Hire and Rental News - February 2018

ast Australian exchange candidates have returned with great ideas and fresh enthusiasm for their own hire related businesses and this year’s candidate, Master Hire’s Jeremy Shaw said it was an opportunity not to be missed. Jeremy travelled to Tacoma,Washington last October and November for almost three weeks where he spent time with Mike and Lesley Blaisdell and family who are part owners of Bunce Rental. Bunce Rental’s Shawn Blaisdell completed the Leadership Exchange in 2016. After a few days in Vancouver upon arrival, Jeremy headed to Washington to Bunce Rentals which has four rental store locations: one party rental store and two medical rental and sales stores. While at Bunce Rentals Jeremy worked with store managers learning computer systems and rental processes, operational procedures and store layouts, meeting customers at the front counter and attended monthly management meetings. Jeremy also spent time with their fleet and services manager to understand how Bunce Rentals schedule services on their equipment, how they make purchasing decisions and learning the optimal replacement time for their fleet. “I was amazed how similar our two rental businesses are. It was great to share insights into the slightly different ways our rental businesses work,” Jeremy said.  “The management meeting made it evident our two businesses share similar challenges in relation to finding and retaining staff, maintaining and replacing equipment and, of course, customers. I was able to review some of their daily, weekly and monthly reports and meet with their medical equipment rental manager, party rental manager and the financial controller to discuss different ways our companies handle 30 day account customers and cash customers and suppliers.” Exchange exceeds expectations Young Hire Professional – Global Rental Alliance exchange A key aspect of the Global Rental Alliance’s Young Professionals program, the GRA International Business Leadership Program gives young hire professionals the opportunity to travel internationally to work within a rental business and basically compare notes on how that rental market and operation works versus at home. Jeremy visited another rental business, Star Rentals which is the largest privately owned rental company in the Northwest with 18 locations, to see their new rental premises and head office. In his second week, he attended the Northwest Rental Conference, a regional rental conference for rental companies in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. “It was great to meet rental company owners and equipment suppliers from all over the US, including California, Illinois, Kansas City, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Washington."  Jeremy met Tony Conant, CEO of the American Rental Association who flew in to attend the conference. The conference included a roundtable discussion addressing the challenges faced in the rental industry, including finding and retaining the right staff for your business, different marketing techniques members P "...Safety and safety legislation stood out as a key difference between the two countries..." INDUSTRY in FOCUS 26 HIRE AND RENTAL NEWS • FEBRUARY 2018 Bunce Rental's Mike Blaisdell and Jeremy Shaw in Tacoma, Washington