grOuP PuBlIShEr I Martin McAnulty mmcanulty@annexweb.com
PrESIdENt I Mike Fredericks mfredericks@annexweb.com
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26
4 E DIToRIAL: Mom knew best If we care, we tell it like it is. by Patrick Flannery
20 Fighting frost Infrared ground-thawing solutions can beat tough conditions.
20
12
Riding the boom
Cameron Equipment
Rentals is off like an oilfueled rocket.
30
Heater showcase Your guide to the industry’s best BTU blasters. 12
10 CRA President’s Message There is no substitute for advertising and promoting your company.
18 Legalese Stay on the right side of the law when dismissing employees.
30
26
Instead of a register Point-of-sale apps turn iPads and other mobile devices into cheap, portable cash registers.
38
The Back Page Risk expert Ken Fingler shares some anti-theft tips.
Mom knew best
If we care, we tell it like it is.
Irecently received a letter from a concerned reader pointing out what he felt to be an unsafe work practice in a photo in a past issue. I love getting those letters because it means people are not only reading the magazine, but they are scrutinizing it very carefully, which means they are engaged and interested. In this instance, the reader thought we should not have published the photo because it might create the impression in some people’s minds that rental houses do not operate safely.
I think this touches on an interesting point about the relationship between a trade magazine and the market it serves. Is it the job of Canadian Rental Service to promote a certain image of this industry? Even more importantly, is it my job to promote that image regardless of whether or not it is a true representation?
T he question of true representation is, of course, a thorny one. In the infamous words of Pontius Pilate, “What is truth?” No one can lay claim to the definitive answer to that question. However, we do have shared standards of truth. Perhaps the question is better rephrased to ask whether I should knowingly violate my own standard of truth to protect the reputation of the industry, or a particular operator.
I think a trade magazine’s mission is to be unfailingly, unswervingly supportive of the industry it serves. I feel I bear a heavy responsibility to do all I can to protect and
ON THE WEB:
S&S Supply now distributing Terex Terex Construction has welcomed S&S Supply of Mount Pearl, N.L., as its newest compact construction equipment distributor.
Olah moves on George Olah, former general manager of operations for ABCO Equipment Rentals and Canadian Rental Service columnist, has accepted a new position as vice-president of Alliance AutoGas Canada with Caledon Propane of Bolton, Ont.
Robin Nutall passes Robin Nutall of Michael’s Equipment in Paris, Ont., died on Aug. 24 after a brief illness. He was 60.
by Patrick Flannery
promote the interests of rental operators in this country, and to help them in any way I can to cut costs, increase revenues and build their businesses. Telling the truth is part of that mission. The day I lose sight of that mission is the day you, the reader, stop trusting what you read in this magazine. And when that happens, you don’t have a magazine for much longer. No one wants to read lies. Even flattering lies.
S o telling a deliberate lie to protect the image of the industry would defeat the very purpose it set out to achieve. A magazine with no credibility does not make or break reputations – it is simply ignored.
B ut what about errors of omission rather than commission? Most people would say that simply refraining from divulging a particular bit of information is not in the same category as a lie. As Mom used to say, “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.“ Perhaps the interests of the industry would be best served if trade magazines showed only the good bits of what they cover and left the rest out of sight and out of mind. No intent to deceive, no deliberate cover-up, but just a decorous silence with regard to things unpleasant and uncomfortable.
O nce again, I think Mom has the answer. How silent did she remain concerning your shortcomings as a kid? How unwilling was she to say something not-so-nice when you were rude or lazy or jumping on your brother’s head? Not that unwilling at all, as I recall. She spoke up to us because she loves us and knew that embarrassment or a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for a lesson learned.
I ’m not qualified to teach the rental industry any lessons. But I can put the information out there and let people draw what lessons they can. Remember, Canadian Rental Service doesn’t go to your customers, it goes to your colleagues. Inside this industry family, I think the best policy is Mom’s policy: openness and honesty, good with the bad, warts and all. CRS
VOTed i N
The Canadian Rental Association has announced the results of its national board elections. The new board will meet Sept. 21 and 22 at The Forks in Winnipeg.
The newly elected CRA national board members are:
• Marc Mandin of 4-Way Equipment Rentals in Edmonton, Alta. –national vice-president
• Angie Venekamp of Rental Network in Squamish, B.C. – B.C. national director (three-year term)
• Dave Mintenko of Hertz Equipment Rentals in Winnipeg, Man.
– Manitoba national director (one-year extension)
• Paul Ravary of Location Ravary in Laval, Que. – Quebec national director (one-year extension)
• Dean Nasato of Wacker Neuson in Mississauga, Ont. – national supplier director (three-year term)
The rest of the board members are in the middle of their terms and remain in place. A full listing of board members is available on the CRA website.
The American Rental Association also held board elections in September. Paul Phelon of Timp Rental Center in Orem, Utah, was voted president-elect.
Around the Sept. 21 meetings, the new board will attend CRA president Ed Dwyer’s grand opening of C&T Rental’s new facility in Winnipeg’s CentrePort industrial development, marking C&T’s 25th year in business.
Echo tEEs up a dEal
The National Golf Course Owners Association of Canada has announced that Echo Power Equipment Canada has become an official Golfmax supplier. Through its Golfmax agreement with Echo Canada, NGCOA Canada members who purchase Echo, BearCat and Shindaiwa
equipment, will receive an exclusive discount on the lowest advertised price at the time of invoice. “We are thrilled to join forces with Echo Canada to provide our members with the best outdoor power equipment available on the market today.” said Jeff Calderwood, CEO of NGCOA Canada.
COM i NG eVe NTS
Oct. 17
CRA Ontario General Meeting Newmarket, Ont. 8 www.crarental.org
Oct. 19-21
ARA Leadership Conference Chicago, Ill. 8 www.ararental.org
Oct. 23
CRA Saskatchewan General Meeting Saskatoon, Sask. 8 www.crarental.org
Oct. 24-26
Green Industry and Equipment Expo Louisville, Ky. 8 www.gie-expo.com
Jan. 11-13, 2013
CRA B.C. Regional Trade Show Langley, B.C. 8 www.crarental.org
Jan. 19
CRA Ontario Tabletop Show Alliston, Ont. 8 www.crarental.org
Feb. 10-13
The Rental Show Las Vegas, Nev. 8 www.therentalshow.com
Feb. 22-23
Atlantic Trade Show Moncton, N.B. 8 www.crarental.org
March 15-16
Prairie Trade Show
Saskatoon, Sask. 8 www.crarental.org
March 26-27
Quebexpo St. Hyacinthe, Que. 8 www.crarental.org
March 4-8, 2014 ConExpo/ConAgg Las Vegas, Nev. 8 www.conexpoconagg.com
Paul Everitt passes the torch to the new CRA supplier director, Dean Nasato.
INDUSTRY NEWS
SaNy G eTS FRaN k
Tim Frank, a construction equipment executive with extensive global experience in sales, marketing, operations and product development, has been named chairman of Sany America. In this newly created position, Frank has overall responsibility for manufacturing, sales, marketing and support for all Sany equipment products in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America. The appointment was effective Aug. 9.
