diesel mechanic

associate

inside sales representative

truck driver

outside sales representative

United Rentals

Typical day includes 8 - 9 hour work shift (7am-5pm) (depends on what position you are in) with weekends off. Some positions will require you to be on call or available to help customers and internal team members outside of normal business hours in emergency situations. 
You will learn every aspect of the business, e.g., sales, service, transportation, operations, etc. It's a fantastic place to kick start a career as an intern, inside sales, driver, equipment associate, dispatcher, etc. with opportunities to advance from within. This is coming from a branch level, there are opportunities within the district, region and corporate levels.

UR has a great workplace culture and values safety as #1 to ensure our employees are working safe and return home the same way they came to work. There are moments where it's overwhelming; but makes the day go fast and you feel accomplished. Feels like family at a local level within a corporate structure which keeps you going. 

Difficult part of the job is being new to the industry and put on the phone the 3rd day due to the branch being shorthanded. I was unable to shadow each department until after a year; this hurt because it should've been like that from the get go to be better at my job. Our company lacks training anyone new to the industry at a branch level especially equipment knowledge. A lot of times, managers seem to lack on best practices when training someone new. I'd like to think overall training has improved but also depends on the branch and how it's managed. I feel that there should be a better approach in that manner and people need to be held accountable. The internship has a great program for this, but not much is done for Isrs, Osas, etc. from a branch level other than the week-long introduction training.  Anyone with experience within the construction industry will have an easier transition compared to those that don't. The other difficult part of the job is not having anyone capable enough to back-fill when advancement opportunities come along. I've been passed over on opportunities due to this which means losing out making more money, and feeling undervalued; meanwhile, I have to help train someone new to the company on how to do their job that may be making more money than me. In short, this can cause a burnout to happen and unanswered questions. 

Most enjoyable part of the job is there are some great people that I look forward to talking to everyday, and we have some fantastic customers that we take care of. We prefer to promote from within and we are constantly growing with locations across the US/Canada and now Europe. Opportunities to relocate and they hire college students with little to no experience. As long as you're willing to ask questions, work hard, be open minded and can relocate, there are plenty of opportunities to grow and make some serious money in this company with a decent benefit package.

United Rentals is the largest Rental Supply Company in the Construction Industry.  There's no shortage of constructions sites to call on but it's highly, highly competitive marketplace and United sits on the expensive side of the rental companies.  The job entails getting to site early in the day and in the construction phase and find, identify key decision makers and look to lock up their rental needs and follow up with additional needs as they come up.  So it's a get out early, walk into some pretty gritty locations, sometime unauthorized to gain access to foreman(s), then log everything in Salesforce on your computer, hopefully writing some business.  It can takes months to gain key contacts' trust.  United starts you with a low base salary (can't live on) and the commission structure is hard to comprehend as you often have to discount the rate in order to have a shot at the business but that's where you can make some money.  A frustrating component of the commission is if a customer does not pay their invoice in less than 120 days, the commission earned is deducted from your pay.  And unfortunately, many in the construction business make it a habit of 'floating' bills as they wait for payment themselves.  So it's a painful reality of the industry.  The sales goals are challenging and there's a high demand to learn the construction lingo, safety culture (which most don't adhere to), solutions to their construction obstacles.  Common phrase used in the business is "drinking from a fire hose".  It's accurate.   The work life balance is poor in my opinion, as it's hard to get around to each construction, walk it (safely), and find who you need to speak to, hope to find a selling opportunity, find the equipment in your system, quote it (competitively), then document the work in Salesforce, and create a follow-up and get out of there and get to next site and repeat.  Often you have to do the admin/laptop work at home at night.  No shortage of learning materials to also do regularly.  Add the weekly super early meetings at the branch, and well it could make for 14+ days when you factor driving home in traffic.  There are some good people in the company, but the demands are high to produce and have rentals lined up ahead of schedule regularly.  You can make a good living at this, but it's can be a taxing environment to work in day in and day out.  Some guys 'got it' and did well and others burned out quickly.

I once wore the UR name with pride , I really enjoyed working for this company and was grateful for my employment here. The company had always had our back and really tried to put an emphasis on how much they cared. Recently I have learned they only care when their bonuses aren’t affected throughout the whole pandemic they have completely lied to the employees. Business is up and stocks are better than ever and they’ve cut everyone’s overtime workload is increasing on the backside and now they’ve started disciplining middle management for a problem they created. We are basically told be happy you have a job and we are being forced to take longer lunch breaks etc. to keep us here for the same amount of time but to not have to pay overtime. Customers are being hung out as well with managers being forced to meet overtime requirements. Our current district leadership is sub par at best we went from having a manager who cared about his ppl and put his bottom line first to a manager whom is only concerned about continuing his own career. 
It’s a very sad state right now and morale is the lowest I’ve ever seen every hourly employee I know is currently job searching and this place is going to be hurting very badly when the pandemic dust settles. Your backbone is slowly going in debt little by little every reduced paycheck and it won’t be long before everyone deserts the sinking ship, very bad business decisions on the past are covered up, employees who shouldn’t even still have a job are promoted for why I don’t know. No one wants be in any kind of management role because managers are given a impossible goal and given impossible restrictions around reaching those goals nothing is done smart it’s always very difficult to complete a simple task, I really don’t see how this company can survive the long term if it wasn’t for them buying up larger companies quickly  and increased their thumbprint eliminating competition they would have already gone belly up what’s even funnier is they run off the experienced ppl they bring in from buyouts in favor of buddies , or hiring in recent college grads who have zero experience. So it winds up the blind leading the blind. 

