Team United has always been ready to help. Through more than 20 years of natural disasters, the 9/11 attacks and now COVID-19, we’ve taken great care of our customers, communities and each other. Three years ago, we began to channel that outpouring of help through a new emergency management structure that can adapt to any circumstances.

The first step was to establish an Emergency Response Team of employee volunteers, who now number more than a thousand. The ERT became the springboard for a far-reaching emergency management structure that combines national capacity, mobility and expertise into a coordinated response.

United Rentals has become even more agile in disaster response by bringing consistency to every stage of the process.

The response for every major event starts at the highest level with our executive steering committee. The committee moves quickly to assess the situation and define the logistics of the response. From there, the plan flows to the Emergency Operations Center, or EOC.

Each disaster has its own EOC — a command post that sets up as close as safely possible to the disaster site. This is where the response and communications are coordinated. United Rentals can stand up an EOC in a matter of hours, bringing together region and district leaders and a cross-functional team of experts from human resources, legal, real estate, fleet management, technology and finance. The EOC sets the objectives and executes them.

Once the dust settles from a disaster, we use the experience to make our next response that much better. We might apply learnings from a hurricane in Florida to a wildfire in Canada — or to a coronavirus no one saw coming. The structure we designed is adaptable to every type of crisis.

If United Rentals equipment is visibly damaged or has been exposed to flooding, do not attempt to start it. Doing so may be unsafe and could cause additional damage. 

• If you purchased Rental Protection through United Rentals: please complete and email the below RPP notice of claim to the Rental Protection Plan department at RPP@ur.com for handling.
• If you did not purchase Rental Protection: please email the below Non-RPP Notice of Claim form to the United Rentals Risk Management Department at Risk@UR.com to begin the claim process. Please also place your insurance carrier on notice of loss.

Notice of Claim Forms: 

Damaged Equipment Notice of Claim: RPP (DOWNLOAD)

Damaged Equipment Notice of Claim: Non-RPP (DOWNLOAD) 

If heavy weather is still expected, preparing your team and jobsite for impact iscritical, and there are a few things you can do try and mitigate interruption to your business operations and damage to equipment:

• Disconnect batteries to prevent equipment from shorting out
• Tie down or store jobsite materials
• Move equipment to higher ground or inside