“Sany is a brand known for seeking strong growth through quality products and dedicated people,” said Liang Wengen, chairman of the board of Sany Group, based in Changsha, China. “Tim Frank’s vision, strategic thinking and record of accomplishment will serve Sany well as we grow our presence in the Americas. Tim knows what needs to be done to establish Sany as a market leader as it is in China and in other regions around the world. He will pursue this goal with vigour.”
Frank was most recently a consultant working on global strategic planning for the board of Sany Group in Shanghai, China. Prior, he was vice-president of retail distribution and senior vice-president of operations strategy and marketing at Volvo Construction Equipment in Asheville, N.C. He also served at Volvo as vice-president of sales and marketing, and vice-president of excavators, helping to grow that company’s market share and profitability over the past eight years. Frank previously served in various global sales and marketing capacities at CNH Global and Caterpillar.
“Sany is the fastest growing construction equipment manufacturer in the world by a significant margin, with unprecedented results in China and other markets around the world. Most of North America is just now learning of this legacy of success and achievement,” Frank said. “As I have grown to know Sany, it became obvious that something special was happening in this company. I am so excited to be a part of it. Construction contractors in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America will soon come to know Sany America for helping them get the job done in a competitive economy.”
Frank, 44, is a native of Peoria, Ill. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a master’s degree in history from Illinois State University.
Sany manufactures and sells hoisting equipment (crawler, truck, roughterrain and all-terrain cranes), concrete machines (concrete pumps, mixer trucks and batching plants), road machinery (motor graders, rollers, pavers and asphalt batching plants), port equipment (container reach stackers, empty-container handlers, heavy forklifts and gantry cranes), excavators, rigid haul trucks, pile-driving machinery and wind turbines. Sany America sells, distributes and supports crawler cranes from 110 to 550 U.S. tons, rough-terrain cranes from 40 to 85 tons, hydraulic excavators from 7.5 to 33.5 tons, port reach stackers with maximum lift of 99,200 pounds, and empty-container handlers with maximum load of 19,850 pounds. Sany America has an operations, assembly and research and development centre in Peachtree City, Ga.
s & s picks up tErEx
S & S Supply has announced a deal to represent Terex compact construction equipment. The line includes 45 unique product models including Terex skid steer loaders, compact track loaders, loader backhoes wheel loaders and excavators. S & S Supply offers full sales, rental, service and after-sale support, including parts and warranty work, to customers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
S & S Supply was founded nearly two decades ago by owner Brad Smith, and today the company serves landscaping and construction customers in the area, from homeowners to municipalities, schools to large offshore projects. Taking on the Terex line has helped Smith and his company fill in gaps in their current equipment fleet to supply customers’ demands for particular models, including skid steer loaders and loader backhoes.
“Over the years, we evolved our equipment fleet out of necessity to fulfil customers’ requests,” says Smith. “As we saw trends emerge, we knew we needed to take on an equipment manufacturer that could not only help us fill the voids in our line, but also that would provide us with high quality products at a good price and quick delivery time. The Terex line fits all those criteria. Terex offers well-built products, and both my staff and customers are very happy with the decision.”
According to Smith, by adding the Terex line the company will not only be able to fulfil its current customers’ equipment requests, but also to attract new business, particularly in the landscaping market where skid steer loaders are quite popular. To accommodate the influx of business, Smith plans to expand his sales and service facilities in the near future.
ara, aEM tour oilsands
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers says its support for members seeking market opportunities was demonstrated in the recent trade mission to the Alberta oilsands. As a project of AEM’s Small Enterprise Committee, representatives from small and medium-sized member companies gained in-depth knowledge about new equipment sales prospects in the Alberta oilsands region during a trade mission Aug. 13-15. The junket was co-sponsored by the American Rental Association.
The mission emphasized economic opportunities for equipment manufacturers to export their products and grow their businesses in this energy-rich part of western Canada. The trade mission was conducted in conjunction with the Alberta Enterprise Group, a non-profit business advocacy organization.
“The Alberta oilsands are a bright spot for safer and more secure oil in North America, and show tremendous promise for long-term investment and growth for the U.S. heavy off-road equipment industry,” said Nick Yaksich, AEM vice-president of global public policy. “As the industry continues to grow, equipment manufacturers will play an important role in providing the much-needed resources for these sites to operate successfully.”
After the trade mission group arrived in Calgary, Alta., they were briefed on the oilsands industry and the regulatory and political environment in Alberta. Speakers at the briefing included Don Thompson, former Syncrude vice-president, Randy Kerr, HBW Resources executive vice-president in Canada, and Grant Martin, TransCanada Pipelines supply chain management director.
The following day, the group headed to Fort McMurray, Alta., to tour Syncrude Canada and received a briefing by the Wood Buffalo Regional Municipality on the economic and political status of the oilsands, and future projections for growth and investment in the area. AEM and ARA used the trade mission to publicly call on the State Department to swiftly approve a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to refineries in the U.S. Prompt approval would create over 18,000 high-wage jobs in construction and manufacturing while providing a stable supply of North American energy to consumers.
ara prEdicts growth
The forecast for the equipment rental industry remains bright according to the latest data released by the American Rental Association, despite a slowdown in overall economic growth in the second quarter of 2012. The ARA anticipates North American equipment rental industry revenue to increase by 8.2 per cent in 2012 to reach $34 billion by year end. The growth is fuelled by a strong revenue growth projection of nine per cent in the construction and industrial equipment segment to $22.7 billion and eight per cent in the general tool segment to $8.7 billion. The party and event segment is expected to grow 3.1 per cent in 2012 to reach $2.6 billion in revenue.
The projections are based on the industry’s recently updated quarterly figures by IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm and a partner with ARA in providing data and analyses for the ARA Rental Market Monitor subscription service for association members.
Economic growth expectations are consistent with the prior quarter and remain bullish. The industry continues to outperform the U.S. economy at a rate more than four times that of GDP.
The ARA Rental Market Monitor current five-year forecast calls for steady, high single-digit growth in 2013 with double-digit revenue growth for the equipment rental industry in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to reach total North American rental revenue of $51.7 billion in 2016.
Also signalling a growth trend for the industry is the rate of investment in equipment, now projected by ARA to reach $9.85 billion in 2012, up more than 15 per cent over 2011. This means investment in equipment as a percentage of sales is forecasted to be 31.7 per cent this year. The percentage increase in equipment investment is expected to be even greater over the next three years.
“The equipment rental industry continues to be a leader in recovery of our economy,” says Christine Wehrman, ARA’s executive vice-president and CEO.
Promote yourself
“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”
– Lawrence J. Peter
by ED DWYER, CRA PRESIDENT
Whether you are a one-store rental operation or have multiple stores, marketing and advertising your rental store and our rental industry is a necessity these days, not a luxury. Sitting around and waiting for customers to walk in to your store is no way to run a successful rental operation.
Signage and curb appeal is critical. About ten years ago at my Scurfield Boulevard store –which is located on a busy street with a high traffic count – we made a large investment of $30,000 for a digital sign. This sign runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and flashes messages such as ‘‘Go Jets Go.” We also tailor the message as often as we want to show such messages as “We rent pumps!” when it is raining. We get lots of positive comments from customers coming in, so I know that we have received a great return on our investment over the years. We have even used this sign to advertise when we needed staff.