Trench Safety - You drive and deliver floor plates (the thick metal plates you drive over that cover ditches), and trench boxes (the equipment they drop in trenches to keep the walls from falling on those who are working deep within). As such you operate an attached flatbed truck with a knuckle boom crane at the back. 

Safety is properly preached and practiced - Not only do they impress the importance, they provide you with and demand you use the best in safety gear. 

If you make a mistake - It could kill you, damage property, or harm others around you. 

The manager who hired me left two weeks after I was brought on. The then proxy office manager was a lady who kept cats on the property, and I am very allergic to cats, so that was a bit of a challenge. She was also very angry to emotional a lot of the time (the pressure on her after the manager left was immense and there were issues outside of work that contributed to her emotions). 

Driver shortage - This caused a lot of issues for the two existing drivers, one of whom was pulling double duty as he was the shop foreman. As such, they wanted me to be up and functional within days, having never driven this type of vehicle before (I had a little windshield time, but never on an attached bed, heavy axle), and had never operated a knuckled boom before coming on board. I either did OK, or they were just hard up to get another driver out there, because week two I was in my own truck (this caused a few other problems). After a bit of a rough start (no damage or injuries) they sent in a trainer from Denver and he spent a couple days with me to extend my training. 

You would often either walk in on conversations where from the manager down they were bashing each other, or you would get an ear full of how this person did not like that person. Understand there were six other people that worked there (plus two sales people). The negativity was a real challenge to deal with day in and day out.

The company really did try, but the absence of a manager and the pressures to get me on the road before I was ready, all contributed to unreal expectations with the drivers, and as such it had them on edge because they wanted me in the "on-cal" rotation ASAP (the two drivers had been pulling it between themselves for months). After three months I told them I did not believe we were a good fit.

Eventually the mismanagement, excessive overtime, and inability to achieve goals without constantly being told to do shady things will make you hate the rental business. The company as a whole is actually very good. Two weeks paid vacation from the get-go (with the option to buy into a third week after a year with the company), company vehicle (most of the time), company card, computer, phone, and tons of training. All those things were wonderful. Though, they have many areas that could use vast improvement in; but overall it can be a good company to work for. Just make sure that you are willing to sacrifice lots and lots of time for the company, many times without any form of recognition. You will be on the road more than often, and on call all of the time. Your branch will call you in on your off days, even when somebody else is on call. They will never have enough technicians to balance out the work load, because that would involve someone in management losing a bonus. If they only hire two guys instead of four then lower and upper management get bonus' for making a train wreck work. This means that the techs are getting worked to death. Aggreko does the very same thing. My average work week was 65-80 hours. It was common to hit 70 in a normal week. Working late nights and early mornings constantly. Sometimes you even get up over 90 hours; they'll lie to corporate to keep you on the clock to get the job done all the time. My main issues were not with the company as a whole, but all of the ranks in management. Management is an actual joke. They don't actually want for you to be safe; they just want to be able to say that they had a safety meeting about this particular issue and you signed it, so that they can immediately, and always, blame the technician for "lack of safety." So, everything is always somebodies fault. They preach company procedures that they are constantly telling you to disregard in the field when money or a customer is on the line. In my own experience, everyone from lower to upper management, is just stuck in a constant blaming game. It makes for a volatile work environment many days...

I’ve been with the company for over three years and have consistently worked hard, often taking on responsibilities beyond my job description. During that time, I’ve developed strong experience and a deep understanding of our operations, which is why I recently applied for an internal position I felt well qualified for.

Unfortunately, I was not selected for the role. The position was given to a colleague with significantly less experience, and when I asked management for feedback on my application, I was not given a clear or constructive explanation only that there was “no reason” I wouldn’t have been considered. This lack of transparency was frustrating and discouraging.

Over the past six months, there has also been a complete turnover in management. Many of the new leaders appear to have prior personal relationships with upper management, and since then, it has felt like advancement opportunities are no longer based on merit. It often feels as though employees in certain roles are kept in place because it benefits the organization operationally, rather than being supported in their professional growth.

Our direct manager has shown a genuine interest in helping team members develop and advance, but unfortunately, they are not the final decision maker. Those decisions ultimately come from higher level leadership, and the lack of transparency and communication from that level has made it difficult to understand how advancement decisions are made.

This has had a noticeable impact on team morale, not just for me but for many of my coworkers who have expressed similar concerns. I take pride in my work and have always been willing to go above and beyond, but this experience has left me feeling undervalued and taken advantage of. I hope the company takes steps to improve transparency, fairness in hiring and promotions, and overall employee morale moving forward.

