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Safety is the Future of this industry. Lets hear it from Kevin Gern!
59 Plays4 days ago
Nate couldn't Join us, but listen to Kyle Kevin and Kevin Gern chat about safety and all things related!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Event Season Overview
00:00:03
Speaker
Well, I got up early, got a crew to lead. Sitting up, pulls and ropes, that's a lie for me. From a wedding to a fair, from the field to the town. the one you call when you need a 10 up or down.
Co-host Introduction: Kevin Vasquez
00:00:17
Speaker
All right, folks, we are back for another episode of Under the Vinyl. I'm going ask all our listeners to say a few prayers for Nate. Him and his wife are going through some challenging personal issues right now.
00:00:29
Speaker
So he couldn't be with us today, but I got my backup co-host Kevin Vasquez here with us today. and know he's not who you all wanted to hear from, but he is here. So Kevin, how are things going today? Hey, happy to help as always. Yeah, things are going good, man.
Safety in Rental and Event Industries with Kevin Gern
00:00:43
Speaker
um Sun is shining here in California and we're getting into our event season and things are happening. So this is like technically my last day before we, it's May 2nd. So we get, we get busy and we're into it.
00:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think this is going to be great. and im Really excited to talk to our guest today. Me and him share some fun safety stuff we like to discuss. Yeah, he's been a great asset to have as a friend and a colleague in this industry.
Kevin Gern's Career Journey
00:01:10
Speaker
Thanks for getting up early. I know 7 a.m. for you is probably really early. That's rough, man. Your guys say you roll into work at like noon, so... Oh, yeah, I know. But then as soon as I roll in, it's lunchtime, so I got to go have lunch, so... Exactly, yeah. That's how that i've never met someone who does less work than...
00:01:27
Speaker
You. Brian Richardson. There we go. Might be a close second, but... That's where I learned it from. ah That's it. Well, today's guest I'm kind of excited about. I think I met him for the first time at an ARA show. I had to meet him in the parking lot to give him a ticket to something.
00:01:41
Speaker
Or maybe it was a mattress show. don't remember, but that's how we met. But we have Kevin Gern from ARA with us today to talk about safety and some other neat things he's bringing to the industry. So welcome, Kevin. Hey, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
00:01:54
Speaker
It's good to have you on here, man. It's a... Same thing, like, I remember meeting you years ago, and you even came in toward our warehouse and talked about some safety issues there. And, yeah, you've been a huge asset on the safety side of ARA, and I know you're doing a little bit different stuff there now, but still, safety is your passion and your love, man.
00:02:15
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, ever-changing, ever-evolving. You know, this industry is just all kinds of opportunities to continue to push that ball forward and and make things safer. You know, whether it's the event side or it's the equipment side, doesn't matter. There's there's always going to be opportunities in front of us.
Transition to Safety Focus
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. yeah So how about you give us a little bit of your history, Kevin, of where you started, how you got into the rental side of the business, and how you ended up at ARA? Yeah, yeah. So kind of an interesting story.
00:02:40
Speaker
I was actually, i first out of college was working for Cummins Power Systems, Cummins Diesel Generators. After that, I got hired to go work for a pharmaceutical biotech company, covered Ohio to California as a territory. So it was traveling quite a bit.
00:02:55
Speaker
Decided I was gonna start a family, needed to kind of have a a job that was a little bit closer to home at that point. Was doing some contract work for that previous employer when ah my phone rang one day and it was a rental company. And they said, hey, we heard you might be available for hire.
00:03:08
Speaker
ever think about getting into rental? And at that point I'm like, rental, what, what is that? Come on. So I ended up going and having a conversation with them. I thought, you know, I'll do this for a few years, see where it goes.
00:03:19
Speaker
And lo and behold, 10 years later, I was still working there at this rental equipment company. When I first started there, I was doing sales. Um, But shortly thereafter, I got into so safety just because I did an accident and based investigation on car accident that one of our employees had.
00:03:35
Speaker
So they asked me to take on the safety role of that company. And it was pretty interesting to continue to move in that path. And that's really when I started to get involved with ARA, just like you guys are.
Building a Safety Culture
00:03:48
Speaker
I started to be part of the risk management committees and and start to attend the show and and be a speaker at the show and present on panels and things like that. started to get really involved with them. And there was an opportunity that came up where I could actually go to work for ARA. So instead of helping one rental company, I was able to help all the rental companies.
