CTOS - NYSE
Custom Truck One Source, Inc.
CTOS·NYSE
$9.83
+3.9%IndustrialsRental & Leasing Services
Custom Truck One Source, Inc. provides specialty equipment rental services to the electric utility transmission and distribution, telecommunications, rail, other infrastructure-related industries in North America. It operates through Equipment Rental Solutions, Truck and Equipment Sales, and Aftermarket Parts and Services segments. The Equipment Rental Solutions owns new and used specialty equipment, including truck-mounted aerial lifts, cranes, service trucks, dump trucks, trailers, digger derricks, and other machinery and equipment. The Truck and Equipment Sales segment offers new equipment for sale to be used for end-markets which can be modified to meet customers specific needs. The Aftermarket Parts and Services segment provides truck and equipment maintenance and repair services as well as sale of specialized aftermarket parts. The company was formerly known as Nesco Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Custom Truck One Source, Inc. in April 2021. Custom Truck One Source, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.
At a Glance
Live SnapshotMarket Cap$2.24B
EPS-0.1400
P/E Ratio-70.21
Earnings Date07/29/2026
Earnings Call Transcript
CTOS • 2026 • Q1
Operator
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Custom Truck One Source, Inc.'s first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Brian Perman, Vice President, Investor Relations. Brian, please go ahead.
Brian Perman
Thank you, operator, and good morning. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that management's commentary and responses to questions on today's call may include forward-looking statements which, by their nature, are uncertain and outside of the company's control.
Brian Perman
Although these forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, actual results may differ materially. For a discussion of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ, please refer to the Risk Factors section of the company's filings with the SEC.
Brian Perman
Please note that you can find reconciliations of the historical non-GAAP financial measures discussed during the call in the press release we issued yesterday after the market close. That press release and our first quarter investor presentation are posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. Yesterday afternoon, we also filed our first quarter 2026 10-Q with the SEC.
Brian Perman
Today's discussion of our results of operations for Custom Truck One Source, Inc., or Custom Truck, is presented on an historical basis as of or for the three months ended March 31st, 2026, and prior periods. Also a reminder that beginning this quarter, our financial reporting reflects our two new operating segments, Specialty Equipment Rentals, or SER, and Specialty Truck Equipment and Manufacturing, or STEM.
Brian Perman
While our 2026 results in our earnings press release and SEC filing reflect the application of inter-segment pricing and margins, as per accounting requirements for inter-segment sales, the segment results for 2025 reflect the inter-segment sales with no margin, as no inter-segment agreement was in place in the period.
Brian Perman
For an illustrative comparison of what the 2025 results would have been had inter-segment sales been reflected with the appropriate gross margin and had other internal accounting policies been in place at the time, please see the appendix of the Q1 investor presentation posted on our investor relations website.
Brian Perman
Certain data in the appendix of the investor deck for Q1 and Q2 2025 for our STEM segment was corrected to reflect an internal error. Full year 2025 STEM results were not impacted by the change. Joining me today are Ryan McMonagle, CEO, and Christopher Eperjesy, CFO. I will now turn the call over to Ryan.
Ryan McMonagle
Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone. 2026 is off to a great start as we delivered record first quarter revenue driven by continued strong momentum in our core end markets and excellent execution by our team. In the first quarter, we generated revenue of $462 million, an Adjusted EBITDA of $98 million, up more than 9% and 33% year-over-year.
Ryan McMonagle
The key driver of our performance in the quarter was continued strength in our Specialty Equipment Rentals segment as the improvement we experienced throughout last year in the transmission and distribution markets continued into Q1. Our rental fleet averaged 81.4% utilization during the quarter, up 370 basis points from Q1 of last year.
Ryan McMonagle
This was supported by continued robust levels of OEC on rent, which averaged $1.34 billion in Q1, up 12% year-over-year. So far in Q2, both measures have continued to strengthen with utilization in OEC on rent currently trending above our first quarter averages. We ended the quarter with total OEC of $1.66 billion, the highest quarter end level in our history, which will support our expectation for continued growth in SER revenues this year.
Ryan McMonagle
Also, the average age of our fleet is less than 3 years old, which we believe is one of the youngest fleets in the industry and positions us well to support our customers. Our trucks and equipment continue to power the people who strengthen and build critical infrastructure in the U.S. and Canada.