Sponsorship and community involvement is also very important. A good example would be what James Morden does. James is the owner and operator of Rentshop in Alliston, Ont., and supplies gas and welding equipment as part of his operation. For the past 20 years Rentshop has sponsored an award for the student at the local high school who graduates with the highest marks in welding. The Gas Shop Welding Award gives the winning student a welding starter kit. What a great idea. Are you involved in making a difference in your community?
The American Rental Association, of which you are a member if you are a member of the Canadian Rental Association, has a great calendar and promotion program. You can order the calendars customized with your company name and logo to hand out to your customers. These calendars are a great promotional tool that will be hanging in their offices for a full year. This program now has lower prices, more products and fast delivery. Please visit it online at www. ararental.org/go/2012 for more information.
Ed Dwyer owns and operates C & T Rentals in Winnipeg, Man. He is past president of the Manitoba Rental Association and also an active member of TAB (The Alternative Board).
Having an up-to-date website is also a necessity today. If you do not have a website, new customers simply will not find you. When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages? Serving on the CRA website committee has taught me a lot about websites. I find that posting our rental rates online is very helpful for our customers. People visit your website because they want to rent equipment, find specifications on equipment and discover what it costs to rent the equipment. We track how well our website works by offering an online discount coupon that they have to print and bring to our store. You can see my website at www.ctrentals.ca.
I am in the process of adding something called a QR code (QR stands for Quick Response) to our business cards. This code takes only a small amount of space and can, once scanned by a smartphone, allow users to download all your contact information, name, phone number, email address and website and save it on their devices for future reference. No longer does your customer have to keep those business cards, as they can be stored electronically forever.
Networking is one of the oldest and most established ways to grow your business. Do you belong to local networking groups or associations? Simply review your customer list and group them by industry. Construction and other industry trade association meetings are a great way to meet potential customers and maintain relationships with existing customers. I personally really enjoy networking on the golf course.
Social media is one of the newest forms of marketing. We are currently exploring reaching out to customers through emailed newsletters. Our e-newsletters will contain links to our site to increase the number of visits. Another form of social media participation is by setting up a Facebook site and Twitter account for your company. It is important to have someone knowledgeable in these to help set up and maintain them. If you any ideas on how your CRA can help with marketing please call our executive director, Mandy Wellnitz, at 1-888-270-4440. CRS
Riding the boo M
Agility is the key for Cameron Equipment Rentals.
According to Tony Canevaro, director of service and marketing for Calgary, Alta.-based Cameron Equipment Rentals, growing a startup company from nothing into a four-location operation with three distinct operating divisions and equipment inventory in the tens of millions in a year has been simple. “We have built our reputation on doing things other people think cannot be done,” Canevaro says.
by PATRICK FLANNERY
As a business plan, it is hard to beat. Where others turn away, you grasp the opportunity and find ways to go forward. Cameron has to come to the table with more than just an outstanding inventory of earth moving equipment, 400 barrel tanks, rig and swamp mats, temporary heat, temporary shelters and onsite fueling solutions. Canevaro leverages one of the principals’, John Cameron’s, long list of relationships in the business with a commitment to total “yes we can” service to grab the work others miss. With these tools, Cameron has been able to generate landslide success in places like Fort McMurray, Alta., where other rental operators might throw up their hands at the challenges and demands.
Cameron Equipment Rentals is only a year old, but John Cameron and Kent Peters, the founders and principals of the company, have assembled a team with much more experience than that. Canevaro’s experience spans Dry Air Industries, Innovative Climate Solutions and Western One. Larry Flunder was also brought aboard as a key member of the management team. He brought 31 years in sales and marketing in and around the Alberta area, including 19 of years running his own commercial retail stores in southern Alberta and B.C. and 12 years in sales and rentals in the commercial and energy sectors of Alberta,
Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. He was joined by Randy Wilson, an old friend of Cameron’s with 25 years in the oil and gas industry, mainly on the earthworks end of things. Wilson started as an operator then moved to foreman and supervisor working on road and lease construction, pipeline and facility construction, and also residential water and sewers.
S TRATE gy
The company was formed when John Cameron and Kent Peters joined forces to create a rental company that initially focused on heavy equipment. This was due to the natural fit with Cameron Construction Services, owned by John Cameron, as it is a full service building and earthworks construction company. Cameron Equipment was able to bring Canevaro and Flunder into the fold to drive a temporary heat and power business and diversify the company. “From an investment perspective, the idea of being able to create revenue from the same capital asset over and over is pretty attractive,” Canevaro says. Canevaro and Flunder’s background and connections coupled with the high ROI on temporary heating equipment, got the attention of Cameron and Peters. They came up with a strategy to create a blended fleet of
energy services rentals (heavy equipment, rig mats, tanks and temporary buildings) combined with contractor rentals including everything from reach equipment to climate control and hand tools. At this point, they brought in Wilson, who had extensive experience and contacts in this space. At the end of the day, this structure makes the ROI on the equipment inventory sheet look very solid because the contractor rentals benefit from the higher dollar amounts of the oil and gas rentals, and the oil and gas rentals benefit from the high-margin cash flow of the contrac -
tor rentals. The heavy equipment and energy service rentals place a firm foundation of steady cash flow under the whole operation because Cameron’s relationships in that field guarantee some big-ticket, long-term contracts. That is helpful in case the more volatile contractor market takes a wobble.
Cameron Equipment Rentals employs 16 full-time workers. Peters and Cameron direct the overall strategic direction of the company, along with finance, acquisitions, and referring people in their network for potential business. Wilson is the director
of sales for the heavy equipment and oil field rentals, while Canevaro and Flunder deal with the contractor (heat and power) side. Cameron Equipment has three locations across Alberta and one in Saskatchewan. The main office and headquarters for the contractor operations is in Calgary. Heavy equipment and energy service rentals are stationed in Winfield, Alta. There are two sales offices without fleet, one in Estevan, Sask., and the other in Fort McMurray. And Cameron works through a sales affiliate in Wainwright, Alta., that also holds consignment
Infra-red heaters are a popular item for Cameron’s commercial construction customers. From left to right, Tony Canevaro, Lance Brucklmyer, Jamie Pierce, Derek Seymour and Ali Borhot.
fleet. Winfield is the largest location with the most land where Cameron Equipment Rentals keeps most of its fleet and takes overflow from Calgary.
The company’s rapid growth has created something of a scramble to find space. Canevaro is looking forward to the extra room the new arrangement in Wainwright will give him. “We are very excited about it,” he says. “We are not a retail rental house at this point in the game. We do not currently deal with residential rentals or homeowner rentals or even small subcontractor rentals. It is not our model. So we have no storefront at this time. We have offices, shop and yard where we are, and within about 30 days of our moving in we had outgrown that space. So we finally found about an acre of yard space and about four times the amount of shop, warehouse and office space. We are going from about 1,000 square feet of office to about 3,200 square feet of office and about 6,500 square feet of shop, warehouse and a nice drivethrough yard. So everybody feels much better at this point.”
T HE CHALLEN g ES o F THE N o RTH
Having an established presence in the Fort McMurray oil fields is not something Canevaro feels just any rental operator could do. “The safety requirements you have to achieve to even be considered a supplier are pretty onerous, to be honest,” he says. “For most traditional rental houses, especially a smaller Mom-and-Pop type, they just would not do it. I almost need a full-time person just shuffling paperwork for safety.” The learning curve on the northern safety
requirements has been another challenge, but Canevaro feels he has made the right moves to address it. “We hired a man who is an older gentleman who has spent the better part of his working life in Arctic camps on remote jobsites, and also a journeyman millwright who understands how things have to work and if you have to spend an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening on paperwork, that is just part of the job.”
