CRA President’s Message: December 2012

“Volunteers are not paid – not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless.” – Anonymous

I want to thank all the volunteers from across Canada for the passion they bring to our organization and to the rental industry. I am truly impressed by the amount of time they devote to the Canadian Rental Association. Our volunteers are without doubt our biggest asset.

It has been a blast, but this is my last President’s Message as my term is coming to an end. I am honoured to have served as your president for the past year. Thank you for your support as we worked together to raise the standard. I am sure our incoming president Jeff Campbell will do a great job replacing me and writing these monthly messages as there is a lot to write about in our rental industry. I want to take a few moments to reflect on the past 12 months. 

It was an exciting year for the CRA. The CRA today is in great shape, our membership is up, our trade shows are doing well, our insurance program is the envy of the rental world and we have many benefits to offer our members. Today, over 900 rental stores across Canada are CRA members. We also have over 200 Canadian supplier members.

When a Rental Store joins the CRA they also become a member of the American Rental Association. Being an ARA member has tremendous advantages for you. The ARA has a staff of over 60 people in its head office who are there to help you. Visit their website at www.ararental.org  and use your password to go to the members only section. I am sure you will be impressed.

Looking to the future, our Member Benefits, Insurance, Website, Trade Show and Social Media/Advertising committees will be the means by which we will develop new membership benefits. I also see in the future that we will need more understanding of rental metrics. These metrics are financial standards for the equipment rental industry. Most metrics are associated with fleet efficiency, financial utilization and changes in rental rates. Until now, there have not been consistent benchmarks rental companies can use to measure their performance against their peers. This makes it virtually impossible for rental store owners, banks and investors to understand industry performance or to make meaningful comparisons between firms in our industry.

Recently, the ARA undertook a project aimed at producing a standardized set of key performance metrics for our industry. These new industry standards are known as the ARA Rental Market Metrics. Many major software providers are ARA associate members and have endorsed these standards. In the near future, their software will be updated to calculate these new metrics for us at the push of a button. This will be a great opportunity to improve our individual company performance and profits by comparing our company metrics to industry benchmarks. There is also the opportunity for worldwide adoption of these performance metrics. 

One of the biggest highlights of my presidency was making the rounds of the trade show circuit. I learned so much and met many people by attending the Vancouver, Saskatoon, Ontario and Montreal shows. The social aspects of our trade shows are the thread that holds all of us together, and our trade shows are some of our biggest benefits.

To wrap up this message, I have been in the Rental Business for more than 25 years. The small yearly dues I pay to be a CRA member have been and continue to be one of the best investments I have made in my business. With a combined total of more than 60 very skilled people from CRA and ARA to help us, we are the envy of other trade organizations. Please call me at 204-594-7368 and I would be happy to talk to you about the best trade organization in Canada, the CRA.