Ryan McMonagle
The market has been focused on the durability of demand in T&D and our ability to convert improving rental KPIs into earnings and cash flow, and we believe our trending results over recent quarters speak directly to that. Bidding activity and ongoing conversations with our customers lead us to believe that these conditions will persist throughout 2026 and beyond.
Ryan McMonagle
Performance of our Specialty Truck Equipment and Manufacturing segment in the first quarter was strong, reflecting continued healthy end market demand and order flow. For Q1, STEM revenue, excluding sales to our SER segment, were up 5% year-over-year. We also saw gross margin expand in the quarter, driven by significant cost out and productivity improvements led by our production team.
Ryan McMonagle
New sales order backlog ended the first quarter at $411 million, up more than $76 million or 23% from the end of Q4. Our backlog has continued to grow so far in Q2. As we've noted in prior periods, backlog can move quarter-to-quarter with delivery timing and production schedules, so we also focus on order activity and conversion.
Ryan McMonagle
We saw strong year-over-year net order growth of 13% in Q1, with particular strength coming from our local and regional customers. Despite slower growth in the infrastructure end market, the continued strength in order growth and our ongoing conversations with our customers provide us with the confidence to expect another year of growth in STEM, not including inter-segment sales to our SER segment.
Ryan McMonagle
CTOS is well-positioned with our young rental fleet, current inventory positions, and strong relationships with our chassis OEM partners to navigate the impact of the EPA's 2027 emission standards. We are affirming our previous full year 2026 revenue outlook, which we updated earlier this month solely to reflect our new segment reporting with no change to consolidated guidance.
Ryan McMonagle
We expect consolidated revenue in the range of $2.005 billion-$2.12 billion. Given strong conditions in the T&D end markets, we are raising both the bottom and top ends of our Adjusted EBITDA guidance and now project a range of $415 million-$440 million. Despite some macroeconomic volatility, we continue to be optimistic about our business.
Ryan McMonagle
Long-term, sustained end market demand is buoyed by secular mega trends, and our ability to provide exceptional execution on behalf of our customers sets us apart from our competition. Our long-standing relationships with our strategic suppliers and customers continue to be keys to our success.
Ryan McMonagle
I continue to have the highest degree of confidence in the Custom Truck team and want to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication that helped achieve our strong results in the first quarter. We look forward to updating everyone soon. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris to walk through the numbers in more detail.
Christopher Eperjesy
Thanks, Ryan, good morning, everyone. I'll start with the consolidated results for the quarter, then discuss segment performance, our balance sheet, liquidity and leverage, and finally, our 2026 outlook. Before I begin, I would like to expand somewhat on Brian's comments in his introduction about our segment reporting.
Christopher Eperjesy
As a reminder, because of reporting guidelines for segment reporting, the segment data included in our earnings press release for periods prior to January 1st of this year are not fully comparable to the current year data, largely because 2025 results disclosed in our press release do not include any margin on inter-segment sales.
Christopher Eperjesy
In the appendix of the deck we posted on our investor relations site in early April, we included reconciliations of our historical 2024 and 2025 quarterly segment data in an attempt solely to illustrate what those results would have been had our new segment reporting accounting and inter-segment sales and margin agreements been in place at such time.
Christopher Eperjesy
The appendix of our first quarter 2026 investor presentation includes our segment data for 2026 as presented in our earnings press release with additional adjustments shown so revenues and expenses are presented on the same basis as our 2025 as adjusted results. For illustrative purposes, we provide a comparison of the as adjusted data for Q1 2025 and Q1 2026. All year-over-year comparisons in my portion of the call are based on the figures in our earnings press release.
Christopher Eperjesy
To the extent you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Brian in investor relations. Our first quarter 2026 results reflect stronger operating performance across the business and improved rental fundamentals, particularly in our T&D end markets. For the first quarter, total revenue was $462 million and Adjusted EBITDA was $98 million, representing 9% and 33% growth respectively versus Q1 2025.
Christopher Eperjesy
Turning to our segments, in SER, first quarter third-party revenue, excluding inter-segment sales, was $194 million, up 16% year-over-year, driven by strong double-digit growth in both rental revenue and rental equipment sales activity.