The safety regulations may be tough, but Canevaro says the booming market in the area makes it all worthwhile.
“The thing you need to know about Fort McMurray is, it is a very simple mantra, he who has the equipment wins the deal. There is an extreme equipment shortage out here right now. Price is always a consideration, but availability and your ability to provide secondary services is what wins you contracts.”
The strength of the oil field rental markets has not escaped the notice of the bigger players in the industry, and Canevaro admits those players have sewn up the largest contracts for many job sites. But Cameron Equipment Rentals has been able to find growth in the niches they do not serve. “We will do things like package together a large fabric building and as part of that package we will supply the temporary heating rentals, the power generation rentals and the ventilation fans to complement that structure,” he explains. “So we are not always in a competitive environment with the larger players that have contracts for that jobsite. We are kind of working in parallel with them.”
Canevaro says one of the company’s significant strengths is its ability to react quickly to whatever the market demands. “Because we are nimble, it allows us to move and change,” he says. “We went from zero on August 9 of last year to having a significant amount of heavy equipment fleet to having camps we rent, trailers, 400-barrel tanks, rig and swamp mats, temporary heating equipment and aerial gear. They employ iPads, mobile ticketing, Pointof-Rental Systems software and the skills of office manager, Evelyn Hickey, to keep everything organized.
Cameron Equipment Rentals shines
brightest when it comes to reacting strongly to market and customer demands. Canevaro says most of the company’s fleet was simply evolved by getting whatever clients were asking for. He has used the organization’s agility and ready access to capital to wait until customers demand something before moving to pick it up, which has avoided expensive miscalculations on fleet size and composition.
But the true innovation has been Cameron Equipment Rentals ability to offer full-spectrum solutions. “Everyone talks about customer service and, frankly, that to me has become such a vanilla statement in today’s day and age,” Canevaro says. “Everyone expects your equipment is going to come out in good condition and it is going to work and if it breaks you are going to come and fix it. To me, that is
VERSATILE AND PRODUCTIVE
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not the definition of good service any more. That might have been the case 10 years ago, but not any more. So we provide very complete, turn-key services. We rent operators, we rent manpower, we do site monitoring for our clients, temperature control systems complete with remote access and log-in from databases and tracking. All those sorts of value-added services where our customers really look to us as a subcontractor or a real, valued partner.” Cameron Equipment Rentals takes this commitment to serving the customer all the way to a level rarely seen by supplying staff to run the equipment it rents, if that is what the customer needs. “If we are talking about heavy equipment we have a group of subcontractors we can access. Top-shelf, good quality operators who can operate heavy equipment for the client. For example, we had a very large project with an oil sands company in Fort McMurray where we supplied all the temporary heating and HVAC for the project, but they also wanted us to supply 24-hour monitoring and supervision of the heating equipment, so we did that.” In a region where skilled labour is in desperately short supply, it is not hard to see how Cameron Equipment Rentals’ ability to provide such services would be in very high demand.
Canevaro has another example of the company’s comprehensive services. “We do ground thaw work where we give the client a package price,” he explains. “If there is five feet of frost
over this many square feet, this is what it is going to cost you to thaw it. Then we take care of everything. We take care of diesel fuel delivery because we have a brand new 10,000-litre diesel truck. We supply the power, the heating equipment, the propane, the tarps, the labour to put it all down, to pick it all up and so forth. The customers we work with love that. There are no surprises, this is my cost to get the job done.”
Caught up in the frantic pace of the last year’s growth rush, Cameron Equipment Rentals is now focusing on ensuring the premises and support staff are in place to continue this journey. They are looking for ways to keep improving and focusing on efficiency. Everything from safety, human resources, administration and service practices is being reviewed to ensure that it can remain nimble without dropping the ball as it grows its customer base and operations.
For the future, Cameron Equipment Rentals will focus on expanding the equipment inventory in its three divisions in the short term and will turn its eye towards acquisitions in 2013. Cameron and Peters would like to see the company be a major player in the western Canadian rental market within three to five years. Clients have been asking Canevaro to do business in the Lower Mainland of B.C. and as far east as Sudbury, Ont. “We will go where the opportunities are,” Canevaro says. So far, Cameron Equipment Rentals has shown a remarkable proficiency at doing just that. CRS
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dismiss with care
Know your legal rights to avoid wrongful dismissal lawsuits.
by Deryk Coward
When an employee is terminated from a job, the individual often feels slighted and may either sue the former employer or file some other type of formal complaint. Sometimes, proper protocol was followed by the employer and the employee was justifiably dismissed. However, there are occasions when an employee’s dismissal was not justified at law. When an employee’s termination was not justified, compensation for the loss of employment may be awarded by the courts.
Do you know your legal rights when it comes to terminating one of your employees?
Generally, when an employee has been terminated without cause by his or her employer, there is an obligation to give the terminated employee “reasonable notice.” The appropriate length of such notice will often come down to the length of time worked and the level of position held by the employee at his or her place of business. However, if there was a specific notice period specified in the employment contract, that period of notice will typically be binding upon the parties.
It should be noted that this article only applies to workplaces that are non-unionized. In unionized workplaces, the terms of the collective bargaining agreement always take precedence.
A matter of wrongful dismissal that is often litigated is whether the employee was terminated with or without cause. The only time an employee has a right to pursue a claim for reasonable notice (or for payment in place of that notice) is when the employee has been dismissed without cause. Proving cause depends on the specific facts of each case. Generally, a court will find cause when misconduct committed by the employee goes to the very root of the employment contract. This misconduct could possibly, but not necessarily, come from a single incident such as theft of company valuables. It can also arise from multiple events
that go to the root of the employment contract, such as chronic lateness or unexplained absences.
The court in the Manitoba case of Boulet v. Federated Co-operatives Ltd. stated a few more points of interest regarding wrongful dismissal. In this decision, the court said the employer has the onus of proving just cause for dismissal and the standard of such proof is on a balance of probabilities (greater than 50 per cent). This means employers do not have to prove beyond a doubt that they had cause. They simply must show it is more likely that they had cause than it is that they didn’t. The court also said the performance of an employee must be gauged on an objective standard, especially when dealing with management level positions.
Finally, it is important for employers to keep in mind three main points in order to reduce its exposure to money damages that can arise from a wrongful dismissal claim.
1. It is important to identify and document the employee’s misconduct with enough precision and specificity that both the employee and the court, if necessary, can ascertain the nature of the misconduct so the employee can respond to the employer’s case.
2. An employer must be able to prove cause on a balance of probabilities.
3. An employer must be able to establish that the nature or degree of the misconduct warranted the employee’s dismissal.
The decision to terminate an employee cannot be made lightly. It is the most serious form of discipline, and a last resort for employers. If you choose to terminate one of your employees for cause, the onus will be on you to demonstrate that the decision was justified. Courts will award a terminated employee monetary damages if you did not have cause. Moreover, you could be faced with legal fees and court costs that could exceed the value of the notice period paid to the departed employee. CRS
by DALE B EFuS, SERIouS THERMAL PRoDuCTS
F R o St F ight
Challenging winter utility installations have a Calgary contractor seeing infrared.
