CONSTRUCTION businesses risk losing up to 8% of their annual revenue due to unplanned equipment downtime, new research has revealed.
YardLink, a digital construction marketplace that allows contractors to quickly source and manage hire equipment, materials and site services, analysed its network of clients across the UK – including Scotland’s JJ Rhatigan, Dornan Engineering, Fugro, and ADI Group.
For an average, medium-sized contractor turning over £12 million, YardLink claims close to £1 million per year could be lost in productivity leakage. Meanwhile, failed deliveries of machinery were found to cost an average of £750-800 per incident – with some sites losing up to £15,000 in productivity over a project lifecycle.
Neeral Shah, founder and CEO of YardLink, told Project Scotland that the idea of creating a digital B2B marketplace for construction machinery was largely shaped through his seven years of working in international construction supply chain finance.
Understanding the time and margin pressure that construction firms find themselves under, Neeral began developing an automated system – initially focused on London – that would connect vetted suppliers with firms through a dedicated platform that would streamline procurement for plant hire, machinery, fuel, and waste management. The aim was to reduce costs, boost efficiency, and speed up the supply chain process. Quotes from multiple suppliers – no more than 15 minutes away from the project – would be generated and booked in seconds.
“The reaction (to the launch in 2018) was actually quite pessimistic,” Neeral revealed. “Not only from customers and contractors, but suppliers were also negative on the idea; they thought a digital marketplace just wouldn’t work. The general message from the industry was that supply chains are generally built on trusted relationships and providing a purely digital experience would take that away.”
However, value was eventually found in the YardLink platform upon the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. With travel restrictions in place, in-person meetings prohibited, and supply chains blighted, YardLink experienced a 400% increase in monthly revenue between March and November 2020. By the end of that year, the firm had evolved from predominantly serving London to benefiting over 3,000 construction projects across the UK.
The rapid upwards trajectory continued and by 2023, YardLink had grown by 753% – securing 41st spot on The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Growing Companies list. Today, YardLink has helped over 16,000 projects, including over 300 in Scotland.
“We’re seeing a lot of customers you’d never expect to adopt technology and really rave about it,” Neeral added. “We have suppliers now who’ll introduce us to customers because they’d rather that end user go through YardLink than deal with them directly. The benefit for the supplier is that we aggregate a lot of demand – we’ll be working with thousands of projects and we’re managing the customer and bringing that demand to our supply chain. The payment also flows through YardLink… so suppliers know they can get their equipment out and utilised and be paid on time.”
Neeral believes the construction sector must embrace technology fully if it is to move forward and meet pressing targets. Findings from YardLink reveal that around 80% of rentals are typically required within 24-hours, which can be difficult to achieve when shopping around a select cohort of suppliers.
“We looked across your typical mid-range contractor, and they are on average renting up to 80,000 equipment hours per year,” Neeral explained. “20% of that typically goes to waste due to downtime – breakdowns, fitters and engineers not coming to site – we’ve dramatically reduced that by managing and derisking supply to less than 6% downtime versus 20%. So, we have a huge cost saving – that 20% is a major cost that is hidden and contractors can avoid it by better vetting their supply chain, making sure they are bringing quality equipment, and equally that they are working with reactive suppliers who can quickly resolve breakdowns if they happen.”
Optimism is high for 2026, with more attention being directed to the Scottish market, which is growing in importance for YardLink. Particular focus will be directed towards helping Scottish contractors branch out into the English market by connecting them to suppliers near potential projects south of the border.
Growing uptake is also being seen on YardLink’s project dashboard, which enables customers to digitally view all equipment on site as well as waste movements – allowing for costs to be tracked until the end of project.
“That’s been super powerful for our customers,” Neeral said, before telling of a new AI tool built around compliance and documentation. “It’s not something we’re forcing on customers; it’s something we’re working on in the background. Every proof of delivery, collection, waste transfer note and time critical document passes through our platform, we check them using our internally developed AI tools and make sure they complywith service level agreements (SLAs) and environmental regulations.”