00:04:07
Speaker
And shortly after landing in 2019 at ARA, I remember a conversation with my boss and it was something to the effect of, you know, you're really good in the equipment side. But remember, we have an event side too.
00:04:19
Speaker
and that's about the time i was like, Tents and events, what is this, right? What am I going to help here? And shortly thereafter, attending the matra events and ATA events, you know, meeting, meeting guys like you and and people like you, it's just been fantastic. And one of the things that always sticks in my mind when I'm asking people, you know, members, know, what side of the industry are you on?
00:04:40
Speaker
Are you equipment or are you a hundred percent party or, you know, And I think pretty soon i'm going to get some pins that just say 100% party because that's like to have so many meanings, right? You and I, Kevin, I've called you about equipment stuff before. Like, hey, what do you think about this? Or where do you think this classifies?
00:04:56
Speaker
So your knowledge base, even if it is mostly equipment, is so useful to the tent side or the party side. I don't know that everyone sees the benefit of it, but I think they're learning that, you know, we are kind of looked at differently and we do kind of need to look at our safety protocols and certifications and all of that stuff much more now than we did 10, 15 years ago.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's interesting because honestly, one hand washes the other from equipment and event. I mean, there are overlapping characteristics between the two sides.
Growth and Safety Scrutiny
00:05:31
Speaker
There's no doubt about that. I mean, the equipment that you guys use to put up tents or work in your warehouse or things like that, the equipment folks are dealing with the same kind of issues, right?
00:05:41
Speaker
The rental process, the customers that we deal with, you know very similar situations that you deal with. So coming from my background, and I'll also kind of sprinkle in the fact that I've been involved in emergency services since 1997.
00:05:54
Speaker
So mostly fire related, some EMS and little bit of Homeland Security training and some other things, but All that accident investigation, all that safety stuff that I've had over the years that I didn't even really look at as safety until I got into this role and I realized how much experience I actually had in that.
00:06:11
Speaker
This is all stuff that can be handed down and and pushed out as far as increasing and pushing that forward as far as safety for the industry. Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, you've seen and gone to so many different places, especially with now with being with ARA.
00:06:26
Speaker
Safety is an ever-evolving thing, you know. Everybody has it to ingrain it into their culture or their business or or whatever it may be. What have you kind of noticed, you know, some of the small places probably using a forklift to some larger places with boom lifts, scissor lifts, machinery when it's the party side and how that training needs to happen, you know, every three years to get them certified on those pieces of equipment?
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's it's interesting, Kevin, because the bigger of a company you become, right? Ultimately, every single one of us wants to grow our company. We want to grow our business. We want to take on bigger footprint. We want to have, you know, more notoriety as associated with our company.
00:07:11
Speaker
But the one thing as as ownership, as leadership, as management that you start to realize as your company grows, you're also increasing that that microscope over top of your business, right?
Customer-Driven Safety Improvements
00:07:23
Speaker
People are really paying attention to what you're doing and how you're doing it and the actions that you're taking, you know the type of culture that you have.
00:07:30
Speaker
And you'll notice larger companies have really good safety cultures. because they know they've got a larger microscope over top of them. The smaller businesses feel that they can you know sometimes skirt that a little bit more, get away with some things.
00:07:44
Speaker
And ultimately, if if you want to be that bigger business, if you want to be headed in that correct direction, you really need to get a good safety culture in place. That is key to your success, because all it takes is one incident, one horrible, horrible incident,
00:07:58
Speaker
to really set you back or take you out. And the safety culture is an easy thing to put in place. The most challenging thing about getting that safety culture in place is the fact that it starts from the top down versus you know the bottom up.
00:08:12
Speaker
And it's it's one of those things where every time I give a presentation on safety culture, you know, you need to realize as leadership, everybody's watching you to do the right thing. And the one time you jump on that forklift and you don't put your seatbelt on, people are watching.
00:08:25
Speaker
And now you're setting an example for everybody else. So you really, it's a top down kind of thing. And if you're not invested in buying in, nobody else is going to. Well, the other thing, Kevin, is it only takes one customer.
00:08:39
Speaker
I will openly admit our safety culture started because one customer said, and don't like the way you're doing something. And from that moment on, I knew i was under a microscope every time I was on their site.
