Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Bryan Bolt and ARA"s Safe Tenting Standard: Episode 53
146 Plays2 months ago
Kyle and Nate discuss The ARA Show and ARA's Safe Tenting Standard with guest Bryan Bolt. Bryan talks about new live training programs, safety initiatives, and the launch of a new Safe Tenting website aimed at improving resources for the tent industry. The guys talk about the need for a strong safety culture, and the introduction of innovative tools like the Ground Testing Tool. Bryan also highlights the significance of engaging the next generation of installers and the role of certification in enhancing industry standards.
Check out SafeTenting.com to follow along and reach out to Bryan Bolt if you're interested in participating in the Safe Tenting Standard.
This episode is brought to you by Anchor Tents & Clear Spans. Visit www.anchorinc.com to learn more.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Weather
00:00:01
Speaker
All right, all right, all right. We're back again with another episode of Under the Vinyl. As always, I've got this Ding Dong Kyle with me.
00:00:13
Speaker
How you doing, buddy?
00:00:19
Speaker
ah right all right all right we're back again with another episode of under the vinyl as always i've got this ding donng kyle with me how you doing buddy
Podcast Plans and ARA Invitation
00:00:25
Speaker
Oh, I'm doing great, Nate. How are you hanging in there out there? Oh, it's rainy. It's cold.
00:00:31
Speaker
ah It's been 72, though, so it's been nice. um Yeah. Yesterday it was 72 and sunny. Today it's in the 50s and rainy. Tomorrow it's back to 72 again. And I am headed to Kentucky, where it's going to be absolutely freezing, and and there's ice on the ground. So I'm really pumped about that.
00:00:50
Speaker
um that's like It was in the negatives this weekend here. They're calling for snow again this weekend. So I'm hanging in there. But hey, we're back together in a week. We are. We'll be down at ARA. We do have a great lineup coming up with ah with ARA and a bunch of podcast recordings. We will have a podcast booth where we where we will be recording. So feel free to stop by.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yep, drop us questions. court And that gets published, I think, ah to the public on when those are coming out here soon. So be on the lookout for those. And you can kind of see if there's somebody you want to see or hear live, we will be recording
Guest Introduction: Brian Bolt
00:01:30
Speaker
those live. So I think that'll be fun. Excited for that. It'll be a good time. I am too. Hopefully we hopefully you get the the jitters out, you know. We're we're not nervous up there. but I'm not worried about the jitters as much as I am 30 degree weather. At least this time we'll be inside in the convention center, but I'm just about over the 30 degree weather in Florida.
00:01:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's not its it's almost not worth the trip if it's going to cold. I'm not trying to get out of the cold. Right, and so that'll be good, but we've got a great guest today. We've got the Senior Director of Tending Solutions of ARA, first-time caller, long-time listener,
Sponsor Highlight: Anker Tents
00:02:05
Speaker
Brian Bolt. How you doing? Good, gentlemen. How are y'all? Everything's good here. Good to see buddy. Yeah, same. Likewise. Absolutely. Likewise. It's been a while, Brian. We haven't seen each other what, two weeks, maybe? I know, right? Three. Getting little overload.
00:02:17
Speaker
Let's take a moment now to hear from our sponsors before we dive right in. This episode of Under the Vinyl is brought to you by Anker Tents & Clear Spans, a fifth generation family owned company making tents and clear span structures right here in the USA.
00:02:29
Speaker
Anker isn't just about selling the best products on the market. They share decades of experience and stand beside you as you grow your business. Anker's craftsmanship and engineering give you a peace of mind and will allow you to use the equipment for years to come, season after season.
00:02:42
Speaker
For the next generation of rental owners and installers, Anchor aims to not just be your supplier, but a trusted partner helping guide you into the right products to grow your
ARA Training and Certification Efforts
00:02:50
Speaker
business. Call to be connected to your sales rep today, 1-800-544-4445, or visit their website at anchorinc.com.
00:02:58
Speaker
All right, Brian, we're back. Let's dive into this. Yeah, good to see you guys. um It's probably easier to talk about what's not going on. It's four and a half months in now since the end of September, and I'm things are wild and crazy, as it's exactly what I expected it would be, right? So we're we're working on a lot of things at ARA, not the least of which is our joint training program, certification program with the other two associations, MATRA and ATA.
