The Rental Rag

The voice of The ARA of NJ

August  2004

njara.org

YOUR ARA-NJ

OFFICERS

President:
Megan Jones
Celebration Party Rentals
PO Box 2151
Flemington, NJ  08822
phone (908) 735-7368
fax (908) 806-0029

 

Vice President:
& Legistative
Dan Mihalko
Do-It-Yourself-Rentals
38 Route 10 West
East Hanover, NJ  07936
phone (973) 887-2251
fax (973) 887-8770

 

Secretary:
Judy Boelhouwer
Friendly Rental Center
1709 Rt. 130 -
North Brunswick, NJ
Tel: 732-297-6100    
Fax: 732-297-6160

Treasurer
Tom Lade
All County Rentals
2 Lackawanna Place
Morristown, NJ  07960
phone (973) 267-1255
fax (973) 267-4327

ARA-NJ

BOARD MEMBERS

 

Communications
Steve Kohn
Millers Rentals & Sales
764 US HW #1
Edison, NJ  08817
phone (732) 985-3050
fax (732) 985-4415

National Representative
Joe Mihalko, Jr.
Do-It-Yourself-Rentals
38 Route 10 West
East Hanover, NJ  07936
phone (973) 887-2251
fax (973) 887-8770

Education Chairman:
Dave Hinck
A Party Center
202 Fairfield Rd.
Fairfield, NJ  07006
phone (973) 575-1190
fax (973) 808-7192

Associate Representative:
Brian Higgins
Kaye Insurance
38 Perrin Ave
Pompton Lakes 07442
phone 973-835-8439 
fax 835-7312

 

Executive Director:
Carl Sparacio
A.R.A. of NJ
28 Refy Ave.
Ramsey, NJ  07442
Phone: 201-327-2495
Fax: 201-236-8934

Social Chairperson
Kristen Redmond
United Rent All
230 Rt. 206 South
Hillsborough 08876
phone 908-359-3663 
fax 908-359-4319

Party SIG
Rocky Sconda
Jessica Sorkau
Main Attractions
85 Newfield Ave
Edison, NJ 08837
phone 732-225-3500
fax  732-225-2110 

Tool Sig

Tom Faitoute  
Rentals Unlimited

191 Route 23

Pompton Plains, NJ 07444

Phone (201) 973-839-1200

Fax (201) 856-629-3094

Membership
Howard Heller
M & R Sales
82 Gallinson Drive
Murray Hill, NJ 07974
phone (908) 508-0658
mnrsls@bellatlantic.net

JERSEY TALK

      Howard Heller

Congratulations to Content on their new offices and warehouse in East Rutherford (50 Willow Street). We look forward to a grand opening NJARA meeting- with lots of champagne!

Note that Inflatable Manufacturers are being asked to supply shipping data to the NJ Department of Community Affairs.  Inspectors may be contacting you regarding licensing/inspections of your inflatable as a result.

SUPPORT OUR ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

A-1 Tablecloth Co.

Murray Vale

201-727-8987

Air & Electic Tool Services

Walter Benson

908-272-5567

Allied Insurance Brokers

Stephen Chapas

412-231-8383

Anchr Industries

Howard Jaslow

800-808-8368

Atlas Copco

Tom Butler

412-536-0600

BilJax, Inc.

Sam Jacobs

707-432-1173

Blairs Rental Service

Blair Guker

732-255-3584

SUPPORT OUR ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

B.T. Sales Group

Jeffrey Kleinman

516-420-4111

Cadco Company

Ben Ryom

800-942-2326

Ditch Witch of NJ

Joe Bera

732-446-9600

G.R.Evans Associates

Gary Evans

800-247-6722

Garden State Bobcat

Bob Woods

732-780-6880

Harrison Products Corp

Al Harrison

201-833-0333

Hennign Assocites

Tom Hennigan

888-944-4446

Hilti, Inc.

John Egan

610-608-2428

Kaye Insurance Associates

Brian Higgins

973-835-8439

L.B. Breck Sales Group

Loren Breck

607-656-9333

J D Sales

Mike Forristel

215-444-0474

J K Data Systems

Kalki Joisher

201-818-0185

M & R Sales, Inc.

