every year has remained the dealer/distributor with a response of 86.9 percent, continuing to rise from last year's 82.1 percent. The second and third most-mentioned businesses are a used equipment dealer and an auction company (35.0 percent and 33.8 percent, respectively). Equipment is also purchased from a rental chain (29.4 percent), manufacturers' representatives (26.3 percent), other contractors (25.0 percent), and through a reseller (17.5 percent). This list, in order of most responses to least, closely matches the order of response percentages from previous surveys. This consistency through eight years of data illustrates a fairly stable and established distribution chain for selling equipment to the construction professional.

10. Which of the following best describes your primary type of business? (May indicate more than one response.)

Most respondents identified their business as one of three categories — as general building construction (30.0 percent), as highway and heavy construction (30.0 percent) or special trade contractor (26.3 percent). Construction material producer (5.6 percent), other contractor (4.4 percent) and other industry member (3.8 percent) help to round out the types of businesses surveyed.

11. Which of the following best describes your primary type of work?

The top responses on a national level represent the key work-related job areas covered by respondents. The primary types of work include commercial building (28.1 percent), excavating/grading (23.8 percent), carpentry (21.9 percent), earthmoving (19.4 percent), water and/or sewer work (15.6 percent), asphalt paving (12.5 percent), demolition (12.5 percent), clearing/grubbing (10.6 percent), concrete paving (10.0 percent), electrical (8.8 percent), and utility/power company (8.8 percent). These categories coincide with the types of business respondents reported — general building, highway and heavy construction, and special trade contractors. Overall, the type of work done by the responding subscribers is varied and represents all aspects of the construction industry.

12. How far from your home office does your firm do the majority of its work?

Due to the local nature of the construction industry, it is not surprising that 73.8 percent of respondents work within 90 miles of their home office and another 6.3 percent work between 90 and 140 miles of their home office. Together, 80.1 percent of firms surveyed are working within a 140-mile radius. The remaining 20.0 percent of respondents work over 140 miles from their home office. (Allow for rounding errors.) These numbers are nearly identical to the results of the last three years.

Reasons for the close proximity of firms to the field are diverse. Contractors understand the importance of maintaining and nurturing work relationships with customers, suppliers, dealers, employees, banks, and communities. Effectively maintaining these ties requires a presence close to the home office and most of the firms represented in the survey keep their business close to home.

13. How often do you conduct business on the Internet?

This year's majority of respondents report great proficiency with computers and the Internet, like respondents for the last four years. Using the computer for business daily are 64.4 percent of respondents. Intermediate use of two to three times a week is reported by 23.1 percent of respondents. Still surprising, 10.6 percent report infrequent use and 1.9 percent report never using the Internet for business purposes. Since the survey was only available online, it is interesting to note that even though all respondents are Internet equipped and users of the technology, there are still a few respondents who do not use the Internet regularly for business activity. For those construction professionals for whom the Internet is an integral part of their business, their daily use of the Internet is continuing to grow. The infrequent/never categories continue to decline as the Internet becomes a widely accepted means of doing business. The group of infrequent and non-users continues to shrink from roughly one-third three years ago to one-quarter two years ago to less than one-fifth a year ago to 12.5 percent this year.

14. Which business activities do you conduct online? (Respondents may indicate more than one response.)

When asked which activities are conducted online, respondents report using the Internet most often for e-mail (89.4 percent). Also of note, 80.6 percent of respondents report using the Internet for researching new equipment. Other activities include research (insurance, 18.8 percent; used equipment, 63.8 percent; financing, 15.0 percent; rental, 40.0 percent; industry news, 52.5 percent; parts, 43.8 percent; suppliers, 46.3 percent; and service, 23.1 percent), visiting websites of other construction-related organizations (dealer websites, 60.0 percent; manufacturer websites, 70.6 percent; association websites, 44.4 percent; and magazine websites, 43.8 percent), checking equipment prices (50.6 percent), checking the weather (76.3 percent), and making travel arrangements (61.3 percent). For the last several years, the Internet has been used extensively for business and business-related purposes. This year an increase was seen in every category, further demonstrating the reach of the Internet and its increasing role in business activities.

15. What do you purchase online? (Respondents may indicate more than one response.)

For the first time in three years, all categories experienced increases. Three years ago, 22.2 percent reported no purchases; two years ago that number was 19.8 percent, last year 15 percent report purchasing nothing online, and this year only 8.8 percent. New and used pieces of equipment are purchased online, and the percentage of respondents who do so has made an increase of at least 10 percentage points each to 31.9 percent and 30.0 percent, respectively. Still popular are purchases of parts (56.9 percent), supplies (67.5 percent), travel (57.5 percent), books (47.5 percent), and other goods and services (23.8 percent).




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