The break-even depends on utilization. For most New Providence contractors, the number is higher than people expect.
The break-even between renting and buying a piece of heavy equipment is roughly 80–90 days of annual use. Below that threshold, renting almost always costs less once you factor in maintenance, storage, insurance, and the capital tied up in a depreciating asset.
On New Providence, most contractors run multiple job sites a year with varying machine needs. Rentals make sense for most of the fleet. The exception is a machine you run continuously — a primary excavator on a multi-year infrastructure contract, or a dump truck running 5 days a week every week. At that utilization, ownership starts to pencil out.
The factor people undercount is breakdowns. Owning a machine means owning the repair cost when it fails. Hydraulic systems, undercarriage wear, engine work — one bad month can cost more than a year of rental fees for the same machine. When you rent from TNB, the maintenance risk stays with us.