Record Quarters, Rising Rates: What Summer 2026 Earnings Say About Hydrovac Pricing and Truck Supply

Five publicly traded companies whose results track the hydro-excavation trade, one operator, three truck builders and one industrial services group, have now reported for the late spring and summer quarter. Badger Infrastructure Solutions, which describes itself as North America's largest provider of non-destructive excavation, reported second-quarter revenue of a record US$257.1 million, up 23% from $208.2 million on July 30 and told investors it had started raising prices. The same day, Federal Signal, parent of the Vactor and TRUVAC brands, said organic demand for vacuum trucks was led by "strong increases in orders for safe digging trucks." Federal Signal, Toro and Clean Harbors also called their quarters records. Alamo Group and Toro, owners of the Super Products and Tornado hydrovac lines, followed in August and September with higher sales and, at Alamo, a much smaller industrial backlog. For contractors, the summer scorecard says service rates are firming, while at least one truck builder says customers are pleased with its lead times.

The summer scorecard

Fiscal calendars differ. Toro's quarter ended July 31, while the others closed June 30, so the table is a seasonal comparison, not a matched one.

Badger: utilization first, then price

The number contractors should watch is Badger's revenue per truck per month, or RPT, which rose 14% to $47,731 from $41,867. RPT only climbs when each truck bills more hours, at a higher rate, or both, and Badger got both while growing its fleet. Adjusted EBITDA rose 25% to $66.1 million, a 25.7% margin versus 25.3%.

The utilization gain came partly from dispatch changes. CFO Rob Dawson described leaving trucks at customer sites instead of returning them to branches. Then came price. "As fleet utilization rose through Q2, we began to realize pricing opportunities across all markets in which we operate," CEO Rob Blackadar said. On the call he was blunter: "If you can't get pricing in this environment, we're doing something wrong."

The shift is recent. Blackadar said pricing had been "under a fair amount of pressure back half of last year and through Q1", and that Badger spotted opportunities in April and May but was not as "nimble" as it could have been in some markets. Management said it expects demand to support further pricing in the back half of 2026 and into 2027.

Where the work is coming from

Blackadar said Badger continues "to see extraordinary demand", and the call showed how much the customer mix has moved. Data center work is now "right around sub 15%" of revenue. Oil and gas, once more than 50% of revenue, is now 4% to 5%. Blackadar said some customers' work runs to "the early to mid-point of the 2030s". Dawson said Canada is growing "well into the double digits," led by Ontario, Quebec and the West Coast.

Toro's call pointed at the same end markets, though not always at hydrovac work. CEO Richard Olson said underground demand is driven by "data centers, but also utility work, broadband". His example was a 10-month job in Frederick, Maryland that took 14 miles, 25 drills and 160 people just to bring data lines to a site, which he called "more of a drill and a trencher type of opportunity." On the hydrovac side, he said Tornado opens new opportunities "for soft excavation in general." Clean Harbors is chasing the same buildout, spending about $50 million on equipment, tankage and vehicles to serve data centers, with a target of $200 million in annual revenue by the end of 2028.

The OEM side: sales up, supply signals mixed

At Federal Signal, vacuum trucks were 22% of fiscal 2025 net sales, the largest named product line. Second-quarter net sales reached $670.2 million, up 19%, and the company raised its 2026 net sales outlook to $2.58 billion to $2.67 billion, from $2.57 billion to $2.66 billion. Much of that growth is not hydrovac. Environmental Solutions sales rose 20% to $578 million, with about $75 million from the New Way and Mega acquisitions, which added refuse trucks and mineral extraction support equipment. Group orders rose 24% year over year, including high single-digit organic growth.

Federal Signal's backlog fell to $1.00 billion from $1.08 billion, but CEO Jennifer Sherman said $75 million of the reduction was the planned decline in third-party Labrie refuse backlog, and that "lead times for certain of our products remain elevated compared to our target levels." Price contributed about 3.5 points of 6% organic growth, so new trucks are still getting more expensive.

Alamo offers the clearest sign of easing supply, with caveats. Industrial Equipment growth was led by "excavators and vacuum truck businesses, where sales grew despite an end market that was relatively flat," CEO Robert Hureau said, but orders were lower against a second quarter of 2025 that was the excavator and vacuum group's record quarter for net orders. Division book-to-bill was 0.85 times, meaning Alamo shipped more than it booked. Hureau said Alamo holds four to five months of revenue in backlog, that customers "are pleased with the lead times right now," and that he expects industrial organic sales to be "flattish" in the second half. Alamo's vocational lines also include street sweepers, excavators and snow removal equipment, so the industrial backlog is not a pure hydrovac figure, and the release did not explain its decline. Hureau's release summary: "Conditions across our end markets remain mixed."