Howard Heller

908-508-0658

Maywood Furniture

Ken Perrson

800-238-6797

Millennium Steel

Sam Hoffman

212-594-2190

National Chemsearch

Angelo Pruscino

732-739-2428

North Jersey Bobcat

Vincent Ryan

201-703-8866

SUPPORT OUR ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

O’Donnell & English

Timothy English

732-275-1275

Pace Marketing

Benjamin Minardi

800-295-7955

RLM Agency, Inc.

Roy Peraga;;o

973-835-6171

Republic Business Forms

Louis Saraceni

973-616-0080

R S S Distributors

Ross Wiggins

707-892-6743

Sales To Industry

Mike Rand

800-336-4784

Stanley-Bostich

David Carr

800-556-6696

Tarantin Tank & Equipment

Tom Tarantin

800-922-0724

Viking Representatives

Ted Vetrini

800-526-2403

Wacker Corp

Michael Kemmlein

973-442-1551

Wayne R. Cleven C.P.A.

Wayne Cleven

732-240-9700

MEET SOME NEW MEMBERS

Pipeline Equipment Rental

Boonton

Wingle Supple Co.

Branchville

Grand Rental Station

Bridgewater

United Rentals

Burlington

Califon Rental Center

Califon

Russ Rents

Cape May Coourt House

United Rentals

Carlstadt

Ann’s Party Rentals

Cliffwood

Sexton’s Equipment Rental

Deptford

Interstate Equipment Rental

Dover

Petrosh Big Top

Egg Harbor City

Independent Aerial Equip.

Elizabeth

Eastlake Party Rentals

Elmwood Park

Zorro d/b/a Fox Equipment

Farmindale

Market Basket

Franklin Lakes

Volvo Rents of Harrison

Harrison

Grand Rental Station

Hewitt

Hoffman’s Supply

Long Valley

Rent A Skid

Mahwah

Sunbelt Rentals

Maple Shade

Event Rentals

Mount Laurel

Rabin Rentals

Newark

Rapid Lift Service

Pennsauken

The Party Pros

Piscatawy

Classic Rentals

Pittstown

Dazian

Secaucus

Volvo Rents

Somerville

Alan Party & Tent Rentals

So. Hackensack

J & R Rentals

Southhampton

Message from Megan

WOW! What a great year. Our spring meetings were a big hit with a record numbers in attendance at both. March we had a hot hot hot Luau at Fusco’s Rental in Flemington, thanks to our host Mike Fusco .  He was a great sport when we asked him to move his boat and took over his warehouse. We talked marketing strategies with former ARA President & REAP Advisor Richard Paquette, spotlighted vendors, raffled door prizes and met with new and old friends. April brought the Main Event at Main Attractions. We challenged our host, Rocky Sconda to create a boxing arena for the Great Debate. I don’t know who showed off the most, our host, our boxers, or our “sign men”! It was The Event to attend. Round one was on damage waivers, round two on niche marketing and the third round was verbal vs written product warnings.

Remember last year we had Rent Tech, well this summer we had Party Tech. And did we ever party! Thanks to Mike Tharpe, Top Tec who created the program and was assisted by Andy Lichter from the State of NJ’s Carnival Amusement Ride Safety and Steve Belliveau from Tent Wares/Anchor. See story and photos inside.

Haven’t attended a meeting this year yet, well you still have two more chances.

Wary because you’re in tools and a meeting is hosted at an event company, well don’t, because as you can see the trend is to have cross topic platforms and alternate rental general locations. That way everyone gets equal play.

All of us in the rental business share one common thing. We love to talk about things that happen to us during the year. It’s our version of TV’s Bloopers and we have some good ones. Yes, that 8’ft table is still 8’ft last time I checked. That’s still my favorite one.

This issue is dedicated to war stories! If it hasn’t happened to you…it will!

Make it a profitable month

Megan Jones

ARA NJ President

I just read an article in the January issue of Rental Equipment Register magazine. The article is called "25 trends that might matter". It was one of the more interesting articles I have read in this magazine in awhile.

    The article predicted a bunch of trends, suggested new markets, made suggestions to make a rental store more efficient, warned of things to watch out for in the future. This article made me do a lot of thinking.

