Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend Volvo Rents' 2009 Franchise Convention in Palm Springs, Calif., and I continue to be impressed by the kind of support Volvo Rents provides for its franchisees. Some of the workshops at the three-day event included “Advanced Financials: Tax, Estate and Succession planning”, “Leveraging Business Intelligence Tools”; and three very interesting sessions on best practices for renting in a downturn: Power Generation Rental Opportunities; Industrial and Manufacturing Rental Opportunities, and Government Rental Opportunities. There were sessions covering various financial issues as well and opportunities for franchisees to have one-on-one sessions with CEO Barry Natwick and other upper management officials to help them with various aspects of operations.
Other services offered by Volvo Rents management include software that drills down to the various metropolitan areas covered by franchisees so they can get a detailed overview of projects that are about to develop and trends that will affect the areas in the coming years. An interesting map module shows the geographic direction of growth. It's one thing to know how much construction is likely in a region in the next year, or two years or five, even more helpful to know in what exact areas the growth will come in.
Volvo Rents new Hard Hat Comedy program is also a nice touch. The company has assembled a group of comics Volvo Rents franchisees can hire for special events they might put on. Two of them performed Saturday night and they were quite funny. They also included some construction-related humor, which went over well.
Many rental companies currently are exhibiting much of the doom and gloom that is predominant in the current economy. You wouldn't know it when talking with Volvo Rents franchisees. While not unrealistic about how things are, a strong current of optimism seemed to prevail. It was encouraging to convention participants and guests as well.
About 75 vendors participated in Volvo Rents' Vendor Day, a mini-trade show, with indoor table top displays as well as outdoor equipment stands. Vendors included Allmand Bros., Bobcat, Diamond Products, Ditch Witch, Doosan Portable Power, Genie, Hilti, JCB, JLB, John Deere, Miller Electric, Multiquip (voted vendor of the year), Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Skyjack, SmartEquip, Vermeer, Wacker Neuson and more.
If you'd like to know more about Volvo Rents, take a look at a feature article we wrote about them a few years ago called "A Better Slingshot" at http://rermag.com/mag/equipment_better_slingshot_50105/