Christopher Eperjesy
Segment Adjusted EBITDA of $105 million was up 23% year-over-year, with segment Adjusted EBITDA margin in Q1 of 51.5%, up more than 415 basis points versus Q1 2025. Our key rental KPIs in SER remained quite strong in Q1, continuing the momentum we experienced in 2025.
Christopher Eperjesy
In Q1, utilization averaged 81.4%, up 370 basis points versus Q1 2025. Average OEC on rent in the quarter was $1.34 billion, up more than $141 million or 12% versus the same period in 2025. On-rent yield in the first quarter was 38.9%, reflecting both sequential quarterly and year-over-year increases.
Christopher Eperjesy
On-rent yield remained within our targeted upper 30s-low 40% range. We continue to see opportunities for rate improvement as transmission mix grows and pricing discipline holds. Our current historically strong rental KPIs reflect both increased rental activity and the continued scaling of our fleet to meet demand.
Christopher Eperjesy
Net rental CapEx in Q1 was more than $49 million. Our fleet age at quarter end was just under 3 years, a modest increase from the end of last quarter, which is consistent with our plan to reduce maintenance CapEx and age the fleet somewhat this year.
Christopher Eperjesy
Our OEC in the rental fleet ended the quarter at almost $1.66 billion, up more than $107 million versus the end of Q1 2025, and up more than $18 million in the quarter. The increase reflects disciplined fleet investment against strong demand, particularly in T&D. While we expect to continue to invest in the fleet in 2026, our planned decrease in maintenance CapEx in 2026 compared to 2025 should contribute to increased free cash flow generation this year.
Christopher Eperjesy
In STEM, first quarter third-party revenue was $268 million, up 5% year-over-year, comprising equipment sales growth of more than 4% and parts sales and service revenue growth of almost 17%. STEM segment Adjusted EBITDA was $33 million, and segment Adjusted EBITDA margin was 9% in the quarter.
Christopher Eperjesy
Recall that our 2025 segment Adjusted EBITDA does not include any margin on inter-segment sales, while 2026 segment Adjusted EBITDA does. STEM margin gains in the quarter were driven by significant cost out and productivity improvements led by our production team.
Christopher Eperjesy
Importantly, our new sales backlog ended Q1 at $411 million, up more than $76 million sequentially and within our expected range of roughly 4-6 months. We've continued to see strong order growth so far in Q2 2026, and our backlog currently stands at more than $425 million. Turning to the balance sheet and liquidity, with LTM Adjusted EBITDA of more than $408 million and net debt of $1.65 billion, we finished Q1 with net leverage of slightly more than 4 times.
Christopher Eperjesy
This represents an approximately 30 basis point sequential improvement and approximately 80 basis points versus Q1 2025. Availability under our ABL was $257 million as of March 31st, and based on our borrowing base, we have more than $190 million of additional availability that we can potentially access by upsizing our existing facility.
Christopher Eperjesy
Free cash flow generation and de-leveraging remain key focus areas for us. Our inventory increase during the first quarter reflects seasonal order flow. Even with that increase, we expect to reduce inventory and floor plan balances over the balance of 2026, which should support improved free cash flow generation. With respect to our 2026 guidance, the macro demand across our key end markets remains very strong.
Christopher Eperjesy
We expect the STEM segment to continue to benefit from an overall favorable macro demand environment as well as strong relationships with our key customers and chassis and attachment suppliers. Our strong order backlog supports this. In our SER segment, OEC on rent and utilization reached historically high levels in the second half of fiscal 2025.
Christopher Eperjesy
Consistent with our Q1 results, we expect this trend to continue in 2026. Demand for our equipment that serves the T&D utility markets continues at record levels, and we expect the vocational rental market to provide incremental growth as we further penetrate this expanding end market. We finished 2025 with the average age of our fleet at just over 2.9 years, down by more than a year since the beginning of fiscal 2022.
Christopher Eperjesy
As a result, we expect to be able to significantly reduce our overall investment in our rental fleet in 2026 while continuing to generate growth. Our increase in fleet age to just under 3 years in the 1st quarter reflects this. We expect to grow our rental fleet based on net OEC by mid-single digits in 2026, with a net investment in our rental fleet of approximately $150 million-$170 million, a meaningful reduction from our $250 million in 2025.
Christopher Eperjesy
After prior years' investments in inventory driven by the strong demand environment, we expect to continue making progress on further net working capital improvements in 2026 as we continue on our path of reducing inventory months on hand to our targeted range of below 6 months.