    In the 1980's if you were in business you could make money even if you were and idiot. In the 1990's all the idiots were gone and you had to watch your expenses because you weren't growing as fast as you had. Now, you have to be at least somewhat techno savvy because all the information you need to run your business comes in a different way then it did ten years ago.

    So, the main reason I mentioned the magazine article is that I am a strong believer in the exchange of information that you get from ARA of NJ. The board of this organization works hard to bring you information to help you run your business. Come to a meeting, bring an employee, and participate in the exchange of information. You will find that you get a lot more out of the rental association then you put in.

……………………………………………………………………….Tom Lade

More pictures from Party Tec

President Megan Jones hands out certificates of completion to all

            We all have war stories of every kind but since I have to write about a social war story, I’ll talk about surprise parties. We all love these especially the ones that need it delivered at an exact time, exact place, etc.  No one wants to show up when the honoree is still around.  Once we did a site check for a client who was having a party for their mother.  Only problem was that mom lived with her and was of a certain age and she no longer worked.  Our client told us that if we saw a certain car in the drivewaywe were not to stop because that meant that she was home.  We made arrangements to stop by when she was at the senior citizens center.  Well, when we arrived to do out site check, guess whose car was in the driveway? Momma’s.  We did not stop but called our client.  She assured us that mom was leaving.  Well by our 4th drive by, the police were waiting for us!  Mom had spotted us driving around and became suspicious!  Well, after an explanation to the police (not mom!  Even after all this we did not want her surprise to be blown!) and a good laugh, mom left and we were able to do a site check.  The moral of the story is that make sure you cover all your bases.  Some helpful tips that have worked for us in coordinating successful surprise parties are:

1.      Always get a cell phone number and a secondary name and number just in case you cannot get in contact with the host.  If you do need to call the house, use your personal cell phone, caller ID can be a killer.

2.      Find out when the honoree is leaving the house and make sure that gives you enough time to do what needs to be done.  For example, delivering tables, chairs and setting up a tent at 2pm for a party that starts at 2:30pm, and you forgot one of the tent pieces.  Be honest and clear with the customer, offer suggestions and let them know how much time you need.  Also, build in a time buffer, even if they don’t- they’ll thank you for it later.

3.      Communication!!!  Make sure your inside and outside crews are well informed of what type of party the client is having so if they find themselves talking to the honoree they can do some fancy footwork. “I’m sorry, I have the wrong number” or “I’m sorry, I thought this was 45 State Road, not 43 State Road”.

I hope these are helpful and I wish you the best of luck! :+)

It’s early spring. The smell of the recently defrosted ground lingers in the air. Sunlight struggles to peer thru the cloud covered skies. It’s warm enough to wear shorts but a chill in the air keeps me wearing my sweat shirt. Crack! Lighting strikes followed by a freight train of thunder. On my way to work it begins to drizzle and I think, "it’s going to be another wet one."

As I enter the store I see Mr.Smith standing at the counter. Mr.Smith is one of our regular Do-It-Yourselfers. Ever increasing in confidence he remains very nervous every time he rents a new tool. Yesterday he tried renting his Everest; a Bobcat 773 skid steer loader. Sweat beading on his forehead as his cracking voice tells a story of a novice getting a machine stuck in mud. Down playing every word, Mr. Smith’s mannerisms are hinting at a much worse situation.
"So where is the machine," I ask? Prefacing his story Mr.Smith continues by saying East Hanover was built on a swamp and his property touches one of these low lying mash areas. Looking to make "his" backyard bigger he began clearing out the town’s land (swamp). So again I asked where the machine was. "Well, I’ve got one of the deepest lots on the block. My back yard is about 75 feet deep." "And..." I replied. "Well, your machine is about 100 feet into the woods." "Don’t you mean swamp?" "Well, yeah."

Arriving at his house the rain has stopped. Thanking God for little miracles; my partner (lets call him John) and I gather what we think we might need chains and such and head out for the swamp. He was right he does have one of the biggest backyards in the neighborhood but where is the machine? A 7’ tall brume lined his entire backyard. This concealed the machine from sight. From a top of the 50’ long mound we could see it! Yes! It was there one hundred feet into the swamp. How it got there who knows. How it got over this enormous wall of decaying foliage we may never know. How it got out, I haven’t been able to talk about it until today.

