UNITED RENTALS INC

FORM 10-K REPORT INDEX

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This annual report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seek,” “on-track,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” “intend” or “anticipate,” or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy or outlook. You are cautioned that our business and operations are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and, consequently, our actual results may differ materially from those projected.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected include, but are not limited to, the following:

•the impact of global economic conditions (including inflation, increased interest rates, supply chain constraints, potential trade wars and sanctions and other measures imposed in response to international conflicts) and public health crises and epidemics on us, our customers and our suppliers, in the United States and the rest of the world;

•declines in construction or industrial activity, which can adversely impact our revenues and, because many of our costs are fixed, our profitability;

•rates we charge and time utilization we achieve being less than anticipated;

•changes in customer, fleet, geographic and segment mix;

•inability to benefit from government spending, including spending associated with infrastructure projects, or a reduction in government spending;

•trends in oil and natural gas, including significant increases in the prices of oil or natural gas, could adversely affect the demand for our services and products;

•competition from existing and new competitors;

•the cyclical nature of the industry in which we operate and the industries of our customers, such as those in the construction industry;

•costs we incur being more than anticipated, including as a result of inflation, and the inability to realize expected savings in the amounts or time frames planned;

•our significant indebtedness (which totaled $11.5 billion at December 31, 2023) requires us to use a substantial amount of our cash flow for debt service and can constrain our flexibility in responding to unanticipated or adverse business conditions;

•inability to refinance our indebtedness on terms that are favorable to us, including as a result of volatility and uncertainty in capital or credit markets or increases in interest rates, or at all;

•incurrence of additional debt, which could exacerbate the risks associated with our current level of indebtedness;

•noncompliance with financial or other covenants in our debt agreements, which could result in our lenders terminating the agreements and requiring us to repay outstanding borrowings;

•restrictive covenants and the amount of borrowings permitted under our debt instruments, which can limit our financial and operational flexibility;

•inability to access the capital that our businesses or growth plans may require, including as a result of uncertainty in capital or credit markets;

•the possibility that companies that we have acquired or may acquire could have undiscovered liabilities, or that companies or assets that we have acquired or may acquire could involve other unexpected costs, may strain our management capabilities, or may be difficult to integrate, and that we may not realize the expected benefits from an acquisition over the timeframe we expect, or at all;

•incurrence of impairment charges;

•fluctuations in the price of our common stock and inability to complete stock repurchases or pay dividends in the time frames and/or on the terms anticipated;

•our charter provisions as well as provisions of certain debt agreements and our significant indebtedness may have the effect of making more difficult or otherwise discouraging, delaying or deterring a takeover or other change of control of us;

•inability to manage credit risk adequately or to collect on contracts with a large number of customers;

•turnover in our management team and inability to attract and retain key personnel, as well as loss, absenteeism or the inability of employees to work or perform key functions in light of public health crises or epidemics;

•inability to obtain equipment and other supplies for our business from our key suppliers on acceptable terms or at all, as a result of supply chain disruptions, insolvency, financial difficulties or other factors;

•increases in our maintenance and replacement costs and/or decreases in the residual value of our equipment;

•inability to sell our new or used fleet in the amounts, or at the prices, we expect;

•risks related to security breaches, cybersecurity attacks, failure to protect personal information, compliance with privacy, data protection and cyber incident reporting laws and regulations, and other significant disruptions in our information technology systems;

•risks related to climate change and climate change regulation;

•risks related to our environmental and social goals, including our greenhouse gas intensity reduction goal;

•the fact that our holding company structure requires us to depend in part on distributions from subsidiaries and such distributions could be limited by contractual or legal restrictions;

•shortfalls in our insurance coverage;

•increases in our loss reserves to address business operations or other claims and any claims that exceed our established levels of reserves;

•incurrence of expenses (including indemnification obligations) and other costs in connection with litigation, regulatory and investigatory matters;

•the costs of complying with environmental, safety and foreign laws and regulations, as well as other risks associated with non-U.S. operations, including currency exchange risk, and tariffs;

•the outcome or other potential consequences of regulatory and investigatory matters and litigation;

•labor shortages and/or disputes, work stoppages or other labor difficulties, which may impact our productivity and increase our costs, and changes in law that could affect our labor relations or operations generally;

•the effect of changes in tax law; and

•other factors described in this annual report on Form 10-K and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date such statement was made. We make no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date any such statement is made, except as required by law.

PART I

United Rentals, Inc., incorporated in Delaware in 1997, is principally a holding company. We primarily conduct our operations through our wholly owned subsidiary, United Rentals (North America), Inc., and its subsidiaries. As used in this report, the term “Holdings” refers to United Rentals, Inc., the term “URNA” refers to United Rentals (North America), Inc., and the terms the “Company,” “United Rentals,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to United Rentals, Inc. and its subsidiaries, in each case unless otherwise indicated.

Unless otherwise indicated, the information under Items 1, 1A and 2 is as of January 1, 2024.