No matter where you live, underground utility installations get a lot more difficult when the ground freezes. However, the last several years have proven to be especially tough for Calgary contractors, ever since their traditional ground-thawing techniques of coal burning have been outlawed. In fact, the new rules have severely slowed most wintertime utility installations in the city, as contractors have struggled to find new ways to fight the frost.
Perhaps no one has felt the effects as much as ATCO Gas, the area’s natural gas distributor. During December of 2010, Calgary’s Skyview Ranch development was in a bind to supply services to the new commercial buildings on its property. By this point all utilities were installed except for gas. Three commercial buildings urgently needed gas by Jan. 1, and several more buildings requested it soon thereaf -
ter. Christmas was rapidly approaching, so schedules were extremely tight. To complicate matters even more, frost had already formed in the ground.
SkyView Ranch is a four-year-old residential development in the northeast outskirts of Calgary. Consisting of mixed single-family and semi-detached houses, row houses and condominiums, the neighbourhood calls itself part of Calgary’s “New North.”
No heavy equipment required. The Toasters could be moved around the job site by gripping and lifting the impact cages.
Safer than coal, more efficient than boilers and less awkward than trailers. Dunwald and Fleming started with 10 and now it has 30 Serious Toaster units.
The development is located outside the urban core of Calgary, just six kilometres aways from Calgary Airport, so the developer decided to add a commercial strip to the area including convenience stores, a gas station, a liquor store, restaurants, a dental clinic, a spa and a bar. The development was opening new show homes in February, so the developer was desperate to have the commercial amenities in place before then.
Several years ago, the frost might not have presented such a problem. Calgary’s utility contractors would have lain straw beds and used burning coals to thaw a path of frozen ground. Then, excavators could trench along the path for the gas lines. Despite the lack of sophistication, this method worked somewhat effectively. Nonetheless, the environmental concerns were too great for legislators, causing them to put a stop to the practice.
The coal-burning ban created serious issues for everyone involved with underground utility work, including ATCO’s service contractor for the Skyview Ranch job. The
After Toasting, the ground was soft enough to dig carefully with a miniexcavator. “We could have used a shovel to dig,” Dunwald said.
contractor couldn’t bring large excavators in to rip through the frost –partly because of the heightened risk of damaging existing underground utility lines, but also because mini excavators were the only machines small enough to access the jobsite. Unfortunately, mini-excavators didn’t have the power to dig through frost, so without some method of heating the ground, the contractor couldn’t install the gas lines.
Not just any heating source would work for the Skyview Ranch, however. It needed to thaw ground as quickly as coal and straw – if not quicker – in order to make the deadline. Without an effective solution, the building tenants could have been forced to wait until spring to receive natural gas services. But since their contracts stated a Jan. 1 occupancy, delaying the process was simply not an option.
When it was determined that the service contractor simply did not have the tools or the time to complete the task, ATCO started considering other options. That’s when ATCO heard its seasoned mainsinstallation contractor, Dunwald and Fleming Enterprises, had recently purchased some infrared heating devices. The new technology promised to thaw ground faster than any other method, so ATCO quickly asked Dunwald and Fleming to step in and put the heaters to the test.
The new infrared heaters were Serious Toasters from Serious Thermal Products. Each Toaster measures only 10 feet long by two feet wide, but multiple units can be placed together in a series according to the route of the proposed trench. They are powered by propane and run from a 110-volt power source. Using targeted reflectors, the infrared technology of the Toasters efficiently directs heat into the ground with minimal heat loss. Thanks to these advantages, the units appeared to
be an ideal solution for the Skyview Ranch job.
“We explored several options before finally finding the infrared heaters,” said Marv Dunwald, owner of Dunwald and Fleming, who struggled to identify alternatives to coal and straw. First, he tried glycol boiler systems to heat the ground, but they proved to be extremely inefficient for utility work. “There was so much heat loss that it would take three to four days just to thaw one foot of ground,” he said.
Next, Dunwald experimented with trailer-mounted units, which he found to be cumbersome. “A trailer only thaws about 12 feet at a time,” he said. “Plus, there are only about 10 units in all of Calgary, so nobody can get their hands on one.”
Upon discovering the Toasters, Dunwald ended his long, frustrating search and purchased 10 units. His plan for the Skyview Ranch job was to line all 10 of them up to thaw 100 feet of ground at a time. After one stretch of ground had thawed, he would move the Toasters ahead to start heating more frozen ground while his crew trenched the first 100 feet. The process would be repeated until 1,000 feet of ground had been thawed and trenched with gas lines installed and the dirt backfilled.
The infrared units provided a safe, quiet heat source, allowing Dunwald to place the Toasters against buildings and fences, and let them operate overnight without close supervision. “Glycol boilers would have been too noisy to operate overnight near residential areas,” said Dunwald, “and most other systems use open flames, which would have been a fire hazard on our jobsite.”
It took approximately 24 hours for the Toasters to thaw one metre (deep enough to install the gas lines). That meant every morning when the crew got to the jobsite, they could move the Toasters, and the ground would be ready for trenching. “With coal and straw we would only thaw about one foot every 24 hours,” said Dunwald. “The infrared heat worked up to three times faster.”
Not only did the infrared heat system increase Dunwald’s productivity, but it also helped his crew work safely next to the existing utility lines. “We had the inside path, so we were constantly crossing our lines with other utilities,” he said. But, thankfully, the ground was thawed well enough that Dunwald didn’t have to be too forceful when trenching with his Yanmar mini excavator. “We could have used a shovel to dig,” he said.
The gas line installation spanned 10 days, and all buildings were ready to be occupied by the January deadline. Without the infrared heaters, Dunwald isn’t sure what would have happened. Consequently, both ATCO and the developer were fully enthused by Dunwald’s work. “The developer wanted to buy our Toasters on the spot,” Dunwald said.
His only regret was not having enough units to get the job done even faster. “We could have worked a lot quicker if we had more than 10
Toasters,” he said. “Then again, the same job might have taken us 30 days if we didn’t have any.”
Since working on the Skyview Ranch project, Dunwald has better prepared himself for future underground installations. He eventually purchased 20 more Toasters, giving him a total of 30. He’s used them on a variety of other jobs – both commercial and residential. “The Toasters have given us the upper hand in Calgary, and more work has started to flow our way,” Dunwald said.
With happy clients and an increasing workload, Dunwald is thankful for the infrared technology that allows him to trench during winter months. And the coal-burning ban that once hampered his business has finally provided a silver lining. Now that he offers services that no other contractor in Calgary can match, when it comes to underground utility installations, Dunwald definitely has the hot hand. CRS
i n Stead o F a
C a S h R egi Ste R
Tablet technology may offer a cheaper, more versatile alternative.
There’s a lot that’s different about Parlour Coffee on Main Street in Winnipeg. It’s a shiny new business on a formerly downtrodden block. Its interior is minimalist, all wood grains and white paint. There are a few pieces of art on the walls, but there’s not the same clutter one sees in many other shops of its kind. Even the stools at the front window coffee bar are very basic: wood, with no backing.
by J IM CHLIB oYKo
This screenshot from Point-of-Sale.net’s iPad app shows how the software can store customer accounts, lists of products and prices, tally up sales and print invoices.