00:03:30
Speaker
Got some some dates. lined up for that we'll talk about that later on as we go on got other other irons in the fire some other things that we're looking at trying to um get everything living under this safe tending website that's recently launched and make it the one-stop shop for everything tinted as we talked about before ara's always had pieces pieces and parts and this is the new concerted effort to kind of put all that stuff in one place
00:04:02
Speaker
to make it make sense to everybody and have one cohesive direction under ARA's umbrella that we're all moving in the right direction. So,
Industry Challenges and Professional Status
00:04:10
Speaker
um like I said, it's probably quicker to talk about what we haven't been doing lately. It's been been wild and crazy ah recently with just a lot of travel, more travel coming. My wife's loving it. um You and me both. And it's good to see a cohesive group come together and finally step up and want to and want to be better for the industry as a whole.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah, and like said, you know, that's our number one goal, Nate, is to elevate the tent installer as a profession, right? Everybody's got so much trouble keeping labor, you know, bringing in, cultivating their labor force. That's always the number one challenge but of all the the different tent rental companies that we've talked to over the years is bringing in and maintaining labor. So,
00:04:56
Speaker
That effort, the effort afoot right now is to to elevate that in the eyes of the world and the industry as far as making the tin installer equivalent profession like a plum plumber or electrician is what we typically equate it to because, yeah, it's it's essentially construction work, but we don't have to we don't have to reiterate here. We talk about it all the time.
00:05:22
Speaker
you know Safety is at the forefront. Everything we do is rooted in safety. We talk about it in lot of these seminars that we put on all the time, but And just everything everything is rooted in safety. And I always say when the news crews show up, that they're not coming to
Safety Culture and Certification Programs
00:05:40
Speaker
pat you on the back, right? so Yeah.
00:05:43
Speaker
I mean, my favorite part about all the stuff that is getting worked on is now you there's something to hold people's feet to the fire. You know, you see something on social media where someone's not doing something the way they should. Before it was, well, that's all he said, she said of how what's the proper way of doing it. Well, now there's no, this is how it is supposed to be done. Yep.
00:06:01
Speaker
So it it adds a sense of you can kind of you know hold them accountable to what they should be doing. You can't act like you didn't know. Yeah, and it feels like a legitimate industry at this point with doing this. You know you talk about the you know just the classes and going through everything. It feels and it is an apprenticeship-style program to get you to a master tenor, right? at the end of the day, so you know just like a master electrician at the end of the day. So it feels like it's it's legitimized, like it's it's ah it's a real, taken serious, this industry is finally being taken seriously, and we're and we're progressing.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, and we are i am to your point, I think we're doing a better job of holding each other accountable. There's some good information, there's not some not-so-great information, there's actually, um seems to be more people willing to police that, not just in you know online social media groups, but...
00:06:55
Speaker
Now we're giving people tools, actual physical tools to do the job that they didn't have before,
Launch of safetending.com
00:07:00
Speaker
right? Now there's science backing what we do that we didn't have before. We also talk about when we go into the certification program, the hierarchy of controls and everybody wants to talk about PPE. PPE is actually the last line of defense, you know, spend time talking about that. and Changing your culture and creating a culture of safety is so much at the forefront of what we do.
00:07:23
Speaker
I've been talking... And that's ah that's a hard thing to do, oh is to create that culture. And it doesn't come overnight. same as And change it. You know, Nate, like you're talking about having ultimately a ah master installer program. This stuff doesn't come overnight. We know that. I mean, some of us have been in the industry 20-plus years. We didn't learn it yesterday. i always say...
00:07:43
Speaker
You know, we start talking to to people about what we think are basic concepts. We don't realize that we're starting in the middle because there's some really, really elemental basic stuff that people don't know. And we're jumping in in the middle as seasoned people who've been around this industry for so long. So it's up to us as the instructors to take that back to zero and build these people up and give them the tools that they need to do all the things that we need as an industry.
00:08:09
Speaker
Well, and just like what you're saying, calling it out, you know, and I don't. I feel bad sometimes calling people out on this stuff, but at the same time, it's like I have to sit and ask myself, how do I go about calling somebody out without making it sound like a jerk, right? Yeah, no doubt. the other day, we had something passed in our – and I haven't even told you about this, Kyle, yet, but we had something passed in our text message. It was a picture of a company that was looking pretty unsafe, but they put it on their Instagram, and – They were really proud of what they were doing. So I had to go about it in the and the in a right way and just say, hey, you know i love what you're doing. Your page looks great. But also, hey, you might not want to post that picture of that. And by the way, you might want to do this.
00:08:52
Speaker
And it was received good. They actually went ahead and said, thank you for your input. I really appreciate it. And they went on and they took that picture off of there. So now hopefully they they will learn that, hey, maybe we need to talk to our guys and do the right thing. But I think it doesn't have to be – we don't have to call each other out in ah in a negative way. But just if you start to see it, if we're going to progress the industry, then people need to just talk to each other and say, hey, you're doing this.
00:09:16
Speaker
We're trying to be better for the industry. Let's try and do this. you know yep I always say people don't know what they don't know, and we we have to learn somewhere, right? Exactly. that's some of the problems. We assume they know.
00:09:29
Speaker
But ours wasn't on social media like all theirs is. like you know Now all all of our stuff is on social media and I get it. So we gotta kind of we really got to watch what we do. So social media holds us accountable where maybe in the past we didn't have that stuff, which is probably a good thing for like your dad. that it doesn't go on there. But, you know, it's it's just it's it's great that it's progressing in that way. but So what are you most excited about, Brian, going into this year?