Realizing we were going to need more equipment I sent John ahead to see if he could get it started and possibly out. I went back to the truck for a com-a-long and more chain. To my surprise when I came back the machine was running and headed toward me. Great! There is a God. As I approached the machine I sunk into some deep mud. Waving John off not to come any further he stopped. We mapped out a route that looked and felt the least muddy and away John went. Heading straight for the house in the least muddy path... Then without warning or reason John turns left. "John were are going," I yelled! I may as well been talking to the mud. As he drove by me waving my hands and yelling he went straight into the middle of a puddle! The problems with puddles are you never know how deep they are. There is a God and he’s mad at me. I knew that because after the tires sunk past the axle it began to rain.

To make my long story a little shorter; 45 minutes later we are back on track headed for higher ground. Not a second to late because its been raining. 45 minutes after that we are on higher ground. Rain steadily getting harder. At this point we only have to figure out how to get over the 7’ foot tall mound of who knows what. It was slick as ice and smelt like Sugar Honey Iced Tea. In total it took 3 hours 142 known and unknown curse words and 1 big smile to get to the back yard. Where we again got stuck. Soaked to the bone and smelling like nature's finest I realized the sun doesn't shine on the same dog’s tail every day and that day I wasn’t going to see any sunshine.

…………………………………………………………………. Dan Mihalko

So many questions arise- should you as an owner or manger socialize outside business with your employees?  Do you encourage socialization between employees outside of work?  Do you have socials in the framework of business where all employees attend?  To all of these questions there are no definite answers. Many factors determine the answer to these questions such as the size of the company, if it is family owned, age variation and if you are personally comfortable socializing with fellow employees. You as an owner or manager must decide what works best for the company.

If you run a small company, you work in close proximity to your employees all day, which tends to create friendships, this socialization is unavoidable.  This is especially true if the work environment is all males or all females.  This can work to your benefit since owners and managers become close and work as a team with their employees knowing what each person’s strengths and weaknesses are. But conversely, it could be detrimental to your work environment if your employees take advantage of the situation, becoming your “friend”, not respecting you as their manager.  

If you have a larger company, there is more of a social structure because as the company grows, so does the distance between employee/employer.  At this level there is a definite management level and labor level.  Management is less involved with day to day operations as opposed to a smaller operation.  In this environment you find socialization becomes more structured.  You plan an “Employee Holiday Party” as opposed to the small company “Let’s go for a Beer” social.

In small businesses there is no definitive answer or solution; it’s whatever works for you and your company. 

…………………………………………………………………………….. Kristen Redmond

SITE SURVEY, LAYOUT & ANCHORING

Mike Tharpe, National Sales Manager from TopTec Tents, put on an interesting and relevant program entitled: Site Survey, Layout, and Anchoring.  It was presented (8/4) at Celebration Party Rentals, under a tent decorated with a creative "Western Motif".  President Jones deserves the credit for this one.

In reviewing various layout methods, site survey glitches, he cited several tales where surveys were flawed and the costs resulting.

Mike reviewed various test data for stakes that  will undoubtedly influence future decisions of many who attended.  For example, an angled 1"x36" stake has an average holding power of 275 lbs.  On the other hand, the same stake installed straight down, has an average holding power of 1150 lbs.  Anyone not putting in their stakes straight down- please consider a change.

Ratchet straps were discussed, with superior tensioning characteristics and for needed time saving, for both pole tents and frame tents.

ARA-NJ Shirts For Sale

white polo with red and blue logo embroidered on left

Size: S, M, L, XL               Style : Woman Men       Quantity         Cost: $25.00 each

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Name:_______________________________                                sub total:________

Company:_____________________________                               shipping:    $10.00

Address:______________________________                              TOTAL:_________

Phone:_______________________________                                ck#____________

Mail to: ARA-NJ c/o Carl Sparacio,

             28 Refy Ave.,

             Ramsey, NJ 07446

Please include check for total amount