The same goes for the front counter. Parlour’s coffee machine dominates that space, as it should, but there is something missing here, something that usually belongs on the front counter of any brick-and-mortar business, and one that’s been a business fixture in the three different centuries of its existence: the familiar hulk of a cash register. Instead, there is a sleek little iPad doing the job of a standard point-of-sale register. It is an idea that seems to be travelling virally amongst hipster coffee shops throughout North America, and it is one that may make it to your nearby rental outlet soon.
“We went with an iPad POS because we didn’t want to clutter our counter with a bulky system, as well as the price tag associated with traditional POS systems,” says Nils Vik of Parlour. “It works like a charm! Most POS systems are more than we need and it’s hard to find simple, easy-to-use software.”
The cash register has been a fixture ever since a man named James Ritty devised the machine in
the late 1870s to keep his employees from stealing cash at his Dayton, Ohio, saloon.
The early models were pretty basic, more of a mechanical adding machine, without the electric motor and later additions like the paper receipt feature. “Their first model was inaccurate,” reads the website of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It looked like a clock with a keyboard, with hands indicating dollars and cents instead of hours and minutes. The second was not much better. But the third prototype was a success.”
The register has changed form over the years, of course, and the tinkering has led to current-day variations like the self-checkout, the success of which has not yet been decided in the court of public opinion. So, it is perhaps not surprising that the cash register is undergoing yet another change, or series of changes. But this time, the changes are independent of even cash registers themselves. In the future you may not need a cash register to do the job of a cash register. The word “e-wallet” is being thrown about in the financial transactions sector, and while it is still early days these might eventually lead to changes that could render a stand-alone, single-use till obsolete. And there’s big things happening in the cellphone sector, too.
But for now, one of the neat-o POS alternatives available to storefronts is the iPad.
Vancouver’s Innocent Coffee on West 4th St. is another establishment that has eschewed the traditional cash register. Innocent Coffee’s Ya Wei
Lin says that using an iPad as the shop’s cash register is both a design statement and a technological choice.
“We first saw it in a coffee shop in San Francisco and thought it was a really cool idea and a great counter space saver,” says Lin. “It’s working very well for us. We are a start-up coffee shop with very concise menu offerings so it wasn’t hard to find an appropriate app to run our operation.”
If you think that a mere app wouldn’t compete with something as enduring as the cash register, ask your iPhone-toting friend why they no longer use their SLR camera so much anymore. It is often because the quality of the photos that the iPhone takes rivals that of a stand-alone camera in many situations. While no one yet is writing the obituary for the camera, the buzz about the iPhone’s camera quality can work as a barometer as to what is happening with other traditional technological cornerstones of our lives.
One American company that is taking a serious run at turning tablets into cash registers is Square (a European rival is the
Estonia-based Erply). Square is run by Jack Dorsey, one of the brains behind Twitter (he evidently works eight hours a day at Twitter, and eight hours a day at Square).
Square’s initial offering to retailers was a small, handy, credit card reader that could easily plug into a smartphone with minimal hassle, and allowed many small businesses to easily process transactions. According to Fortune magazine, their credit card reader has gone from processing $2 billion worth of business last year to an estimated $6 billion this year. And with the recent hiring of Android phone engineers, the Square is evidently on the path to strengthening its smartphone division, as well.
The idea, in many places outside of techsavvy San Francisco, is still pretty novel. Square itself is only a three-year-old company. There’s a gee-whiz quality to the technology, which still retains its new car smell. But retailers like Lin find the application handy in many other ways.
“The iPad doubles as a store computer for web browsing, e-mailing and social networking because it’s portable,” says Lin.
“The coolest thing we found was when outof-town customers asked for directions, we could show them on the iPad.”
In terms of cost comparisons between a traditional setup and that of an iPad, Lin hints that there is a rather large savings for the Apple fan, eventually.
“The iPad itself is around $600-plus. The app fee is a one-time thing, which costs nearly nothing. When we first got it there were only a couple apps available in Canada for the iPad so the app cost $9.99. But now the same app is free because there have since been many apps developed.”
“Most POS requires not only an initial set-up fee but also a monthly fee. Some even charge system update fees. We can’t say for sure exactly how much we saved but it’s probably a lot of money.”
Parlour’s Vik also finds that going the iPad route has saved his place money.
“I am not at liberty to say what it costs, but it has saved us thousands of dollars compared to other options we investigated,” he says.
It should be mentioned that using Square Register isn’t free. There is a 2.75 per cent charge for credit card transactions on Square products.
While some are enthusiastic about this new way to use one’s iPad, it’s still a pretty new development. As well, there are advantages that a cash register has over an iPad, and vice versa. An iPad obviously lacks a cash drawer while a cash register generally doesn’t have the analytics that are available to the iPad user. And both of them may be usurped one day by the development of the e-wallet, the evolution of which is due for a lengthy series of growing pains, not the least of which is the adoption of common standards throughout the industry and amongst competitors. But for now, using your iPad as a cash register, for many, remains a pretty nifty way to do business.
Says Innocent Coffee’s Lin, “It really depends on the business operations and their needs. But we are very happy about taking this route and only have positive things to say about our experience so far.”
Vik agrees.
“I think that POS systems need to be finetuned for the type of business you run and what you want out of your software. There are always bugs to work out with any new POS, but overall it has been a pretty seamless experience.”
Portable, temporary heat is your route to profits over the winter. Bring on the snow!
PR od UCt S ho WC a S e
N EW AND u P g RADED
8 www.frost-fighter.com
Frost Fighter is introducing several new products for the 2012/13 heating season. The IHS700GT self-contained trailer unit includes dual axle wheels with a 190-gallon fuel tank, and either a nine- or a 12-kilowatt generator. The 12-kilowatt generator is capable of running two IHS700s. These units are suitable for remote jobsites with inadequate or an unavailable power supplies.
The IDF200 has the same superior performance of the OHV200, but with a number of new features, such as a full steel frame for stacking and forklift mobility and a 26-gallon tank and tires for easy mobility that can be easily removed. Like the IDF350 and 500, the IDF200 includes the Genysis control with an LED display for easy service and troubleshooting ability. It is equipped with a fully insulated jacket, which provides greater efficiency, temperature rise and safety.
The IDF350 and 500 series are now available with a larger fuel tank option for longer run times.
Su N - LIKE HEAT
8 www.ces-sales.com
Construction Equipment
Solutions is a one-stop supplier of heating equipment to the Canadian rental industry. The staff of CES understand the heating business and know what it takes to be successful in it. It carries a full line of heaters and accessories as well as parts for everything it sells. CES has products to suit a wide range of heating requirements, including electric, natural gas fired, propane fired and diesel units. It represents such familiar heater brands as Enerco, Mr. Heater, Marley Electric heaters, CES Torch Kits and Val6 Infrared units.
Val6 radiant heat penetrates evenly and directly into surfaces just like the sun. Val6 performance is unique in outdoor applica -
tions and superior to forced air heaters, which lose heat from the wind and cold air. The Val6 generates straightforward infrared heat that is unaffected by air flow, thus creating a comfortable, quiet and dust-free environment. The state-ofthe-art combustion chamber enables virtually 100 per cent fuel-to-energy conversion. Val6 combustion system produces no odour and no smoke while running. It is suited to a variety of heating applications such as temporary factory heat, outdoor projects, construction sites, and drying paints and drywall. The new Val6 model KBE5L two-step features two-step heat output control, allowing the user to choose between high or low output, making it very economical to operate. The new Val6 KBE5L also features a fuel preheater. As ambient temperatures decrease, the fuel’s viscosity increases. To counterbalance this effect, a heater is built into the fuel line to keep the fuel moving smoothly. CES sells and services three Val6 models: the Daystar, the KBE5S and the KBE5L. All Val6 units operate on kerosene as well as diesel fuel.
