Sharpen the saw

The seventh of the famous habits is “sharpening the saw,” which refers to a process of continuous improvement where people take time to improve their knowledge, skills or overall preparedness to do better at their lives and work. Certainly rental people know the benefits of a sharp blade. With that in mind, the 2016 edition of the Canadian Rental Mart, taking place March 8 and 9 at the Toronto Congress Centre, will feature some unique opportunities for not only rental store owners and managers but also staff to update their abilities.

Fuel handling
Updated training for handling propane is an ongoing challenge for most rental operators. Fuels Learning Centre will offer its four-hour course on safe use of propane-fuelled construction heaters and torches, which also addresses safe storage of gas cylinders on worksites. This course covers all the updated requirements of the 2015 edition B149. 2 Propane Storage and Handling Code.

Working at heights
Ontario rental operators know that new provincial rules require anyone operating (or supervising the operation of) an elevated work platform to have training in the proper safety procedures for doing so. The Rental Mart will offer attendees a chance to get that training from a certified body that can provide documentation the province will recognize. The trainers, Occupational Safety Group, will be familiar to readers as its training manager, Jeff Thorne, writes our back page column, Safety First and Last. Details of how and when the training will take place are still being worked out, so stay tuned to these pages, our biweekly e-newsletter and canadianrentalservice.com for more updates as the date gets closer.

Business valuation seminar
Aled Shteriev, managing director of Beacon Corporation, will present “For What It’s Worth: Business valuation and sucession planning for maximum return.” Veteran mergers and acquisitions professional, Alex Shteriev, will show you how to correctly evaluate your company’s worth and lay out some strategies for protecting that value through transitions. Shteriev, MBA, CBI, is managing director of Beacon Corporation, a business brokerage and merger and acquisition advisory firm based in Toronto.

Online marketplace for rentals
Join renowned entrepreneur, Robert Preville, CEO of Kwipped, as he discusses the genesis of his revolutionary online service and how this new marketplace is poised to evolve the process of sourcing and renting equipment. With online marketplaces like Travelocity and Expedia, consumers today are accustomed to shopping, comparing and booking entire trips with unprecedented efficiency and minimal effort. A once cumbersome process that used to take hours of research can now be accomplished in minutes. Kwipped has brought that same concept to a B2B equipment rental marketplace that connects renters to suppliers and streamlines every aspect of the rental process. Kwipped technology matches rental need with supply inventory available through a global network of marketplace suppliers.

More to come
Canadian Rental Mart organizers are still finalizing the lineup of seminars and training sessions that will be presented March 8 and 9. For updates and announcements, watch these pages, visit canadianrentalmart.com and follow @TheRentalMart on Twitter.