00:09:53
Speaker
well Well, first things first, we're going to get through the show. We've got a lot going on at the ARA show coming up.
Features and Training Events
00:10:00
Speaker
But certainly the training events that we have lined up, those that was my primary goal as I came in, is to really oversee the initiative to get people trained. And when I say get people trained, we want people certified within the confines of the of the program as we have it laid out so that we maintain the integrity of the training.
00:10:22
Speaker
So we have seven dates, and we'll get into those here in a minute, but we've got seven dates lined up all around the country, literally in all four of the corners of the country. Let's go.
00:10:33
Speaker
um Nashville being one of those, Nate. We'll get to that minute. nash Nashville's in the corner of the country? No, no, no, no. no nashville Nashville's in the corner of the area. and Not on my map.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, but all four awful corners of the country and in between. But that's probably the biggest, and, you know, that's super excited about that. We've also got some other things, some irons in the fire that need some more development to talk about. But all that's going to live in under that Safe Tending brand, the Safe Tending program. Yeah.
00:11:07
Speaker
And um we have a new website. heard there's a new web website. Yeah. yeah So safety.com just launched last week. Let's start with the new website because that's a huge step forward. Absolutely.
00:11:19
Speaker
Again. and Give us a little bit about that. Yeah, sorry. All So that's all in an effort, obviously, just like I said, to bring all of this in one place, not to be so disjointed as we maybe have been up until this point in time, just to give it a place for everything to live, tending-wise, right? ARA has tons of resources across the board, literally thousands of different online training things between event and equipment. So tending specifically needed a place to live.
00:11:50
Speaker
So safetending.com is that place. So that's going to be the... safetending.com. Yep. and And that launches on the 17th, right? um It's live now.
00:12:02
Speaker
Okay. yeah Okay. yeah So launch. Perfect. Yep. Launched and good to go. Awesome. We're good and rolling. Yep. So you can go on there and find everything from in-person training events to resources and everything in between.
00:12:16
Speaker
um What drove the decision to launch a new website, Brian? Having everything early in the year when, you know, everybody pre-spring is when everybody is kind of excited and ready to to roll.
00:12:28
Speaker
Um, with all certainly on the event side which is where we live um is it so um timing timing couldn't be better uh to do a pre-show right because we want people to be somewhat familiar with it before they get to to orlando and um again we've already got the dates of the training events uh on the site all those tools um it's very very well laid out there's i can't thank the the group that worked on this through the education, communication teams, everybody that was involved in putting this thing together. Marketing, it's and it's incredibly um functional.
00:13:10
Speaker
I think you'll be able to easily find everything that you need. As you go on there, the first thing you're going to see is the safe tending standard. And what is that standard? Certifications, tools, calculators, everything is all part of that safe tending standard. This is a brand, you know obviously a separate specific brand that ARA has created, again, just to support tending.
00:13:31
Speaker
um So there's online training, like i said, certification. There's hands-on training that comes as part of that certification. What are some features maybe on there that people don't realize exist?
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, well, so as as everybody's getting used to the this certification program, you can can easily go into the foundations of safe tinning, essentials tin anchoring, frame tin installation.
00:13:56
Speaker
Those are those's the classes you can take. But then as you as you move on down through there, there also – there's also um Box truck training.
00:14:08
Speaker
You know, so everybody, so many people in the events world have to, are using box trucks. So we we provide a box truck training for that. mobile Mobile elevating work platform training, MUPE, forklift training.
00:14:22
Speaker
Those are the types of things that are on there that people may not realize. On the MUPE and the forklift training, you can train an operator, but you can also take train the trainer training. So that's a lot of training.
00:14:34
Speaker
um But, yeah. Yeah, so you can you can go in and train the trainer, take that back to your company, and then train them within those OSHA requirements and standards that way.
00:14:48
Speaker
Well, and this is this website isn't just for smaller companies, and it's not just for big companies. It's for everybody in between. I mean, just showing what you're showing. And if if you're listening to this, jump on over to YouTube. Jump onto our YouTube page here and look at this, and and or jump onto the website, and you can see exactly what we're talking about as Brian is walking us through it right now. But, yeah, it looks like, I mean, no matter what size company you are there's something for everybody on here. No doubt about it.
00:15:14
Speaker
Go ahead, Kyle. You see what those guys' shirts say? I wasn't going to give you a shout-out. You get enough shout-outs with 10-Ox. We were celebrities for a day. Yeah. yeah So diving deeper into that site, there's a ground testing
Nationwide Training Accessibility
00:15:30
Speaker
tool. I'll talk about it in specifically in just a second. And then the ballasting calculator, ballasting charts, all that lives within that website. Tent staking study and then emergency evacuation planning um documentation is there as well. You can download that all that info.