Christopher Eperjesy
As a result, we expect to generate more than $50 million of levered free cash flow and reduce our net leverage ratio to meaningfully below 4 times by the end of fiscal 2026 while progressing towards our 3 times net leverage target in 2027.
Christopher Eperjesy
Our affirmed 2026 revenue guidance reflects total revenue in the range of $2.005 billion-$2.12 billion. Given conditions in the T&D end markets, we are raising both the bottom and top ends of our Adjusted EBITDA guidance and now project a range of $415 million-$440 million, resulting in year-over-year revenue growth of 3%-9% and Adjusted EBITDA growth of 8%-15%. We still expect non-rental CapEx of $40 million-$50 million.
Christopher Eperjesy
Our segment guidance for 2026 remains unchanged. We are projecting SER revenue of $835 million to $870 million and STEM revenue of $1.58 billion to $1.655 billion, with STEM third-party revenue growth of 3%-10%.
Christopher Eperjesy
Overall STEM sales, including inter-segment sales, are expected to be flat to slightly down solely as a result of the expected reduction in SER maintenance rental CapEx this year. Despite Q2 of 2025 being a tough comp, given the near record level of new equipment sales in the quarter, given current trends, we do expect to show year-over-year growth in Adjusted EBITDA in Q2. In closing, I want to echo Ryan's comments regarding our continued strong business outlook.
Christopher Eperjesy
Despite broader macroeconomic uncertainty, recent results and end market fundamentals support our confidence in the long-term demand drivers and our ability to deliver meaningful Adjusted EBITDA growth this year. With that, operator, we can open the line for questions.
Operator
We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality.
Operator
If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Michael Shlisky of D.A. Davidson & Co. Michael, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Michael Shlisky
Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions here. Let me start off with a tariff question. Any, any words you have on the recent changes to the Section 232 tariffs, either on recent quotes you've made recently or on what's in your backlog? Can you compare what the OEMs are saying on chassis pricing because of the tariffs compared to what you may be seeing from the body or back part of the truck that you're building?
Ryan McMonagle
Mike, good to talk to you and great question. I think we're in a pretty good spot when it comes to our tariffs, as we've talked about. Obviously, having inventory on the ground puts us in a good position. We are seeing a little bit of tariff exposure on some of our bodies because of Section 232.
Ryan McMonagle
I think the team has done a good job of managing that. I feel like we're well-positioned. OEMs, as we're talking with OEMs, you know, that it is a discussion, but the bigger discussion right now seems to be getting orders for them heading into 2027. I think we're in a good spot overall, Mike.
Michael Shlisky
Okay, great. Then your metric of the average age, being at roughly 3 years, that's up for the first time in quite some time. Can you maybe comment on how far ahead of the second-place player are you on average age? I'm kind of wondering, how much can you age the fleet and still be reasonably ahead of the peers and have a great-looking fleet? Is there a very big, you know, cash piece that you could be getting if you, let's say, did a half year or a year? Would you kind of still be in front of your, you know, larger peers on the fleet side?
Ryan McMonagle
Yeah, it's a great question. There's not great data on the other fleets and age of fleet. You know, it's more, it's more just based on feel and what we hear from our customers in particular. I'll give you this data point. I think, you know, when we put the businesses together back in 2021, the average age of the fleet was just about four years.
Ryan McMonagle
We're about 1 year younger than we were then. I think the business performed well at that age too. I think that's kind of the band that we've talked about. You know, we've been as low as 2.9. We're still under three. You know, four years ago, we were about just under four years old.
Ryan McMonagle
That feels like a good band. You're right, there's real cash generation in there as you think about it. Most important, as you know, it's taking care of the customer and making sure we give them the product that they need, to keep them working and to provide for what our trucks do.
Michael Shlisky
Okay. Thank you. I'll pass it along.
Ryan McMonagle
Thanks, Mike.
Operator
Your next question comes from Daniel Hultberg with Oppenheimer & Co. Daniel, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Daniel Hultberg
Thank you. Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on the quarter, and thanks for taking the question. I want to hone in on margin a little bit. I mean, obviously, you know, the rental revenue growth is strong, and that is higher margin. You also mentioned productivity improvement, and I see in the deck it says effective cost management. Could you please elaborate on that and what you're doing on the cost side to drive margin here as well as how it pertains to the guidance increase? Thank you.