Toro credited Professional segment growth to "higher volume, net price realization, and the Tornado acquisition" and raised full-year sales growth guidance to 6.3% to 6.6%. Toro closed the CA$279 million Tornado deal on December 8, 2025, and CFO Angela Drake said the deal has "a little bit of a negative impact" on overall operating margin for now.

Badger keeps building its own fleet

Badger does not wait on an outside OEM. Its Red Deer, Alberta plant delivered 80 hydrovacs in the quarter versus 51 a year earlier, and second-quarter capital spending was $60.2 million versus $29.6 million. The 2026 plan calls for 270 to 310 new builds, 130 to 150 retirements and fleet growth at the high end of a 7% to 10% range, within total capital spending of $188 million to $230 million that includes $18 million to $30 million of expected tariffs. Badger is also developing a second manufacturing facility, its first in the U.S., which could open as early as the second half of 2027 or first half of 2028. Dawson called the tariffs on Canadian-built trucks a "little cherry on top" of that plant's economics.

The largest operator is adding capacity on its own schedule. Where Badger runs branches, independents should expect more trucks chasing the same utility and data center work, even as rates rise.

Buyers are still paying for hydrovac capacity

The deal flow continued through the summer, and the pattern is hydro excavation bundled with an adjacent trade. On August 13, RF Investment Partners announced a platform investment in RJ Underground of Kenosha, Wisconsin, a horizontal directional drilling, hydro excavation and specialty utility contractor serving Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Founder Rich Johnston, who said he started the company 30 years ago "with a single horizontal directional drill," stays on as CEO; terms were not disclosed.

On June 23, Azuria Water Solutions acquired TeleVac South of Pompano Beach, Florida, a firm founded in 1993 that offers vactor, hydro excavating and sectional pipe repair work. Azuria, formerly Aegion, has been owned by New Mountain Capital since a take-private valued at about $963 million in May 2021.

Strategic buyers are active too. On August 12, Clean Harbors, which runs its own hydro excavation and daylighting business, agreed to buy EnviroServe, a national environmental and waste management services provider based in Sandy, Utah, for $470 million in cash. EnviroServe runs more than 700 vehicles, including more than 100 vacuum trucks, on about $250 million of revenue and $27 million of adjusted EBITDA, and Clean Harbors put the price at about nine times post-synergy adjusted EBITDA. That makes it a more useful public benchmark than ES&H, below, for what a strategic buyer will pay for a business with a large vacuum fleet.

EnviroServe came two weeks after a definitive agreement to buy ES&H, a Gulf region environmental and emergency response provider, for $305 million in cash, announced with second-quarter results. Louisiana-based ES&H runs 13 service branches across Louisiana and Texas and holds the Coast Guard's top oil spill response classification. It brings about $90 million of annual base revenue and about $30 million of adjusted EBITDA, at an 8.7 times post-synergy multiple. Because ES&H is built around emergency response and mostly coastal branches that support maritime services, its multiple is a looser guide for hydrovac fleets. Both deals are expected to close in the second half of 2026 (EnviroServe, ES&H).

What this means for hydrovac operators

Review your rate card now. The largest operator in the market has said publicly that pricing pressure lasted through the first quarter and that it is now raising rates, with more expected into 2027. A contractor in Houston, Texas, or Denver, Colorado, renewing a utility master service agreement this winter has a documented market signal to point to.

Ask about delivery dates, but do not expect cheaper trucks. Alamo says customers are pleased with its lead times, and its industrial backlog is down by more than a quarter from a year earlier, though that backlog covers more than vacuum trucks. Federal Signal still calls some lead times elevated, and price is still adding to its growth. Get delivery slots in writing and compare builders; any buyer leverage is on timing, not price.

Rental is a bridge, and it is growing. Federal Signal said rental income grew 16%, "led by growth in our safe digging and combination sewer cleaners," and that used equipment sales were up. Rent-to-own and used units remain options for crews that need capacity before a new truck arrives.

Follow the customer mix. Data centers, utilities and broadband are carrying demand; oil and gas is a small slice of the largest operator's book. Bid lists and sales effort should reflect that.

Know what your shop is worth. Founder-led firms that pair hydro excavation with drilling, sewer or pipe repair work are drawing private capital, and a public strategic buyer has agreed to pay about nine times post-synergy EBITDA for a business with a vacuum truck fleet. Owners thinking about succession should know that buyers are actively looking.

The next read on whether Badger's price increases stuck will come with its third-quarter results.

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