This month's cover story is actually a conversation, taped Feb. 10 in Las Vegas, in which a group of rental people share thoughts about a great range of subjects - consolidation, the survival of the independent rental company, where the real opportunities are, networking alliances and promising niches, the realities of having manufacturers move into the rent-to-rent industry, the role of equipment dealers and how distribution is changing, whether the big boxes and hardware stores might be more help than harm, challenges such as finding and training good people for careers in rental, the major consolidators' need to go global, speculation about who "the world's biggest rental company" might be, the economic outlook for 1999, what the effect would be if a recession struck, how the U.S. rental industry compares to its counterpart in the United Kingdom, where around 80 percent of the contracted work is done with rented equipment, and the future of the American Rental Association and its membership orientation.

If some of these topics sound interesting to you, you might want to head straight to page 30 and get started. But stay a moment: there's more. This discussion, sponsored by Rental Management and moderated by 1998 A.R.A. President Jay Lageschulte, involved a real cross-section of the rental industry: large, multi-location companies and small independents; construction, tool and party people; old hands and relative newcomers; North Americans and Britons. We had some top-notch industry consultants and seasoned observers in the group, too.

This 90-minute forum, which included some of the best minds in the business, generated at least three dominant themes: FIRST, opportunities abound and independent rental companies needn't worry about survival - in fact, they are well-positioned to stake out an even stronger claim to their future prosperity; SECOND, the industry is changing dramatically today with the entry of manufacturers into rent-to-rent, but this is inevitable and we are far from the end of that tunnel, so as we do our planning we may as well consider this change permanent; THIRD, rental is flexing its muscles and growing into a major economic force in North America - more recession-proof than any of the industries it serves, by far, and stabilized by its potential ability to maintain high utilization rates. In fact, rental is already the dominant channel for some product groups - aerial lift and telehandler equipment, for instance, as much as 80 or even 90 percent of which goes to rental.

Let me call your attention to one other piece of this month's pie: the Industry Perspectives article by Greg Sitek, vice president and editorial director of the Associated Construction Publications, a group of 14 regional construction magazines (page 12). His company surveyed contractors nationwide and concluded that rental makes a lot of sense. Well, we all know that. But now it seems we're not alone - not by a long shot.

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