Ryan McMonagle
Great, great question. The team, thanks for asking that question too. The team's done a great job just managing through our overall cost structure. There's been a lot of efforts underway by our production team to drive productivity improvement, and I think we're seeing kind of the benefits of that.
Ryan McMonagle
You know, as we've talked about on a few prior calls, we continue to evaluate our overall cost structure. The team's done a good job to just right size the cost structure for us really as it comes to our production efforts, which is why you see the expansion in STEM gross margin in particular.
Daniel Hultberg
Got it. Thank you. On OEC, yield, I mean, inflect the last quarter up 40 basis points year-on-year this quarter. Could you speak to the pricing environment and the opportunity there and, kind of like what is embedded, in the guidance as it is? Thanks.
Ryan McMonagle
Sure. I think, Daniel, we talked about on the last call that we took a price increase on the rental side of the business in December of last year. It was about a 5% price increase that we took in December. Some of that is what's flowing through the on-rent yield number that you see. The other thing that's flowing through there is mix. As we've talked about, the transmission is coming on very strong. That's at a higher yield than distribution. Just because of the type of equipment that we're renting there. I think that's been influencing yield as well.
Ryan McMonagle
You know, the price, as we've talked about in the past, price takes a full year, right, to cycle through, to cycle through the fleet, just because of the way that we increase price, which is only as new equipment goes out on rent. The mix impact will be a little bit of function of how strong transmission stays, which is what we expect, you know, over the balance of 2026.
Christopher Eperjesy
Daniel, this is Chris. Maybe just to add a little bit, you know, as part of your question was about guidance. We raised the EBITDA guidance really because, as Ryan was touching on, the rental business is outperforming. Also, he just touched on some of the operating execution that is happening. It really is a combination of those two, the mix and the operating execution, and not so much, you know, anything on the top line in terms of a more aggressive top-line assumption.
Daniel Hultberg
Gotcha. Perfect. Thank you so much. I'll turn it over.
Operator
Your next question comes from Justin Hauke with Baird. Justin, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Justin Hauke
Thanks for taking the question here. I guess I just wanted to drill into the EBITDA guidance, the increase a little bit more. I mean, it's great to see. Obviously, you know, we're always looking for more. I mean, if I look at the quarter, you guys were thinking, you know, EBITDA would be up kinda, you know, 10% plus and, you know, meaning could be that.
Justin Hauke
You're kinda like $10 million-$15 million ahead of what you were guiding to. You raised by $5 million. I'm just curious. I mean, is that conservatism? Is that anything that was maybe a one-time pull forward in the quarter that was unusually strong? Just kinda how to think about, you know, how the $5 million factored into the, that raise.
Christopher Eperjesy
Yeah, Justin, this is Chris. If you look at Q1, you know, Q1 of last year was gonna be our easiest comp. I think our actual guidance said that we were gonna be up double digits. I don't think we necessarily banded what we thought that was gonna be. You know, clearly rental continues to outperform.
Christopher Eperjesy
You know, I think what we see on rent is up, you know, $160 million-$170 million, you know, through the first four months of this year. You know, we're continuing to see that strong performance. Really it is that mix that's driving it. You know, as you look at Q2, you're gonna see the exact opposite. That's a pretty tough comp for us. You know, we talked about this last year on the call.
Christopher Eperjesy
We had 2 months within the quarter that had new sales, third-party new sales above $110 million, and those were the only 2 months outside of a December that were ever above $100 million. It's gonna be a much tougher comp here in Q2.
Christopher Eperjesy
You know, and we're just, you know, I don't know that I would say we're being conservative, but we're certainly being prudent. You know, we felt it was the right thing to do to increase our guidance. you know, we feel comfortable in that $415 million-$440 million range. you know, we'll adjust it as, you know, as the year goes on if it makes sense to do so.
Justin Hauke
Okay. Fair enough. I guess my next question, We've been seeing a lot more articles about, like, political pushback on data centers and some of these projects kinda getting pushed out. I know your direct exposure to data centers is pretty modest, but, you know, the impact to some of these interconnect T&D projects and things like that. I'm just curious if you're seeing anything where that's having a discernible impact, or that's just kind of noise in the market in terms of, you know, people procuring things in anticipation of that work.