Stress levels are through the roof because promises are made with full knowledge that they can't be followed through with. Outside sales persons are trained to disregard logistics and promise the moon daily. Inside sales people have the brunt of all issues laid on them as well as an ever increasing expectation of job duties. 

The ISR job duties are not accurate in the posting, and they'll tell you in your week long training out of state that you're supposed to do things the corporate way however at the branch level management tells you that the trainers don't know what their talking about. 

Safety culture is preached but commonly ignored, dangerous situations are often scoffed at and brushed aside.

Management is rarely around, my Manger often bragged about how little he's actually at the store due to fishing, hunting, baseball games, and golf tournaments despite the store under performing. 

Hostile work environments are common place, employees yelling and cussing due to lower moral / high stress is an every day norm. Management simply tells you to "work it out" 

Equipment is in short supply and high demand due to aging fleet. Sunbelt and blueline is and will quickly pass UR by in market share. 

Advancement is minimal unless you are mentored, which is hard because no one will do so. Openly told that unless you want to go to outside sales/store management you'll be stagnant (safety and training positions are talked about but no career path) 

Overall United Rentals has flagship stores in each district that things are amazing and go well, these stores get priority on all Equipment and since upper management (district and regional level) are stationed here the branch mangers actually have to carry there weight. If you can get into one of these stores it's amazing, however if you get into a smaller branch or especially a RSC legacy branch this company is a dead end.

To be honest, I love the company itself, but being that I have the experience of working in two separate branches plus being in an on-site branch for a large job site. I can tell you that you’re likely to see that every branch manager does things differently. Every division is different. I worked specifically for the reliable on-site services division. When I was first hired, the branch that I worked at was absolutely amazing.  I loved my team. I loved my job. I loved feeling as if I was truly appreciated. When I moved to a new branch, I learned the hard way that not every onsite branch is the same. My manager was hardly there, the inside team had no experience, including the ops manager, and a lot of the work fell on me as I was often left alone to handle all the inbound calls, managing the branch email, handling all AR stuff and so much more on top of doing my own dispatching duties. When the manager was there, if things did not go the way he expected them to go then whoever he felt was responsible for that he would scream at belligerently like a child. You do have the option to take grievances to HR or higher management, which I did. However, the outcome is usually just a slap on the wrist for the perpetrator and after the meeting with HR there is some serious retaliation.  Most branches you get respect and all of that as you should though so don’t let my experience deter you from working for an amazing company.  I will say, though the micromanagement has increased and for the first time in its history, they laid off over 600 people at the beginning of 2026. It wouldn’t have been so bad though if I had had the support needed to do the extra reports and all for a closer to corporate team.

United Rentals gave me a chance of a lifetime and I took full advantage of it.  When we really started to grow the branch year over year they would build a team around us with the numbers I would project. Soon it was a reality and we started growing fast. Management is great from top to bottom and they always made sure you’re in an environment that you can excel in. United also has the BEST professionals working for them in each industry we support so that our Sales Reps are on it when speaking with our customers designing these elaborate shoring systems. If I showed United I had the ability to become a Trainer, they helped me become a Certified Trainer for OSHA Classes Competent Person Trench Safety & Confined Space Entry teaching me further how to sell any business thru education to develop the customers’ needs for your services. I even became a Installer for our larger engineered systems so I could identify the problems and issues we encountered with each system making my next install and design better than the last one. We also had the ability to work One on One with Temporary Shoring Design PE's & Structural PE Engineers in House as well as One External Engineer for the field. Gave me a wonderful platform to constantly practice my public speaking skills by Teaching thousands of Individuals about the Laws surrounding Excavation Safety and Confined Space Entry.

The company, despite doing well, seems to be permanently understaffed. As a tech, expect to also be an equipment associate, and whatever else they ask of you. I had to do the unloading, checking in, fueling, inspection, equipment triaging, towing, yard work, full service, loadbanking, washing, paperwork, and finally loading onto another truck to be taken away and somehow that still wasn't enough at only $16/hr. My branch manager was MIA for 2-3 days per week, and when he was there he was buying lunches on the company's dime. Of course, thats fine until they cut all of the shop tech's overtime down to 1 or 2 hours a week indefinitely to make up for the extravagant spending. sales guys love to rent generators out that haven't even been looked at yet and management doesn't care. It becomes your responsibility to make sure the generator is good to go, sometimes with only an hour or so notice. Rules change every day, and managers will harass you to be able to inspect and service generators in less than 18 minutes regardless of how many times you are forced to stop and switch to a new task because of the lack of employees. safety PPE is nonexistent unless corporate management is there and diesel generators and heaters are run in the shop during winter time, sometimes for hours, with the shop doors closed and no ventilation. make sure that if you are told to deviate from the rules you get it in writing, otherwise when it comes back to bite them they will point the finger at you. safety is a concern when it doesn't effect their bottom line.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Diesel mechanic 554 salaries reported	$34.25 per hour
Associate 474 salaries reported	$23.91 per hour
Inside sales representative 411 salaries reported	$28.24 per hour
Truck driver 398 salaries reported	$33.72 per hour
Outside sales representative 385 salaries reported	$88,209 per year

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