Hello, Region One members. Many of us are just back from The ARA Show™ in Las Vegas. It was, for sure, a different kind of year at the show, but a great time was had by those of us who made the trip. It was heartwarming to see so many industry friends face-to-face again after the 20 months of craziness since the last show. Now it’s time to take what we learned at the show and apply it toward the issues facing our businesses.
The chief issue that rental companies — and most others — are contending with right now is sourcing labor. I have heard about so many companies turning down work due to lack of help. For my own business, saying “no” to a job was never an answer. Our go-to was always, “How do we figure it out and get it done?” But here we are, saying no to business in this whole new world.
Fortunately, the American Rental Association (ARA) Job Board is now available. The job board was designed to help those of us in the equipment and event rental industry who are struggling to fill open positions. ARA members also can take advantage of five free 90-day job postings. The listings on the ARA Job Board are pushed to tech schools’ job boards, plus Careerbuilder.com, Military.com, Google Jobs and Facebook Jobs. That means a lot of eyes will see your posted openings. Check out the ARA Job Board here.
Aside from labor woes, we also are confronted with matters like rising equipment costs, bottlenecked supply chains, and health and safety regulations that seem to be holding strong. How are your peers coping with these? A good way to find out is at your ARA state chapter’s meetings and events.
We are fortunate in Region One to have extremely strong state chapter boards who are making great strides in staging in-person meetings that are both socially fulfilling and educational on a business level. I encourage you to attend as many of these as you can — you won’t regret learning firsthand what’s working (and what’s not) directly from your rental peers. If you don’t have an active state chapter where you are, you can attend the events of a neighboring state. Find details on these at the Calendar of Events under the “Connect” tab at ARArental.org.
Until next time, stay healthy and keep a Clean. Safe. Essential. rental operation.
Julie Creedon-Linton, CERP, ARA Region One director
Creedon & Co.
Worcester, Mass.
508-792-3100
julie@creedonandco.com