S AFET y AND P oWER 8 www.questonthejob.com Quest Portable Climate Control Equipment has added portability to its Power Electric Heat product line with its compact 20,000 BTU electric heater, the Quest Power Electric Heat EHS 20. Designed to deliver powerful, safe BTUs anywhere, the EHS 20 comes in a 13- by 12.5- by 26-inch durable stainless steel cabinet to operate virtually anywhere heat may be needed, even in the most remote, hard-to-reach places. Whether users need temporary or emergency heat for occupant comfort on the jobsite or supplemental heat to speed up any drying or construction process, the EHS 20 is suitable for the job.
The Quest EHS 20 portable electric heater features multiple power receptacles for connection to common 120volt AC outlets. At maximum heat (four 12-amp circuits at 5,000 BTUs each), the EHS 20 produces 20,000 BTUs
*Results
Thermal imaging shows GreenHeat® superior heat spreading capabilities vs. conventional heating methods
HEATERS
with a 250-cubic-feet-perminute air flow and a 70 F temperature rise. Like all Quest electric heaters, internal temperature cutouts prevent the Quest EHS 20 from overheating an area.
The EHS 20 offers multiple heating, ducting and electrical options for ondemand heating from inside or outside the jobsite or workplace. The Quest EHS 20 will operate freestanding or with six-inch flex duct on the inlet and/or outlet to distribute the heat precisely where you need it. The Quest EHS 20 boasts many of the same features as its larger counterparts, the EHS 31 and the EHS 62, including full NEC compliance for continuous operation, shielded heating elements within a double-walled and screened enclosure and an automatic pressure switch to disable the heating elements if intake or exhaust ducts become blocked or airflow is cut off for any reason.
J ET F u ELED o PTI o N 8 www.hermannelson.com Initially developed for U.S. military as the “H1 Type
Heater,” the BT400 series quickly became ubiquitously known worldwide as the “Herman Nelson” or, as it is still fondly called in some aviation circles, “the Hermie.”
The original Hermie was an ingenious and efficient way of providing a massive amount (400,000 BTUs) of breathable, off-grid heat in environments where electric power just wasn’t an option - places like McMurdo Station in the Antarctic. To this end, the company that produces the heater recently (August 2012) sent a customordered batch of heaters to the Antarctic with skis where you would normally find wheels on an axle.
That the BT400 has endured over the years and continued to evolve throughout its decades of service is a testament to
its original design and topof-the-line quality of build. Today, it is a modern piece of heating equipment boasting solid-state electronics and controls that satisfy not only the military (there’s an NSN version) but also O-TL, UL and CSA safety certifications. While still a favourite of the Air Force and commercial aviation sectors, today you are just as likely to find a Herman Nelson heater in the Alberta oil patch, in a Chinese shipping yard or on a construction site in Anchorage.
The current iteration of the heater, the BT400 NEX (NEXt Generation), was first made available in 2010, when it replaced the stalwart but aging BT40045 and 46 series. Like those BT400s the newer NEX comes in two flavours: a heavier-framed diesel version (the BT400-NEX-D), which also runs on the more exotic naphthakerosene blends of jet fuel (JP4, JP5, JP8) and a slightly more compact gasoline model (BT400-NEX-G), which has an optional MA-1 trailer.
The BT400 series has been in continuous production for the last 40 years by Aerotech Herman Nelson International from its 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility based in Winnipeg, where winter temperatures drop as low as - 47.8 C. “To know heat you must also know cold,” says CEO Fran P. Koch.
THREE
NEW M o DELS 8 www.campoequipment.com Campo Equipment has introduced three new 2012 heater models: the Blaze 2000 D/G, the Blaze 150 E, and the Blaze 9E.
The Blaze 2000 D/G comes with a high/low fire burner, able to fire anywhere from one to two million BTUs. It has a compact footprint at 144 by 33.5 by 67 inches. This indirectfired space heater can fit through a standard 36-inch door. The Blaze 2000 D/G
is 88 per cent efficient which allows for significant cost savings in fuel. It pushes up to 6.5 inches of static pressure, 200 feet of ducting and up to 16,000 cubic feet per minute. It can be wired for three- or single-phase power without any modification. The Blaze 2000 D/G has no inrush due to an onboard VFD. It has a temperature controller with tempered air mode for LEED construction and three fan speeds to control your heat rise. The unit is stackable for storage, has lifting eyes and forklift pockets from all sides. It comes with a plug and play burner kit (natural gas/propane or diesel), which can easily be converted from diesel to natural gas or propane. Designed to be one of the most efficient heaters
in today’s market, this twomillion-BTU unit is one of the largest indirect-fired heaters available in Canada.
The Blaze 150 E is a 150-kilowatt (512,000-BTU) electric portable heater with three banks (60, 90, and 150 kilowatts) that is available in 600-volt, three-phase and 480 volt, three-phase versions. It pushes 14,500 cubic feet per minute with 6.5 inches of static pressure and 200 feet of ducting. It has an emergency shutdown button plus indicator lamps for power on, heat on, and over temperature. It meters for all three stages and includes a digital temperature controller with remote thermostat capabilities. There is a fan manual override and tempered air mode for LEED construction. The
Blaze 150 E has a maximum outlet temperature of 300 F and is able to fit through a standard 36-inch door (its footprint is 60 by 31.5 by 56 inches). It is stackable, has forklift pockets, lifting eyes and removable casters.
The Blaze 9 E is a ninekilowatt electric portable heater prepared for 240volt, single-phase power. It pushes 700 cubic feet per minute and has a maximum outlet temperature of 300 F.
A LL- AR ou ND HEATIN g 8 www.lbwhite.com
The Workman 225 Plus convection heater from L.B. White features adjustable output control delivering from 225,000 down to 40,000 BTUs per hour to save fuel. It has a unique top design for superior heat distribution. The LP heater
provides 360-degree heating and does not require electricity, making it ideal for initial stages of construction or any time electricity is not available. The unit is North American-made and comes with regulator and 15-inch gas hose as standard. The Workman 100N Plus is available when using natural gas is desired.
Other features include reliable piezo pilot ignition,
HEATERS
an enclosed stainless steel burner providing superior wind resistance and a onepiece barrel, meaning no assembly required. This rugged yet lightweight unit is easy to move and transport and is 99.97 per cent fuel-efficient. Workman heaters are built contractor tough, and are CSA-certified, meeting or exceeding all ANSI standards for portable heaters.
