Counter Talks

Kelly Brincheski, general manager of Collective Event Rentals in Winnipeg, is the new Region 10 director for the American Rental Association. It’s a big honour, but the title itself contains a challenge. As just one of the ARA’s several regions, Canadian rental store members have sometimes wondered if they are lost inside the U.S. behemoth. The ARA is trying to address that with a Canada task force charged with addressing the specific needs of Canadian members. Brincheski chairs it, and joined Counter Talks to discuss it and lots of other things about the ARA and her life in the industry.

Dan Crowley spends his days talking to rental operators so we brought him on to address one of the most vexing problems we all face: hiring and retaining the right people to work in our stores. He boils his observations of what works and doesn’t work down to solid tips you can apply in your store tomorrow. Key to attracting and keeping the right people is your company values – they tell you both what you want and who you should hire. Crowley explains it all and gets into some additional industry talk in this useful conversation.

Now for something completely different. Pat Flannery brings you his conversations from the Canadian Rental Association’s National Show held in Ottawa in January. Only one technical glitch!

In his role as vice-president of products for Trackunit, a telematics and emissions-tracking provider, David Swan has seen a sea change in attitudes about sustainable power in the construction equipment manufacturing world. What were formerly hesitant, even reluctant, moves to demonstrate some capability in low-emissions power sources has become a flood of enthusiasm that is dominating the industry. He joins Counter Talks to share his stories from the front lines of developing monitoring technology for the industry and to bat around some theories for how and why this happening and where things may go in the future.

Another year has gone by and it’s time for a high-level view of our business conditions and results in 2023. Marvin Cruz, research director, and Christina Santini, national affairs director, for the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses join Counter Talks to tell us what they are hearing from small and medium-sized businesses across the country. We hit inflation, labour shortages, regulations and red tape, credit card fees, housing and more. Happy holidays to everyone and all the best for 2024!

Time for a check-in with the Canadian Rental Association, which has seen its share of change and challenge over the last several years. Coming out of COVID and its separation from the American Rental Association, the CRA is plotting a new course forward with a new governance structure, new event strategy and new member services. Sheldon Fingler, the incoming president of the new national board, joins CounterTalks to explain it all and engage in some general industry gossip, too. Enjoy!

Getting involved in your local community is one of the best ways to raise your rental store’s profile, help out the customers you depend on and build bonds that will support your business for years to come. The American Rental Association has a program to help stores do that called the ARA Foundation Community Impact program. Recently, the program came to Canada for the first time, bringing rental stores together in B.C.’s Lower Mainland to help an organization called Pacific Riding for Developing Abilities refurbish its facilities for equine therapy. Judson McNeil, program director, joined CounterTalks to tell us all about it and how you can get involved.

When you look at the big picture for yourself and your business, what do you see? Dawn Bloomer is a business consultant who helps small business owners get out from under the day-to-day grind of putting out fires and fixing leaks to take a look at their goals and find ways to organize their businesses to meet them. She joins CounterTalks to offer some sage advice on issues like delegation, succession planning, strategic thinking, maximizing Episode value, effective hiring and planning for the future. Take Dawn’s advice and take an hour out of your day to hear what she has to say…we promise you won’t regret it.

It’s time for mid-year economic conditions checkup. Kevin Stanton, a business development manager for EquipmentWatch with long experience in equipment finance, joins CounterTalks to take a look at this year’s rental rate and equipment valuation numbers and help Pat draw some conclusions. What can we see in the numbers? Forest fires, interest rates, housing shortages, Amazon deliveries and more. Stanton brings some sharp analysis to our Canadian rental conditions and leaves us with some good news and an uplifting forecast.

One day in late May, Blake Menning, vice-president of All-Choice Rentals in Drayton Valley, Alta., and his wife got an alert in the wee hours of the morning. Wildfires had reached the outskirts of town and they had 10 minutes to pack up their young children and evacuate using the only passable road out of town. That started a six-week odyssey that saw Menning and his team do things they’d never done before in a desperate but well-coordinated bid to save their town and the communities around it. Tune into this episode for Menning’s wild story of setting up and moving firefighting command centres, rescuing the company server, checking houses for unfed fish and abandoned garbage and delivering equipment into walls of smoke and fire with water bombers cruising overhead. It’s a tale of a community coming together and a rental store going above and beyond to do its civic duty.