00:15:51
Speaker
And yeah, These are the things, and these are the pieces of parts that kind of lived in other places at ARA, and now they're all under that one safetending.com website and umbrella.
00:16:04
Speaker
Perfect. kind of feel like we're cared about now. We have our own website. The industry. Yeah. yeah yeah It just took the right man for the right job. And I think they i think we got that. so And it looks like you know with your guidance and everything you're doing with ARA, it's it's progressing a lot faster and moving forward with your knowledge. So I think i think that's helped a ton. So you've done a great job there, Brian. appreciate it.
00:16:27
Speaker
Just moving on to with that, um what do you think, what's coming up next digitally? um You know, is is there something digitally beyond this website that is going to take us to the next level as an industry? You know, we keep going with different things with AI and things like that. Is there something with this safe tending digitally that's going to help us?
00:16:45
Speaker
Ultimately, I would love to have, that's that's on down the road, have an app where this stuff lives and put in the palm of your hand because so many people these days, I don't have to tell you, there's so much of this stuff that happens in the field. It's great to plan ahead, but it doesn't always go that way. So how often do you need access to these things real time?
00:17:05
Speaker
yeah you know We're talking about the ground testing tool, um have it being a tool to help facilitate those conversations with codes enforcement officials and that kind of thing.
00:17:20
Speaker
But certainly When you get to squaring charts and that kind of thing, I can see ultimately putting all that type of stuff under this umbrella of this website. It's just a
Volunteer Call to Action
00:17:30
Speaker
jumping off point for so much else, right? And we'll figure figure out what that looks like long term. The biggest thing right now in the short term that I was committed to was making sure that the certification programs are brought nationwide to...
00:17:45
Speaker
To all of ARA membership. And so I'll tell you real quickly, if we can go into that, I'll tell you exactly where those training events are going to be located if you want to do that. um Yeah, let's go to that. I was going roll into that, just the certification program and and where we're starting with, and then we can jump right into talking about it. Yeah, for sure. So...
00:18:03
Speaker
um So we're going to have, so right now we have seven multi-day events scheduled all over the country from just in April alone we'll be in starting out in Madison, Wisconsin, Boston, Massachusetts, and Seattle, Washington all just in April.
00:18:22
Speaker
um And then we'll go on into July. We'll be at ARA of Florida Summer Getaway in Clearwater. Ooh, I might have to stop on down there for that one. There you go. That's in July. And Nate, we're going to put some tents up with you guys in Chattanooga in August. And then we'll be in College Station, Texas the first week of September. Actually, September 1st and 2nd.
00:18:45
Speaker
Our thoughts there was that would be a good... location to kind of bring in those Dallas, Austin, Houston markets all together in College Station. um and Football started by then, too.
00:18:58
Speaker
That's right. Might be a good stop. Yep. And then twenty four seven events in Valencia, California, we were going to do that in August, and then talk talking to Rob and JoLynn out there, they said, let's do it in November, because it's going to be kind warm in August out there. so Yeah. So we shifted that one to November. um And that's...
00:19:18
Speaker
<unk> Those are the main pieces right now. I certainly expect that there will be others that are dropped in here and there in between. Now, Brian, along the way at all of these, what courses are you offering?
00:19:29
Speaker
well so Yeah, that's a big question. yeah So the plan right now is to do the ETA the Essentials of Tent Anchoring, the Essentials of Frame Tent, and the Essentials of Pole Tents all within the two-day. Yeah, and do all three within a two-day event.
00:19:45
Speaker
is the plan right now. um The thought there was, and and so many of the operators that I've talked to were in full agreement that instead of having, right now as it is but amongst the three associations, you have to find a training, be it a
Safety Standards and Insurance Impact
00:20:00
Speaker
10-acreing, Frame tents or pole tents, which is not on pole tents isn't live yet. It's it's coming in the next couple of weeks. It'll be finalized um But as it is right now to get your people certified you got to find an event go send them there wherever So my idea was to take this and again if you look at that geographically on those locations that I was just talking about the idea was to take it all four kind of corners of the country
00:20:24
Speaker
And then in the middle of the of the country as well, just to make it easy for people to get their folks to a certification event and then walk away with all three certifications in a confined amount of time to lower their overall cost, increase the quality of the education to ultimately is the plan um based on how that would be structured.
00:20:47
Speaker
um that's That's the initial plan right now. and Like I said, the first one kicks off the 7th and 8th of April at Adventist Central in Madison, Wisconsin. so from you From just what i yeah just what I'm saying here, it doesn't look like you're going to be home at all.
00:21:04
Speaker
I told you, my wife is happy. I love this, though. this is This is fantastic, and I know it's going to be a hard push up front. Yeah, and I will say, too, Nate, and while we have the audience listening, we're really one of the big things that I'm challenged with this year, too, and one of the things I'm probably as excited about as anything is to deepen this pool of...