Rugg ED HEAT
8 www.flagro.ca
Flagro Industries has introduced the new FV-750 series indirect fired heaters as the newest addition to its construction heater lineup. The FV-750 series heaters are offered as the FVNP-750 dual-fuel propane/natural gas model or FVO-750 oilfired model. The powerful reverse-inclined blower and Riello burners provide a 130 F temperature rise at 7,000 cubic feet per minute. The return air duct inlet allows for recirculation of warm inside air and/or pressurization of the building as desired. Single-phase or three-phase power supply options are built in as standard equipment. Built with the same quality as the rest of the Flagro heater fleet, the FV-750 series heaters include fully welded frames, powder coated, insulated panels, lifting points and pockets. Proven Flagro heat exchanger design using
304 series stainless steel construction ensures the FV-750 will stand up to the most brutal winters North America offers. Certified for indoor and outdoor applications. Optional Hitex ducting and thermostat kits are also available.
K EEP IT WARM 8 www.powerblanket.com
Powerblanket’s line of flexible, wrap-around tote heaters are ideal for warming IBC totes and other portable bulk containers. Utilizing patented GreenHeat technology, the tote wraps create a barrier of heat around the tote to insulate and protect a wide variety of temperaturesensitive materials. GreenHeat technology is a proprietary heat-spreading system that is designed to provide highly efficient and uniform distribution of heat while only consuming low levels of energy in a multitude of applications. The technology allows totes to be rapidly and consistently warmed without creating the hot and cold spots common with competitive products. These lightweight blankets are easily secured with adjustable nylon straps that provide a snug fit to maximize heating performance.
Powerblanket tote heaters are safe to use on both metal and plastic containers, and help maintain flow, viscosity and
workability. Each blanket’s durable outer shell is winter-proof and water resistant.
The tote heaters are manufactured and certified to UL/CSA safety standards, as well as GreenHeat technology environmental standards. Two available sizes, 275 and 330 gallons, fit most industry standard totes. Custom sizes are also available upon request. Each tote heater is powered by 120-volt electricity and includes an adjustable thermostat controller.
ToASTED DIRT
8 www.serioustoaster.com
Serious Thermal Products introduces the new Serious Toaster groundthawing machine. Using patented infrared technology, the Toaster thaws frozen ground more than three times faster than similar competitive units, and is CSA-approved.
Ideal for underground installations, each Toaster thaws up to 1.6 inches deep per hour in a twoby 10-foot area. Multiple units can be placed together in a series or any other configuration to accommodate larger applications. The Toasters are controlled by a solidstate electronic system, and they are fuelled by clean-burning propane, making them an environmentally friendly choice. Furthermore, they do not produce open flames, so they can be safely placed
next to buildings and utility pedestals.
Weighing only 345 pounds each, Toasters fit in standard pickup beds and can be easily moved by two men. The units can be placed in many hard-toreach areas, and they do not require the surface to be cleared of snow and ice prior to use.
The Toaster is built for use in extreme conditions. Every component is tested to perform in temperatures as low as negative 40 F. Downtime is kept to a minimum because the products contain few moving parts, and the electronic control boxes are designed for easy replacement in the rare occurrence of failure. Additionally, the product is backed by a one-year limited warranty.
P R oVEN
Wo RKH o RSES 8 www.groundheaters.com
Efficient and versatile, the Cub 200 and Cub 300HD portable indirect fired air heaters from Wacker Neuson Climate Technology deliver clean, dry heat for restoration projects. With the flame fully enclosed inside a combustion chamber, these units do not produce noxious emissions or moisture inside the job site. A 100-per cent stainless-steel fire box design delivers long-lasting durability and safe operation. Boasting heating efficiencies greater than 80 per cent, these
JET-SET™ WATER JETS
General Pipe Cleaners has completely redesigned their line of Jet-Set™ water jets to offer more power, portability, and ease of use. Water jets clear soft stoppages and ice with a stream of highpressure water that gives you wall-to-wall cleaning action. Ranging from the JM-1450 compact electric jet, to the JM-2512 Typhoon™ trailer jet, General has a jet for you. Learn more about General’s full line of water jets in our new Jet-Set catalog. For more information contact the Drain Brains® at General Pipe Cleaners at 800-245-6200 or 412-771-6300, or visit www.drainbrain.com/jets.
GENERAL PIPE CLEANERS GENERAL
Preventing theft
Recommendations from Western Financial for effective store security.
by Ken Fingler
Theft and vandalism are major sources of insurance risk for rental operations. Fortunately, there are concrete steps everyone in the industry can take to reduce these risks and keep everyone’s premiums down.
To prevent burglary through the storefront, we recommend doors with double-cylinder deadbolt locks, key locked on both the inside and outside, and pry-plates. Windows are the most vulnerable section of building. They should be protected with bars no more than six inches apart or roll-down security shutters or steel gates across the inside.
Thieves can reach through even small openings to extract smaller items from the interior. That is why valuable in-store stock should be cable-locked together and secured to its racks or the floor. Chain saws, power tools and generators are some of the most popular target items.
Believe it or not, thieves will sometimes circumvent even these precautions simply by driving a vehicle through the storefront. Concrete-filled steel posts in front of windows and doors will prevent this. If you do not like the look of posts, consider concrete planters anchored to ground with soil and plants in them.
Equipment in your outside yard is a visible prime target. We recommend chain fences at least eight feet high with barbed wire along the top, if permitted in your jurisdiction. Line the inside of fence with concrete lane dividers to prevent thieves from smashing through with vehicles. The gates should be locked with heavy gauge chains and protected shackle locks to prevent them from being cut off with bolt cutters. Reinforce the gates with steel posts and rails locked across the inside, or move concrete blocks in front of them each night.
Lights can be an excellent deterrent, particularly if your shop is in a populated area. Flood lights illuminate the yard so neighbours
can see anyone moving there at night.
Burglar alarms are a must-have. They should be monitored by a ULC-listed central station with line security or a cell phone back up in case thieves seek to cut the land line to the building. A local siren can scare burglars off, but is even more effective with strobe light on roof so neighbours and police can easily tell where the sound is coming from. Building interior alarms should link to contact switches on all exterior doors with motion detectors covering all areas and glass break detectors in areas with windows.
Exterior yard alarms caninclude to alarm cables on the fence and/or exterior motion detectors. Contact alarms on the gates are needed, too. Creative thieves can sometimes get by all this, so triggering cables attached to the alarm system should be run through the equipment in yard as well.
Camera systems can act as a deterrent and help police catch thieves and potentially recover stolen property. Cameras should be attached to digital recorders with at least 31 days memory. Motion-activated cameras should be positioned to cover entry doors, loading doors, the store area, the parking lot and the storage yard. Some camera systems can be connected to an alarm monitoring centre where personnel can monitor activity in your building and yard. Police respond quicker when they get confirmation of a problem from an alarm centre. The expense and trouble of deterring thieves and vandals is frustrating, but not as frustrating as the damage, cost and inconvenience they cause. CRS
Ken Fingler is a risk management expert with Western Financial Group, providers of the Canadian Rental Association’s protected selfinsurance program. He advises rental operators across the country on how to reduce their exposure to insurance risk.
While beer and cars seem to be the toast of the town, there are other fine products that come from Germany. Because, for more than 132 years, a family-owned, Bavarian company named Motorenfabrik Hatz has designed and manufactured some of the highest-quality diesel engines in the world. The company, now in its 4th generation of family management, has thrived because its workers still take great pride in the Hatz products they make. So next time you raise a glass to Germany’s finest cars or beer, raise another to one of the country’s finest diesel engines…Hatz. And let’s toast you for your appreciation of the finer things from Germany.
