Episodes
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Artificial intelligence has been exciting tech nerds for decades, but the rental industry has struggled to see how it can actually improve profits in its operations. The benefits of improved data collection and analysis have seemed marginal next to the costs in time and technology investment. But now, “generative” AI, like that powering ChatGPT, promises a new level of assistance that could have a meaningful impact on all rental operations. Dave Swan of information technology integrator, Trackunit, joins Counter Talks to explain.
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Dawn Bloomer is going to put on a very special presentation at Rental Mart + Turf & Rec Show on Oct. 17 in Calgary. Dawn’s fun, informed and interactive workshop will give you some time to chew over key strategies for your company based on her Seven Drivers of Business Success. This is not your typical business trends talk and Dawn is not your typical business consultant. Listen here to find out why.
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Missing episodes?
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The Canadian Rental Mart, Canada’s trade event for the equipment and event rental industries is coming to Calgary, Sept. 11 – 12. Canadian Rental Service brand manager Navneet Matharu joins Counter Talks to talk about our excitement to bring Canada’s big rental event to the west for the first time in its 40-year history. And to let us know about all the new and old friends who will be joining us there.
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Melanie Misener has taken over as interim executive director of the Canadian Rental Association following the departure of Nathalie McGregor, who led the organization for 10 years. Here’s your chance to get to know Melanie and hear her plans to get Canada’s rental association back to the thing it does best: bring Canadian store owners together to support each other.
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Contact with electrical power lines has killed 20 people in Ontario in the last 10 years. As powerline safety and code specialist for the Ontario ESA, Patrick Falzon’s mission is to empower people with the information they need to avoid these horrific incidents. And as the industry that rents equipment and erects tents that can reach overhead high-energy lines, we have a role to play. Falzon clears up some critical misunderstandings around powerline safety and offers some solid tips on this episode of Counter Talks.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Seven years ago Martin Rancourt came out of a very brief retirement to buy Location de Beauce in beautiful Saint-Georges, Que. On his first day in the store, he looked around and said “What have I done?” He needed a starting point to transform a 40-year-old rental operation, so he turned to the Lean management principles he’d learned in his manufacturing career. Gathering his staff for a Kaizan session, he asked what the greatest enemies of good rental service are. Two answers came back: dust and rust. Tune in to this episode of CounterTalks to find out what his staff meant and how Rancourt used these concepts, among others, to triple his business, widen his profit margins and open a second location.
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Ontario’s excavation safety regulator, One Call, is getting serious about making sure people don’t injure themselves or destroy infrastructure by hitting utilities during earthmoving projects. As of the start of this month, anyone digging anywhere in Ontario to any depth without calling for a locate first could face a fine of up to $10,000. This might be something that person at your counter renting a mini-excavator needs to hear about. Ian Simpson, director of industry engagement for One Call, joins CounterTalks to explain the rules, the penalties and how One Call can help your customers avoid them.
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Ken McDougall, president of Guelph, Ont.,-based aerial equipment manufacturer, Skyjack, sat down with Canadian Rental Service editor, Patrick Flannery, at ConExpo to talk about the company’s upcoming plans to optimize processes; the state of the equipment manufacturing and rental industries; the impact of recent U.S. trade decisions; the prospects for electrification and other zero-emission technologies and more.
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Andrew Botterill is an oil and gas industry analyst with Deloitte and he joins CounterTalks from Calgary to talk about Deloitte’s latest whitepaper forecasting gas prices in 2023. We take a look at the present state of the market and what might lie ahead this year. We also get into the factors affecting prices and creating volatility; the geopolitical effects of oil supply; and the policies and events that rental store owners should hope for if we are to see prices stay low but continue to drive energy sector investment.
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When supply chains and inflation make it harder to afford new equipment, the used market becomes more important to us all. And in the rental business, we always want to keep a sharp eye on used machinery values as they impact the value of our fleets and, ultimately, our businesses. Kieran Holm is a former executive at Ritchie Brothers auctioneers and now global vice-president for used equipment at Finning, so there probably is not anyone who knows more about used equipment valuations and price factors than him. Holm joined Counter Talks to give his evaluation of where the market is for most common rental construction equipment and where it might go in 2023. We also discussed the global supply situation and what he’s seeing from his perch overlooking one of the largest used equipment dealerships in North America. Holm also provides some tips on getting the best deals on used machinery…without spilling the trade secrets that got him where he is!
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