00:21:25
Speaker
of qualified and approved instructors as it is right now between the three associations we have we have certain requirements for an instructor but I'll put an all call out to anybody that wants to be included as a certified instructor we need to deepen that pool because to your point those are seven seven weeks essentially throughout the year that are already blocked out of my schedule um as we move forward for me personally to do the things that i want to do with with this whole entire safe tending program uh this the the whole safe tending standard is for me to be able to put that on some maybe some other people's shoulders to actually help out with that training right i can only do so much right
00:22:11
Speaker
Well, and we we just got to get the commitment from everybody to help grow this industry, help grow the help grow the next generation. It's like, you know, everybody complains about it, but what are we going to do about it? You know, it's really funny. I related this to church the other day. Last Sunday, I sat down, needed some Jesus in my life, and they started off with, we're going to go over financials and commitments and what we need help with. And i was like... I looked at my wife and I was like, you got to be kidding me. Well, fast forward. They went through that for a couple minutes and then they rolled into just some different ministries within the church yeah that they're trying to get people to commit themselves to. And one was like ah the kids, the kids side of it and just getting volunteers to help out with the children's and the youth stuff. Right. yeah
00:22:55
Speaker
So I've thought about that many times and just in my own life and in needing to do the church stuff and i'm like you know i just don't i don't have the time commitment and everything else and it finally hit me that we're talking about growing the next generation right yeah and so maybe
Industry Reputation and Code Officials
00:23:10
Speaker
our fathers and mothers they they did what they could to help us get to where we are right but maybe they didn't invest in us as much because they were so busy and they didn't have the flexibility like we currently do now right So my theory on that was why am I going to sit here and complain about something if I don't have a solution? I need to jump in and I need to educate the next generation. So I'm now going to commit myself to church. So I did right then and there. So it's the same thing just as an example with this with this safe tending thing. I think that in order to move this next generation up, people you know the people complaining about it, you know the solution for it is jump in and dive in and help out. and take some weight off of not just your plates, um the installers that currently – or people like you that are currently teaching it, but just to help grow it and and and just help where you can. Yeah, it's not a paid deal. It's ah it's it's something that you can look back on and say that you are helping build this industry through the next generation, though. Well, we've talked about it, Brian, you and I, me and Nate.
00:24:08
Speaker
All three associations that care about this industry are pulling from the same pool of, say, 150, 200 people who are willing to give up their own time to help. yeah And that is the hardest part about getting the industry elevated is there's some people just don't want to volunteer their time. And that's what we need is more volunteers to be able to help get this stuff going. Well, which is true in every case. But Kyle, I mean, at the end of the day, it's, it's, it's like, what do you have to do at home after work? What do you have time? What's your, what's your commitment at work, right? What is what's your commitment with this podcast? What's your commitment with with life in general? So it's like,
00:24:46
Speaker
Yeah, everybody's got shit going on in their life, and it sucks. You make time for it. You make time for it and you figure it out. You just got to prioritize it. It's all priorities. That's right. And, you know, yeah to that point, there's, you know, we talk about chastising, if that's the right word, or calling people out on maybe some bad installs. Well, there's a wealth of information.
00:25:05
Speaker
I mean, somebody taught us, right? So those people aren't all out of the industry. Some have moved on, retired, cetera. Yeah. There's a wealth information. Some should retire. What's that?
00:25:17
Speaker
Some of them should retire. No doubt about it. But they can't because they're having too much fun with their friends still. Exactly. exactly um But there's there's a wealth of information to be tapped into. We just need people willing to step forward. and um And help out. um Yeah. you know there's and And the good thing about this, too, is there's a program. It's not like you're,
ARA Show Preview: New Tool Introduction
00:25:40
Speaker
as far as a certification program, the content's already developed. It's not like you've got to come up with that on your own. And I can certainly speak from ARA's standpoint as if if somebody comes in and and helps us with a...
00:25:53
Speaker
um with a certification program with an event, then we're going to pay their call pay their you know pay their way to do that. So, yeah, it's a volunteer situation, but we'll certainly pay your expenses to do that. So, anyway, if anybody has... Go ahead. I did one for you guys, Brian, in Minnesota, and it was... The presentation was done. yeah I showed up. Grace was there. She was great. She made sure all that I did the paperwork right. It was...
00:26:21
Speaker
Very easy process to get it done. i would If anyone's like worried, like, oh, this sounds very hard, it's not that hard. It's really not. And the content is there for you. It's basically if you can walk through people, walk through presentation with people, with PowerPoint's already done,
00:26:37
Speaker
And at the end of the day, if you can kind of field questions and and and that's – Lead and communicate. Yeah, just leading and communicating. No doubt about it. So that kind of tells us about the installers and what this is geared towards. But let's also talk about the insurance and liability, you know, and what that does for your company as a whole. Not just for the people that are going be out on site, but for the owners, managers, things like that. I mean, as far as the safety standard, this should help all the way around from insurance and liability and things like that moving forward. It certainly can't hurt. I'm waiting to the point that insurance really kind of gets involved because it's got to mitigate some risk, I would think. And like we've talked about before, just... ARA insurance, you're listening.
