RM Online - Vive la difference! Rental is BIG in France

The rental industry is alive and healthy in France, but very different in many ways. Just like in North America, the economy is booming and the construction rental companies are very busy. This summer I visited the head office of the French equivalent of the A.R.A., the French rental association known as DLR (Fédération Nationale des Distributeurs, Louers, et Réparateurs), which represents not only rental, but also distributors and repairers of rental equipment. As the first A.R.A. president who is fluent in French, I saw the invitation to visit as a golden opportunity to advance international relations for the A.R.A.

Unlike in North America, where the independent one- to five-store family business still is the majority, most of the French rental industry consists of large national firms with many branches, and they attempt (successfully in most cases) to service the whole country. In the nine cities I visited, I saw no independent mom-and-pop businesses as we know them. But I did visit many construction rental companies and was amazed at the empty rental yards I saw. I was told that one branch had 750 pieces of equipment in inventory - all I could count was about 70 items in the yard, most of them ready to rent. They actually had 90 percent of the inventory out on rent, earning revenue. Talk about utilization!

Other differences, too: Computers were everywhere, but the use of them ranged from the very basic, such as backing up a manual equipment-tracking system, to a very advanced network that tracks equipment throughout the whole country, in real time. The efficiency of engines on rental equipment is extremely important; customers in France actually specify equipment based on its fuel consumption - gasoline averages 6.5 to 7.0 francs per litre (about U.S.$4 per gallon!) and the cost affects the rental transaction in many ways. In France, everything is beautiful, but old; renovations are always in constricted spaces, so the physical size of most renovation equipment is a key factor. Theft is a major problem; thieves can "fence" stolen equipment easily - drive a couple of hours and you can be in another country, and stolen equipment is very difficult to repatriate across borders. I'm told that in the south of France there are shipping companies that will ship anything anywhere in the world, no questions asked.

Operating a business in France can be a challenge. How would you like to have every employee off on five weeks' vacation per year, as required by law? Even the newest yard jockey would get five weeks off in his very first year of employment. And many branches actually close for lunch. Laws governing ROI, profit and depreciation are much different.

Travel opens one's eyes to the fact that sometimes we North Americans fall into the trap of assuming the world rotates around us. Virtually everyone in France knows much more about us than we do about them. They also realize that they are not the center of the universe, just a part of it. Living in Europe in close proximity to other countries, other peoples and other cultures facilitates that sense of reality. And the French are interested in learning from anyone in the world who has a better mousetrap. So should we.