I've received many comments from readers who enjoyed the coverage in our November issue of NationsRent's activities in support of its own employees and hurricane relief efforts, as well as our coverage of Tuff Rentals' struggle for survival. Some readers might ask why once again we are focusing on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
We, the RER staff, spoke with rental people from a number of companies waging forgotten yet heroic battles to keep their businesses and personal lives going. Many small rental centers were seriously damaged. Many, such as John Milner in Gulfport, Miss., written about in this month's cover story, lost their homes. Milner lost his mother as well, and five homes owned by family members were completely destroyed, yet he kept his business going and worked day and night.
Milner wasn't the only one. Rental people all over the Gulf Coast went out to fix equipment in often-impossible conditions, working long hours for weeks on end, hardly seeing their families.
As Josh DeSalvo, manager of ABC Rental in devastated Bay St. Louis, Miss., says, in his community the rental center — and his is the only one in town — is a lifeline, just like hospitals, just like food providers, just like various kinds of relief workers. The tools and equipment rental centers provided enabled people to begin to dig out from floods, clear away debris so they could continue with life, so they could repair their homes, buy food or medicine, take someone to the hospital, rebuild their businesses and livelihoods. So DeSalvo spent weeks fixing up his flooded branch to take care of customers, because his community needed it to survive. Later he could worry about his own house; there would be time for that later.
And DeSalvo wasn't the only one.
David Delk didn't wake up in the morning August 29 thinking about being a hero that day, nor was he thinking that when he raced out of his parents' home in the middle of 160-mph winds through rising water with trees falling and broken glass flying through the air, to rescue the 90-year-old couple across the way. He just did it because if he didn't, this couple he'd known all his life might not make it.
And Delk wasn't the only one to do that either.
I've now covered this industry 16 years and I've visited hundreds of rental centers and interviewed hundreds of rental people. I can tell you about many of these companies and their revenues and their utilization percentages and the kind of equipment they rent.
When I ask the successful ones the secrets of their success, many tell me of their business strategies or the quality of their suppliers or the strength of their organizations and systems. But almost every one of them talk even more about their people and their dedication to satisfy customers, to go above and beyond the expected.
After visiting New Orleans and Baton Rouge and Gulfport and Bay St. Louis and Mobile, I am again amazed at the courage and dedication of rental people.
The rental business is booming right now. Many rental people I've spoken to say 2005 was a great year and business was solid with demand outpacing supply. One rental company owner said it was one of those years where you'd really have to be doing something wrong not to make money.
Most folks expect 2006 to follow 2005. Some feel it will be better, some not quite so good. Some see continued strength for a few years to come. Some say their customers have more work than they can handle on their immediate horizon, which can only lead to increasing equipment needs.
A few others point to ominous areas of concern, such as the current state of companies such as Ford and Delphi and the sectors they represent, their soon-to-be unemployed workers, and the growing disintegration of the United States manufacturing base.
Some see fuel prices, rising materials costs of many kinds, or a potential housing slowdown as causes for concern. Others see these obstacles as simply obstacles, pointing out that there are always some impediments you have to deal with and work your way around, you can't expect a perfect world or a perfect storm of conditions making life or business always easy.
Many point out the possibility of the unforeseen — a major terrorist attack or other catastrophic event that nobody can predict.
There are many uncertainties, but good people will come through for you in tough times. If they can come through after Hurricane Katrina, they'll come through anything.