Ryan McMonagle
It's a great question. We're still seeing strong demand from our customers for equipment. You know, when you look at obviously public companies' sentiment and reported backlog, it's still continuing to increase. Our conversations with our customers are still bullish on additional transmission work that has not yet started, which is a good tailwind for us.
Ryan McMonagle
As we kinda look at the macro factors or the macro reporting around line miles and service and what's coming online, it still feels like that's continuing to be very positive. I would say the specific noise around data center doesn't seem to be impacting our customers and the work that they are planning to start, you know, over the coming quarters and years.
Justin Hauke
Yeah. Yeah, that's I figured that would be the case, so. Okay, thank you for for answering those two. I appreciate it.
Ryan McMonagle
Thanks, Justin.
Ryan McMonagle
Yeah, it's a good question. I'll maybe speak broadly about transmission specific. We are seeing the demand for transmission equipment continue to pick up. It is not back to the highest levels that it's been over the past several years, but it is continuing to pick up.
Ryan McMonagle
Yeah. you know, I think it's just being thoughtful on, as Chris talked about, some of how we're thinking about it overall, is some of it is strong performance on pricing and operating leverage and some of those dynamics. I think we just wanna be thoughtful heading into the next nine months of the year.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Brian Brophy with Stifel. Brian, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Brian Brophy
Yeah. Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Congrats on the nice quarter. I guess, just wanna ask about bidding activity. You mentioned it's quite healthy in your opening comments. Just maybe any more color on what you're seeing there. Thanks.
Ryan McMonagle
Yeah. It's, thanks for the question and good to talk to you. It's robust is probably a fair way to say it. You know, for us, bidding activity happens most on the transmission side of things. There are, you know, several specific projects that are in process where we're bidding on those and are waiting on awards to be made. You know, I think that it continues to remain robust. We think it should be well positioned for the rest of 2026 and heading into 2027.
Brian Brophy
Thanks. On the new equipment side, last year there was some discussion on some pricing pressure that you were seeing. It doesn't appear that you guys mentioned that this quarter. Just curious the latest you're seeing on the pricing front on the new equipment side. Thanks.
Christopher Eperjesy
Yeah. I think compared to this time last year, certainly it's more stable. You know, there certainly still is some pressure. Ryan touched a little bit on the, you know, the cost improvement and productivity initiatives we've had that have, you know, benefited somewhat on margin, and so been able to offset some of that pressure. I think the way I would characterize it is it's certainly a lot more stable than it was this time last year.
Brian Brophy
Appreciate it. I'll pass it on.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Manish Somaiya with Cantor Fitzgerald. Manish, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Manish Somaiya
Yes. Hi, good morning. It's Manish. Two questions. First is on STEM. Can we just talk about how we should think about the normalized margins for STEM? Then just related to that, the backlog was up nicely on a sequential basis.
Manish Somaiya
If you can just talk about what's driving that, what are the conversations like with your customers? Really more importantly, what's the customer composition like? Obviously, you know, you do have a lot of small customers, so obviously with the macro environment, wanted to get a feel for, you know, what that backlog segmentation looked like.
Christopher Eperjesy
Yeah. This is Chris. I'll start on the margin. You know, historically we've given guidance on, you know, the biggest component of the STEM sales, certainly the external sales is gonna be our third party new sales. We've given guidance in the 15%-18% range. You know, a couple years ago we were pushing that 18% and even slightly higher.
Christopher Eperjesy
This past year we were closer to the 15%. You know, we've seen that go up now here the last couple quarters and we're living closer to 16%. I think that still is a good range, you know, in that 15%-18%. You know, we're probably gonna live closer to the 16%-17% range this year. I think that's the best way to model it.
Ryan McMonagle
Manish, the way to think about backlog, and it's a great question, is We actually saw the biggest pickup in backlog in our small customers. We break them into kind of our local and regional customers in particular. That's actually where we did see the biggest increase in backlog.
Ryan McMonagle
You know, I think on that side, that's the customer side. From a product standpoint, you know, look, utility is very strong. We did see a pickup in backlog in our utility and forestry segment kind of more broadly with those small customers. Where we've still seen less of a pickup is on the infrastructure side of things. Still in the waste segment and dump truck segment, you know, we have not seen a significant pickup yet in backlog. Hope that helps.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Tami
Tami Zakaria
Hey.