00:27:26
Speaker
That's right. well it's But even, Nate, even if insurance companies decide they're not going to do anything, if we're properly training our guys, our workers' comp claims should, in theory...
00:27:37
Speaker
Go down. have to. Correct. Exactly. yeah it's It's no different than your safe driving that you hear on TV all the time. I mean, if you do this for safe driving, you know yada, yada. And so it's like I feel like it's the same situation here with insurance.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yep.
00:27:53
Speaker
i like i'd hate to I just laugh about when we send stuff in the group text of people doing crazy things, and I always write, I'd hate to be their insurance company. yeah Yeah, but that's why you ah that's why you politely have a talk with them to explain it to them, so that way their insurer or OSHA somebody randomly doesn't look at their website and then jump over to their job site. So maybe we just save them an OSHA thing. Also, I feel like ah With that, you're gaining customer trust at the end of the day. When you show up looking looking the part and you have the knowledge of the job site and everything, that's a totally different mindset from your customer as well.
00:28:32
Speaker
Well, it could be a sales tactic, honestly. Hey, yeah we're a little bit more expensive, but our guys are certified tent installers. We can prove that to you. Yep. You can post it on the website. You can put their pictures up, your certifications on the wall, you know, come into our showroom or meeting, whatever that looks like. You know, if that's some of the first things that they see and, you know, we're getting ready to move into a new warehouse in Nashville. and that's what I've been thinking about when we walk into the building, kind of posting that stuff up. So when somebody walks in, that's the first thing they see. And, you know, you you recognize those people as well.
00:29:03
Speaker
You know, ive I have talked to people that have to talk to the codes officials as they deal with their permit permitting
Soil Testing Tool Features and Demo
00:29:10
Speaker
processes, et cetera, over time. And the old way was to try to stay as far from a codes official as you could, right? But now we have embraced that to the point that we are actively being involved. And personally, I'm involved in the Vent Safety Working Group, which is ultimately creating the ANSI standards, which will code.
00:29:30
Speaker
will become code So we're we're actively involved in that. But as far as the the the operators and the the the business owners, they are very involved in that. And to the point that i've i've I've talked to multiple who have said that they've had these conversations with codes officials and said, hey, we are we are undergoing a certification program. for our people right now. And that only helps to facilitate those discussions with those coach guys and drop those defenses and make it a lot more, um make make them understand that this is a viable industry. We're all in it together. We're trying to make sure that we do everything to mitigate risk.
00:30:10
Speaker
We have gotten work. from the code official. They have told customers, hey, you should call LNA because they know that we're willing to work with them. We'll go on site and say, okay, hey, this is what the client wants. yeah Tell me how you want me to do this before we even start.
00:30:26
Speaker
And just having that working relationship, they've recommended us to other people because they go, yeah, LNA is going to do the right thing. They're going to make sure they get the permits correct, the And that is such a great benefit is having them on your side and not working against you. No doubt about it. And I think that's another benefit of of belonging to an association like like ARA is you get the access to those tools. You get the things to help you run a viable business that way.
00:30:51
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. yeah Well, let's transition over into the ARA show here. That's right around the corner. And what people can kind of expect from you guys at the ARA show, Brian. Yeah, great. we're um We have booth number 3230 right on the main events floor. ARA's booth between the main ARA booth, insurance, and then the events booth, which is going to be safe tending branded. You'll see that.
00:31:16
Speaker
We're all right there together. um It's a We've had a lot to say about how the booth was laid out. laid out One of the things we're going to have is actually a box of dirt in the booth where we'll be testing and demoing this ground testing tool.
00:31:30
Speaker
some Oh, wow. some Some folks have heard of us talking about it. I'm going talk about it for for just a minute. But this ground testing tool is the first
Scientific Backing and Industry Enhancement
00:31:40
Speaker
tool of its type in the industry that it will quantify soil capacity, right? So in the past, the only way that we had to evaluate soil capacity was take a stake, drive it into the ground some some amount, um mark mark the length of that stake, take, as they say, air quotes, an average blow with a 16-pound hammer, which is
00:32:04
Speaker
whatever, what does that it mean, right? And then remeasure, and that will ultimately give you some idea of soil holding capacity. Well, and Clemson was involved in that staking study a long time ago, Clemson University. So um what ARA did was went back to Clemson and said, okay, we want to quantify, we want a device that will show us this. Gern,
00:32:29
Speaker
kevin gern at ARA, went and met with Clemson, and then did multiple ah road trips with the students to go and get a big data set, I think it's like 200 different places that they went and did soil tests to get the data set that they needed that would then then feed into the engineering behind this tool. So when you look at the tool itself, it's very simple in design. It's essentially a slide hammer, there's a weight, a 16 pound weight, that you actually, after you start the tool to a given depth, it's part of the instructions, and you drop that weight a given distance with four controlled drops, you take a reading on the graduated body of that of that tool and it will tell you based on where the soil, the surface of the soil lands after four controlled drops.
