Experience world rental practices

Mar. 19, 2010 – The Global Rental Alliance (TGRA) held its eighth annual meeting recently in Orlando, Fla. The group gathers annually at The Rental Show to share ideas and promote their respective rental industries.

Canada was represented by CRA president Andrew Paquette of Bravo Location Rentals in Montreal, Que., and senior VP Wayne Beckett of Wayne’s Rental Centre in Moosomin, Sask.

Every country reported significant declines in rental revenues, ranging from 5 percent to as much as 30 percent. Canada could be considered the lone bright spot. While overall revenues may be down slightly, there are regions of above-average performance such as Saskatchewan.

Membership benefit ideas that were shared included theft prevention, insurance, and government policies. According to Wayne Beckett, many representatives felt that the Protected Self Insurance Plan (PSIP) available to members of the CRA was by far the best insurance plan, and may encourage other countries to emulate it.

Another key component of the TGRA is a member exchange where qualified rental members can spend six weeks abroad learning how rental companies operate in other countries. To date there have been three exchanges and in 2010, there will be two more.  Hopefully a young rental person from Canada will be going abroad, most likely to France.  If you are interested, please contact the CRA office as soon as possible at 800-486-9899 or via the website at www.crarental.org .