Operator
Please go ahead.
Tami Zakaria
Hey. Hey, good morning. Thank you so much. Question on the STEM segment. The backlog saw impressive growth. Can you speak to how much of that backlog is for 2026 versus beyond that?
Ryan McMonagle
Yeah, it's a great question, and good to talk to you, Tami. Yeah, the far majority of it is, will be for 2026 deliveries. Very little at this point that we would not be able to deliver in 2026.
Tami Zakaria
Understood. Because you segmented your disclosures. I'm just curious, of the $415 million-$440 million EBITDA guide that you have for the year, could you speak to what will be the mix from the 2 segments, SER versus STEM in that full year number?
Christopher Eperjesy
Hi Tami, this is Chris. We don't give guidance for the segment EBITDAs. You know, if you look at the prior year, you can get a relatively, you know, relatively comparable mix. You know, certainly given the guidance we've given this year, there may be a little bit of a shift towards SER, but I would look at what we disclosed on April 1st, and you can use that as a proxy.
Tami Zakaria
That's super helpful. If I can ask one last question?
Christopher Eperjesy
Just one other point.
Tami Zakaria
Um, the-
Christopher Eperjesy
One other point I'd wanna make. As you do that, remember that you're gonna have the two segment Adjusted EBITDAs, which are gonna be a higher number than our guidance, 'cause you have to take into account the corporate unallocated cost. Which also you'll be able to find in that April 1st presentation.
Tami Zakaria
Understood. That's very helpful. One last one. The debt pay down target, three times leverage by next year, do you expect any debt pay down, or this is all coming from EBITDA growth?
Christopher Eperjesy
It'll be both. You know, this year we guided.
Tami Zakaria
Any debt pay down this year?
Christopher Eperjesy
Yeah. We guided levered free cash flow north of $50 million. That would all be used to pay down debt.
Tami Zakaria
Understood. Thank you.
Ryan McMonagle
Thanks, Tami.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Abe Landa with Bank of America. Abe, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Abe Landa
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Just one quick housekeeping. I know last year within your STEM segment, it doesn't include margins kind of on that intersegment sales. I guess if we were to look at it from an apples-to-apples perspective, what would that change have been roughly?
Christopher Eperjesy
I don't have the figure right off the top of my head, but if you look in the April 1st presentation that we put out there on our website and as well as the one we just posted, I think last night, that information's in there.
Abe Landa
Okay. Thank you. I guess just shifting gears to maybe just the general environment of, you know, obviously a lot of data centers, a lot more of that generation is on site. Are you seeing that impact demand in any way, whether mix or actual absolute level of demand? Maybe how that shift and just the general data center build-out is impacting buy versus rent decisions by utilities, contractors, et cetera.
Ryan McMonagle
Yeah. It's a great question. I would say, Abe, generally it is not impacting our demand. It's something we watch, but it's not anything significant that is impacting kind of our business direction.
Abe Landa
It's not impacting that buy versus, that.
Ryan McMonagle
And, uh-
Abe Landa
investor, that.
Ryan McMonagle
Yeah, not significantly. You know, as we've talked about in the past, transmission is often rented, just because of the nature of the equipment. Distribution is more commonly bought and rented. No real significant shift from the type of work that's being done that's impacting buy versus rent.
Abe Landa
Thank you. Lastly, just wondering if you could provide, you're saying that inventory levels are gonna be below 6 months by year-end. I guess, could you give a number or what that number is today and how you expect that to trend during the year?
Abe Landa
Do you expect, you know, those EPA 2027 rules might have any impact on that? Just overall, kind of related to that, overall on working capital, like what are you assuming for working capital for the year, with, you know, that inventory reduction being offset by revenue growth?
Christopher Eperjesy
Yeah, this is Chris. What we've said with respect to inventory is I think we're somewhere north of seven, probably closer to seven and a half months right now. You know, it is typical if you look back over the past four or five years to see a increase in Q1, just kind of seasonal timing and getting ready for the second half of the year.
Christopher Eperjesy
That, you know, this year is pretty consistent with that. I would say we're only slightly higher than kind of our expectation for this time of year, you know, I would say in less than $10 million higher than we had kind of forecasted coming into the year.