00:33:21
Speaker
what your holding capacity is, and there's all the engineering behind that. So we're going to be demoing that tool at the show. So yeah, you'll be able to see it firsthand. You'll be able to demo it yourself if you'd like to do that. We can talk about it.
00:33:35
Speaker
um you know So anyway, that's the first... First tool of its type that will quantify soil holding capacity. I've talked to a couple of people across the industry who have made some version of this of their own over the years, but there's no science to back that up, right? They can just show that this this is really kind of stiff soil or this is not.
00:33:56
Speaker
We're actually putting numbers to that, and it's in the um it's ah it's in the the manual on what those actual numbers are. Okay. Well, i feel like this will I feel like this will progress as well with this tool. So this tool will be the start, but I feel like there's going to be different variations of this tool eventually and in how the science and how this keeps going forward as well.
00:34:16
Speaker
yeah I had an engineer on a large music festival we were doing come up to me and ask, do you know what the holding power is in this field? And I said, oh, actually, let me go to my truck. I can give you all the stuff. I pulled this thing out.
00:34:30
Speaker
We did the test at like four different points around the field. And he's like, oh, that works for me. yeah I did all the paperwork. I handed it to him. And he signed off and he goes, I wish every company could just pull this out every time I ask. He's like, I go to some of these cities and they're like, yeah, it's holding. It's holding.
00:34:44
Speaker
They can. They can go through the website and buy those tools. Yeah, we have a we have quite a few ah have quite a few customers that we deal with that we have to do the holding power for. yeah So it's something that we've been trying to implement more now just outside those customers and implement
Liability Documentation and Tool Usage
00:35:00
Speaker
having a salesperson actually take this tool every time they go out. so What were you using before, Nate?
00:35:06
Speaker
That's a minster question. um Were you doing old school the dynamometer? Yes. Yeah. truck and and diaometer things like that Yeah. Yeah. yeah um And so he he's been doing that for quite some time. But now with this new tool, we've been trying to implement it. You know, Mike and Mike has talked to us about getting each salesperson to take it out with them and making it making it the standard, that way you have something to rely back on. If there was, a God forbid, an insurance, something popped up for insurance, you can say that, hey, I did my due diligence. I checked this. This is what it was. Just to your point, Kyle. Now, the conditions are going to change, right, Brian? I mean, i put a 10 up today.
00:35:46
Speaker
It pours three inches of rain tonight. Yeah, you're things do change, but at least you can show, like Nate's saying, you did your due diligence at the time of install or site visit, etc. Yeah, that leads into what I was going to say about the the two biggest things about this tool is, number one, there's science to back it up, which is critical. So if there's not the science, then that that that would be a ding in its credibility. But there's there's science and engineering to back up the data that created...
00:36:11
Speaker
these graduations for the tool and everything about it. And then the other thing is it's only good if you document it, right? So you can go out there and take all the soil samples you want, but unless you document that, and then we recommend as part of our training that people do a site survey, right? So there's no reason that that couldn't live with the site survey, be filed away, and should be there for everybody within your organization to be able to go back to and defend how that tent was installed.
00:36:40
Speaker
Yeah. And in my mind, i go to eventually this is going to have something digitally captured on it that it's going to go ahead and automatically put that read on a screen and then sync to your app on your phone, and you're going to have everything there with no paperwork.
00:36:56
Speaker
Perfect world. I love it. so speaking of new digital things, I think Nate just answered that himself. Yeah. Yeah. yeah well Nate, when we do this, I always have someone take a video just as evidence. Absolutely. And then it's so much easier that way. You have a whole video of you actually doing the test. You're not lying. you're not Oh, yeah. well in the test anything you yeah there's In the manual, there's actually ah an example showing you, you know, as you go and take this to do this test, and these tests take about two minutes apiece. It's not like it's a big, cumbersome process.
00:37:28
Speaker
um I would challenge that
ARA Show Invitation and Tool Giveaway
00:37:30
Speaker
it's probably a little more... simplistic and easy than even to go around and work with a dynamometer, find something to pull it out with. and This is something that you can do individually.
00:37:41
Speaker
um you know yeah We even talk about a bigger tent. You might want to test multiple spots within, you know, especially like you mentioned, Kyle, a big music festival and it's got, uh, you know, a big footprint, then you may want to go and do multiple tests around. Well, that's only good if you document it. So we get a place to do that as well. i show you how to do that. so My only complaint, Brian, is it looks like I'm carrying an assault rifle around when I carry that case around. It does. It does. It is. It's a piano gun case that comes in, right?