00:08:50
Speaker
They had someone watching us. So I originally said, OK, well, we're at that customers. We're going to have to do x y and z well, you realize that the guys will do X and y but they'll forget about Z. So I went, okay, well, you know what? Now every day we have to do all of this stuff.
00:09:09
Speaker
And I think it has made us a better company anyway, just by doing it. But we were forced into it. It's horrible to say it that way, but we were forced to be become a safe company and it's been to our benefit anyway in the end.
Importance of Forklift Certification
00:09:23
Speaker
But that's all it takes is one customer to say, hey, you have to Wear hard hats. You have to have gloves on. You have to have safety vests on. You have to use ladders properly. That's the biggest thing. That's one of the hardest things I think this industry has is using ladders properly.
00:09:36
Speaker
But that's all it takes is one customer to say, you can't work here if you're not going to this stuff. So it's either you decide you're going to do it or they're going to find someone who's going to do it. Yeah, they're paying your bills.
00:09:46
Speaker
They're the ones that are going be making those decisions. Kevin, you told me years ago, I think when I was out visiting your store, just kind of doing a walkthrough and a tour about customers that have very strong safety cultures in California that you really had to raise the bar to get in and do business with them. So, I mean, California, want to talk about safety, right?
00:10:05
Speaker
You want to talk about rules and regulations? You could probably talk about that, right? Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, kind of to what Kyle's saying, we, you know, in the early 2010s, we had, we were doing work in some facilities that required extra precautions on PPE, safety culture stuff, inspections, you name it.
00:10:26
Speaker
Our mindset was, oh, we just do that there. We just do that there. That's all where we need to do it. And kind of like what Kyle's talking about a little bit, we needed to bleed it into the rest of our business. Well, one of their safety people came to visit our warehouse and said, let me see all your safety meetings. Let me see your JSAs.
00:10:44
Speaker
You know, let me see all these things. And we opened it up and they go, why why is this only at this location? Whereas all your other ones were like, what are you talking about? And they said, you need to do this everywhere and every site.
00:10:56
Speaker
And so that kind of rang the bell of, hey, let's really jump on this. So it wasn't an overnight thing. It was many, many years. And even to this day, we're still evolving, changing, adding inspections, trying to do things better and all that. So yeah, the customers, they're the ones who pay the bills. Like you said, Kevin, they make it.
00:11:19
Speaker
they make it to where you need to change your culture and make it safer for all your employees. So I usually, I'll get a question when I do a presentation on safety cultures or, you know, OSHA investigations or things like that. You know, how do we how do we put in place a good safety culture? How do we get that going? Because we we have not had a good safety culture in our business, but we need to change things and we don't know how to do that.
Starting Safety Culture Early
00:11:41
Speaker
Well, I always refer back to that first day that I joined the volunteer fire service in 1997. And when I went in and joined and i filled out my application, first person I had met that day was the fire chief. And he sat me down in his office.
00:11:53
Speaker
He said, come on in, sit down. We're going to talk about something before we even finish out paperwork and get anything else done. And at that point, he told me he wanted to talk about safety. And he told me about the safety hierarchy, which I know you guys have heard me present on that safety hierarchy time and time again, because I do it during my presentations. It's important.
00:12:09
Speaker
But. As a company, like what is one thing that you can do or change to start instituting a good, strong safety culture? The very first day that employee comes through those doors, the very first thing that you do is you bring them into an office with supervisor and manager, and you have a conversation around safety. And you talk about how your company wants to have a strong safety culture, and that's important to your company.
00:12:32
Speaker
And as soon as you do that on day one and you set the tone, that's going to be in that person's mind moving forward. It's tough when you have existing employees that don't want to get into that mindset. That's where your real challenge is.
00:12:43
Speaker
But every time you bring in a new employee, You have that opportunity to sit them down the very first 10 minutes of them walking through the door and talk about safety. And that sets the tone for that employee the rest of their career.
00:12:54
Speaker
And top down, Kevin, you say it all the time. it's And you know what's funny is I yell at my dad about it all the time. Like, no, get out here. If you're not goingnna put a hard hat on, leave. Like, it's that simple.
00:13:06
Speaker
You have to be from the top down. I got him a fancy gold one that he can wear so he feels like he's the king, you know. Gosh, I don't have pictures of that. Oh, i go I got video of him. Don't worry.