Christopher Eperjesy
We had given some guidance that, you know, we'd expect to get north of $100 million year-over-year out of inventory as part of our working capital initiative this year. I would just point out that that $100 million doesn't translate to $100 million in cash, because between 75%-80% of the inventory is floor planned.
Christopher Eperjesy
Typically if you reduce inventory by $100 million, you may get $20 million of cash, that would be the working capital component of it. That's the way I would look at it. In terms of our guide of levered free cash flow of, you know, $50 million for the year, you're probably gonna get between, you know, $30 million-$40 million on working capital.
Ryan McMonagle
Abe, let me just hit EPA 2027, 'cause it's a good question. You know, I think we're in a really good spot, and there's three things that I always like to highlight when we talk about the impact. One is the age of the fleet. You know, I think having 10,000 pieces in our fleet that are under three years I think is, positions us really well for kind of the changes that are coming with the new engines.
Ryan McMonagle
I think having inventory on the ground, so Christopher Eperjesy mentioned we're just over 7.5 now, and, you know, being at six months at the end of the year, you know, I think we'll be well-positioned with kind of current model year chassis heading into next year.
Ryan McMonagle
You know, I think the last, which you can't, you know, underestimate, is just the strength of the relationship with our chassis OEM partners and our dealers. You know, I think we're very well-positioned.
Ryan McMonagle
You know, as we continue to watch how, you know, how the mandate comes through and what some of the final rulings are from the EPA around the warranty and some of the questions that are still open. I think we're in a good spot, you know, heading into next year to address it.
Abe Landa
Thank you for the time.
Ryan McMonagle
Thanks, Abe.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Manish Somaiya with Cantor Fitzgerald. Manish, your line is open. Please go ahead. A reminder to unmute locally if you'd like to ask a question.
Manish Somaiya
Hi, can you hear me?
Ryan McMonagle
Yes.
Christopher Eperjesy
Yes, we can hear you.
Manish Somaiya
Oh, okay. Wonderful. Maybe Ryan, if you can just talk about some of the bottlenecks that could slow execution despite strong end markets. That's question one. Maybe Chris, I know you touched on cash flow a little bit, but I'm still trying to figure out what gives you, or I guess what's gonna take over the next one or two quarters for you guys to raise free cash flow outlook? Thank you.
Ryan McMonagle
Sure. Manish, I'll start with just bottlenecks. I think we're in a good spot. We're obviously watching our supply chain closely, as transmission, you know, seems to be very strong right now. You know, that's working closely with our suppliers.
Ryan McMonagle
On the back end, that's that Arax, who's our largest supplier on the transmission side, and then some of ourpulling and stringing suppliers, as well. You know, obviously working closely with our chassis suppliers, also. You know, those are typically larger trucks. Typically all will drive the axles, so 6x6 and 4x4 chassis.
Ryan McMonagle
You know, I think, it's just making sure that that supply chain continues to perform, which it is, which it is currently, but that, you know, that would be where the bottleneck would come, if a bottleneck were to show up. Then I'll let Chris take cash flow.
Christopher Eperjesy
Yeah. On the free cash flow, you know, we talked a little bit about, you know, three major areas which are gonna drive it. Obviously, if you take the midpoint of our EBITDA guidance, that's gonna be up $40 million-$45 million year-over-year. We also talked about the rental CapEx. The investment last year was a net investment, so growth CapEx, maintenance CapEx, less the proceeds from the sales.
Christopher Eperjesy
We had roughly $250 million last year and we said it's gonna be, you know, meaningfully less than that this year, in particular on the maintenance CapEx side, you know, roughly $100 million less. The inventory that we were just talking about, you know, the bulk of that is gonna come in the second half, and typically our best free cash flow period is Q4.
Christopher Eperjesy
You know, those are gonna be the three main drivers. Incremental EBITDA, lower net rental CapEx, and then, you know, some of the working capital unlock that I just talked about. Those will be the three main drivers.
Manish Somaiya
Okay, wonderful. Chris, thank you so much. Ryan, best of luck as well.
Ryan McMonagle
Thanks, Manish.
Christopher Eperjesy
Thank you.
Operator
There are no further questions at this time. We've reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Ryan McMonagle for closing remarks.
Ryan McMonagle
Thanks everyone for your time today and your interest in Custom Truck. We appreciate the continued engagement and look forward to updating you next quarter. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. Thank you again, and have a great day.
Transcript from April 28, 2026
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