They are the people who jump into a pickup truck to make a last-minute delivery, who skip lunch to help a good customer out of a jam, who oftentimes answer phones at the counter.
They are the independents, and, collectively, they form the backbone of the equipment rental industry.
They are rental center owners who - based on desire, a healthy dose of entrepreneurial spirit and an undying devotion to serving their customers - built businesses prepared to withstand increased competition.
They are resourceful people such as Jim Bruner.
While stuck working the counter by himself one day, Bruner received a call from a big customer in need of a jackhammer. Although his delivery truck was on the other side of Cincinnati, Bruner followed through on his previous promise to the contractor to deliver any item within 20 minutes. He called a cab, put the tool in the back seat and slipped the cabby an extra $10 to make sure it got there.
They are spirited folks such as Tom Nickell.
Dissatisfied with the corporate side of the rental business, Nickell recently left his job as a manager for an RER 100 company in order to open his own rental center in the Atlanta area.
They are kind people such as Skip Snyder, who once offered his assistance to a motorcyclist whose bike broke down in front of Snyder's Portland, Ore., home.
While helping to fix the problem, Snyder mentioned that he owned a rental center. As it turned out, the stranded biker worked for a contractor. To show his gratitude, he made sure that his company called Snyder's rental center first when it needed equipment. When the man changed companies, he accepted the new job on the condition that Snyder would get the first opportunity to fill any rental needs.
Bruner, Nickell and Snyder are the embodiment of the independent. They don't just talk about their ability to "out-service" their bigger competition - they are out on the front lines doing it, as the stories above illustrate.
Some have postulated that formidable competition emerging over the last five years is squeezing the life out of the independent. Several large publicly held consolidators are attacking the heavy-equipment end of the independent's customer base with cut-rate pricing. Meanwhile, big-box and hardware retailers are jumping into the homeowner and light contractor arenas with in-store rental departments.
As the independent's customer base is weakened, so is its pulse, some say.
'That assumption is simply not valid. Consolidation is forcing major changes in the independent's basic business strategies and practices. It is not forcing a noticeable increase in bankruptcy filings."
Using the conservative estimate that there are 15,000 outlets serving rental markets in the United States and Canada, less than 10 percent of those locations are controlled by the industry's 10 biggest companies.
So what is the other 90 percent of the industry up to?
Independents are hard at work stressing their top-notch service, rather than price.
For example, when a customer asked Larry Stegemiller, outside sales manager at Cincinnati's Brueneman Rentals if he had sweeper bags, he didn't say no. Instead, he went to a store that did, charged the items to his own credit card and delivered them. You can bet that customer didn't mind that Stegemiller marked up the price of the bags a bit to cover the extra effort.
And how much was it worth to the rental customer in Cincinnati with a massive sewage backup that Cincy Tool Rental co-owner Bob Bruner picked up the phone at 3 a.m. and took the emergency order for pumps, wet vacs and fans?
Independents are also providing diverse rental inventories full of solutions to customers' problems, no matter how far-fetched.
Portland's Scott Edwards, for instance, has been known to rent items as unusual as bales of hay, margarita machines and deer antlers. Herb Jundt, also of Portland, rents skis, snowboards and the like to powder-loving customers, turning what was once a predictable winter slowdown into one of his busiest seasons.
These independents are also technologically well-connected.
Cincy Tool Rental's site on the Internet's World Wide Web is among the best in the industry, exposing potential customers to the rental concept by providing online a rental catalog, tips for the do-it-yourselfer and discount coupons.
Nickell Equipment Rental & Sales' direct-connect radios provide the company's small four-person staff the freedom to go out and drum up business throughout the Atlanta area without ever losing touch with what's going on back at the branch.
The independents' technological advancement, breadth of inventory and focus on customer service are impressive; but perhaps the two most important assets possessed by every independent are passion and personality
Lew Coker's remodel of his Gainesville, Ga., rental center is a prime example. Wanting an area landmark, he built a castle-like edifice based on his own sketches. Now when locals give directions around town, they can't help but say, "Go about a mile past the rental center that looks like a castle and make a left." Sometimes people who wouldn't know a paint sprayer from a pressure washer stop in not to rent equipment, but to tell Coker how much they like his building.
Now that's spreading the rental concept.
RER recently dispatched reporters to three different U.S. markets to find out exactly how independents are coping with the new realities brought on by three-plus years of industry consolidation. Are they changing their strategies? Are they lowering rates? Adding inventory? Joining buying co-ops? Finding new niches?
The answers to those questions and others are provided in the stories that follow.
