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The Panel: Dennis Von Ruden, president, General Equipment Co. Chuck Hommey, marketing director, Equipment Development Co. Tom Carroll, president, CS Unitec Gayle Suiter, sales/marketing administrator, Arrow-Master Inc. Tim Lickel, product [...]

I've always liked the idea of the rental industry Hall of Fame developed by the American Rental Association. An actual hall of fame museum such as professional sports leagues have [...]

Often referred to as 'Mr. JLG,' Craig Paylor is the face of the aerial industry's largest company and with good reason. Paylor joined JLG in 1978 as a district manager [...]

I've often heard people blame the media when the economy goes south, saying the media spreads doom and gloom. There is truth to that at times, although you'd have a [...]

Ohio may not be geographically huge, but the United States' seventh most populous state provides a good lens to look at the state of the union. While not the exact [...]

When Maxim Crane Rental Corp. recently acquired a set of 13 crawler cranes in the 230- to 300-ton range, it was, according to the Maxim management, just part of a [...]

RentalHawk.com Introduces New Equipment Rental Portal RentalHawk.com recently launched a website to offer live, local rate comparisons for the equipment rental industry. The website uses a 'Travelocity'-type system allowing rental [...]

When I saw my first rental delivery truck, I was brand new to the rental industry after just being hired by RER. I hadn't even started my new job yet [...]

The history of recessions has taught us that some of the greatest technological innovations have developed during dire economic times. As many people in this industry are finding, the same [...]

Coming from the airline industry, where lack of attention to customer safety could result in hundreds of deaths at a time, Andy Studdert, chairman and CEO of Deerfield, Ill.-based NES [...]

There's an old saying which, I believe, goes back to the 1960s: 'think globally, act locally.' Its meaning is pretty obvious when you think about it from an activist perspective. [...]

The RER 100 was, essentially, flat year-over-year from 2007 to 2008, with only a slight decline of about one-third of a percent. The decline is 2 percent for companies on [...]

Serge Bosche, president of Manitou in North America, has served the company for 25 years and has helped guide the manufacturer through good times and bad times. In this candid [...]

By now it's clear that this recession is going to be here for a while and business isn't going to just roar back real soon. Even if legislation to revive [...]

Hurry up, the plane is leaving. That's one of the Sunstate Equipment mottos. But what do airplanes have to do with equipment rental? The answer is simple. Some years ago, [...]

Managing the sales force effectively is one of the greatest challenges a rental company faces. When rental companies compete with one another in a marketplace, chances are they both have [...]

Although a few rental companies said 2008 was a good year, it will come as no surprise that the majority found business slowing down, especially in the latter months. Most [...]

Unlike his predecessors at United Rentals, Michael Kneeland is a 30-year rental industry veteran. Although he takes the reins at United during a challenging economic downturn, Kneeland is optimistic about [...]

At the next ARA show in Atlanta, one person missing will be Larry Pedersen of A Tool Shed, based in the San Jose area. Pedersen died of a cancer-related illness [...]

Washington Air Compressor Rental Co. might be the oldest rental company in the world still doing business under its original name. If there's an older North American rental company, not [...]

Washington Air Compressor Rental, the subject of this month's cover story, may be the oldest existing equipment rental company doing rentals continually - 77 years and counting. I know of [...]

As we go to press, the House has just voted down the bailout plan, Wall Street is worried and the economy looks bound for a long tough haul no matter [...]

When I first walked into Riwal's headquarters in Dordrecht, Netherlands, I was told CEO Dick Schalekamp was in a meeting. I'll be glad to wait, I said. As we walked [...]

Being interim CEO of United Rentals was probably not a particularly enviable position last November in the aftermath of the collapse of the company's acquisition by private equity firm Cerberus. [...]

Death comes to everyone. We all learn this as children and we all know that sooner or later everybody dies. However, there are people we meet in the course of [...]

Two years ago, JLG went to its customers and asked what they were looking for in compact telehandlers and here are the answers they gave. The first response was maneuverability [...]

People in the rental industry - both rental companies and suppliers to it - have been talking a lot lately about costs. Obviously the cost of fuel affects everybody. The [...]

We've all read quarterly reports showing strong revenue growth and profit numbers on the part of major manufacturers. But those numbers belie the fact that manufacturers have been strongly squeezed [...]

For every equipment rental, there are at least three major players involved. There is the manufacturer, the rental company and the end user. To be successful, each of these three [...]

Despite having more than $4.5 billion in worldwide sales in 2006, JCB has been called 'the best-kept secret' in the United States. CEO John Patterson started 37 years ago in [...]

Location, location, location - a mantra used often in business - mattered much in 2007. So did inventory mix. It was not a good year in the earthmoving business, especially [...]

While interviewing RER 100 executives for this issue, I noticed a recurring theme. It wasn't defined as such, but it was walking a kind of tightrope, on the razor's edge [...]

Never Be Satisfied Not resting on its laurels, 63-year-old JCB launches spate of new products at ConExpo. One of the mottos of Mr. JCB, Joseph Cyril Bamford, was 'never be [...]

I don't know how many aerial work platform-related accidents occurred in 2007, but however many was too many. Yes, accidents happen sometimes. But most 'accidents' are caused by carelessness, or [...]

When it comes down to it, it's all about systems. Erik Olsson knew that from years in manufacturing. No matter how good a product is, without efficiency in production and [...]

The rental industry is a cyclical one and in different ways. Obviously when construction is strong, rental is strong because there are a lot of jobs. When construction slows, the [...]

Although the housing slowdown is a greater cost to the United States economy than the rise in oil prices, the cost of fuel is no small matter for rental companies, [...]

Although the current construction market varies by region - or perhaps more accurately, by city and by neighborhood - for the most part a recent visit to Baltimore was a [...]

Residential construction is down; non-residential is strong for now. That seems to be the weather forecast most of the rental industry is looking at for the remainder of 2007 going [...]

This month's cover story talks about hiring and training, the ways the market is changing and the types of skills that might be required going forward. We also address an [...]

I hear a lot of rental executives talk about more efficient utilization of assets these days. Rental companies are more careful about buying equipment economically and analyzing the service and [...]

RER: What trends do you expect to see in the rental industry in the coming years? Bigwood: There will be increased focus on managing the life cycle of equipment in [...]

In some ways aerial equipment rental is a very unique aspect of the rental industry and aerial rental specialists are a distinct breed. My observation is high-reach rental tends to [...]

In January 2004 we published a feature story called '25 Trends That Might Matter.' Based on interviews with more than 50 rental people, manufacturers' reps, manufacturers, industry analysts and service [...]

Some will come true; some might not. But these 35 trends should give you some clues about where the rental industry is going. 1 Passport required Globalization is a business [...]

In the course of a typical episode of the TV series '24,' counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, is likely to be shot at, shoot attackers, rescue hostages, [...]

Not many heads of rental companies start their day by driving across town to a movie studio. But then again, not many rental companies are like 24/7 Studio Equipment. What [...]

At September's Associated Equipment Distributors' Executive Forum, the topic was lean distribution, taking the principles of 'lean' manufacturing and applying them to the distribution model. When I first heard of [...]

East Tennessee is one of the smallest Caterpillar territories on the map. With a population of less than 2 million people, the mountainous region's major metropolitan areas are Knoxville, Crossville, [...]

If you're not growing, you're sliding backwards. This business mantra is not always true, but it usually is. If you aren't thinking of new ways to expand your market share, [...]