00:38:13
Speaker
But we also had to make I will say, if you look at it and the design of it, it's a pretty simplistic. It's.304 stainless steel. It won't rust. It's really made to be thrown in the back of the truck because we know somebody's going to do something else with the gun case. But the the tool itself is going to get tossed in the back of the truck. So it's. It's really comparable, right?
00:38:31
Speaker
Made out of 304 stainless steel. And I will say while I'm talking about it, it's based on one inch by 40 inch stake. So if you've got some variation of your stake, then you've got to somehow interpolate that.
00:38:44
Speaker
it's It's different info than what the the the output of the study was based on a one inch by 40 stake, which is the number one stake in the industry. yeah Well, in and in theory, if you're using a bigger stake, you're getting better holding power. No doubt. Correct? Yep. I learned that in my essentials of yo safe tenant. And if you're using smaller stakes, maybe you shouldn't, right?
00:39:03
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely. no So, Brian, who who do you want to be stopping by your booth to to check this out? Is it you want managers? You're looking for owners? You're looking for everybody in between?
00:39:15
Speaker
No, I want to talk to everybody, and you know that's that's the easy answer, but we always love talking to installers because we want to talk about the certificationification certification programs and what that's going to do. We also want to talk about to the business owners. I want to hear from both about the things that are causing you problems because the way I look at it as an association, that's what we are here to do is to field field the pain points from membership. Right.
00:39:42
Speaker
And even associate members, if there are ah associate members on the floor and they want to see certain things at ARA, uh, tending wise, bring them to me. And that's what I'm here to do is to field, field all that from everybody. I love, you know, we've got, I've got soon to be 22 years in this of,
00:40:01
Speaker
talking to Talking to everybody. we made made my career on training the installers, certainly selling tents for manufacturer. did that for a long time, and I love talking to all points in between, top to bottom.
00:40:16
Speaker
yeah Absolutely. I'm really excited about seeing this booth. yeah That's what I was just going say. I think I'm most excited about seeing this dirt and how this thing is used in this dirt in this booth. will It's going to be fun yeah One thing we didn't talk about is we will be giving away ah ah a tool there. We have a oh game a game of chance, if you will. um that um ah I'll leave some to to surprise on that. but Come see us. 3230 right on the show floor. We'll be there. the four of us manning that booth. and
00:40:50
Speaker
Ready to mash the gas. And just stop in and see Brian Bolt. You're guaranteed to laugh about something. bri Brian's a good talk and a good laugh every time. and But Brian, before we wrap up here before we wrap up here, I've got a couple of rapid fire questions for you.
00:41:05
Speaker
ah What's one thing rental companies should focus on this year? Training.
Closing Remarks and Gratitude
00:41:12
Speaker
And the biggest opportunity. people train your I can go as deep into that as you want, but train your people. yeah takes a lot of pain away.
00:41:20
Speaker
And the biggest opportunity in the industry right now. ooh That's a good one. um Biggest opportunity would be, ah um need to think on that one, Nate. I love these. Training. We have all this stuff at our fingertips, Nate. it's Use it Yeah. I think the biggest opportunity is just for the growth of the industry for me. i see um I think a big thing is also going to be in certification, but not necessarily the people.
00:41:50
Speaker
We'll talk about that later. well Keeps them wondering. yeah Cliphanger at the end here. yeah Advice to young installers entering the industry. Listen to the people around you, but not everybody.
00:42:04
Speaker
We could make a living on ah under the vinyl after dark. That's for damn sure. I know that. wow Paid subscription, folks. We're going to a paid program. Yeah, yeah yeah exactly.
00:42:16
Speaker
Well, closing out here, Brian, um just tell us again where we can find you, where we can find the website and everything like that. safetending.com is your it's your access to everything ARA tending wise and that will be building. we Again, we have an incredible platform to launch from and um that's going to be the the spot where everything lives.
00:42:40
Speaker
You can find me at brian.bolt at ararental.org in an email um and we'll be at the ARA show booth number 3230 right on the I think maybe one little block off the main thoroughfare. But ah I think this is my 22nd ARA show coming up. so but But first in a new booth.
00:43:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, no doubt. First in a new booth. Yep. Still there. love it. Love it. yeah Well, Brian, we appreciate you coming in today and just sharing with us everything you've got going on. I know it's it's it's exciting for me. I love it. I love seeing it, the different things that's coming our way. Couldn't have picked a better person to head this up and spearhead this. Sorry to your wife for all the travel, but we are thankful for you, and it will pay off in the end. So thank you again. Thank you, Nate. Thank you Kyle. I'm going to take her with me as much as she can. She's a teacher, so more so in the summer. All right. Yes, sir. Well, this has been another episode of Under the Vinyl, a rental management media podcast.