00:13:20
Speaker
But yeah, it's, and then the other thing, like, I was never forklift certified, Kevin, until you guys came out with, I'll admit it, came out with the
OSHA Fines and Forklift Violations
00:13:28
Speaker
forklift certification program. Like, it never crossed my mind. And then I think you and I had a conversation somewhere. You're like, yeah, this is what happens if they come in, you know, you're going to be fine to this amount, this amount, this amount.
00:13:38
Speaker
And I'm like, I should probably look into the getting this taken care of. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's, you know, I hate to say that's low hanging fruit, but that is it's low hanging fruit, especially when I came to ARA in 19. That was one of the things that i I brought to the table in an early discussion was why doesn't ARA offer a mute train the trainer program or a forklift train the trainer program so that their members can train their employees and potentially even sell certifications to customers?
00:14:03
Speaker
Well, as you guys can see, you know, over the years, we've been able to develop that. It was great to be able to bring that to ARA, to be able to to help the education team and really push that forward and write that program for ARA.
00:14:14
Speaker
That is probably one of the best things, in my opinion, that's a membership benefit is that you guys offer both those programs. It's interesting too, because when I came here and i I started to develop those and write those out and make sure that we crossed all the yeah all all the T's and dotted all the I's, right?
00:14:30
Speaker
Which a piece of that was me being involved in ANSI right out of the gate. So I had my finger on the pulse of what the standards were, as well as where they were headed in the next five years. So as I developed the mute program and the forklift program,
00:14:44
Speaker
I already knew what it needed to be now, but I also knew what things we wanted to write in there that were going to meet requirements later. But these programs are just easy to go get and be able to train your own employees as you have potentially turnover on a regular basis.
00:14:58
Speaker
You can continue to train those employees so that you don't get hit with that $16,800 fine or something to that effect right i mean that's insane You and I talked about when you explained this to me, you're like, and once they get you for that, Kyle, they're going to get you for this. They're going get you for this. They're going to get you for this.
00:15:17
Speaker
Once they're in the door, Kyle, you are done. Yeah, that's the one thing. Like, OSHA enforcement officer can be parked on the hard paved road right outside your facility, right? That's legal for them to do. There's no issue there.
00:15:28
Speaker
And they're maybe eating their lunch or just hanging out or making a phone call. And all of a sudden, they look over and they see somebody zipping around your parking lot on a forklift with no seatbelt. They just witnessed a violation from the hard paved road.
00:15:40
Speaker
They're not going to walk away. They're going to walk and they're going say, I see you're operating that without a seatbelt. That's a violation. where's your Where's your certification or your operator's card that says you've been properly trained? You don't have one? Well, that's a second violation.
00:15:53
Speaker
Where's the inspection for the daily inspection that you've done on this forklift? You don't have that? There's another violation. Where's the operators and safety manual on the forklift? You don't have that? Another violation. And it just adds up so quick.
00:16:04
Speaker
I want to address this because I still get confused. We're going to switch over to moops right now. We're not on forklifts. Oh, wait, wait. Now I got to stop you right now because you said moops. Like it's a cow thing, man.
00:16:16
Speaker
It's moops. More like cat thing. Moops. Okay. Scissor lifts. Harness or no harness? yeah Great question. Yeah. There's no requirement for ANSI standards and OSHA follows ANSI for you to wear fall protection in a scissor lift.
00:16:34
Speaker
In a boom lift, you are required for that.
Safety Requirements for Lifts
00:16:38
Speaker
And the the difference is basically when you're in a boom lift, you got to be concerned about that catapult effect. Everybody always makes fun of me for my toys in the background here.
00:16:47
Speaker
going to grab them, man. going grab them because I got my scissor lift right here. Right. My daughter even has her little Lego girl in here. And then I've got my boom lift with my firefighter guy in there. But basically the the concern is, right, if you would hit like a little tiny pothole or something right here, typically these scissor lifts have pothole protection.
00:17:07
Speaker
And all that's going to happen is if you drop about an inch or so into into a pothole, it's just going to go like that. Just a little movement like that, right? Nothing major. You're directly over top of the base machine.
00:17:18
Speaker
But when you do that in a boom lift and you drop, yeah you have ejection potential at that point. So basically these boom lifts, you got to think about them. They're the largest catapults on earth.
00:17:31
Speaker
And what's the projectile? Well, it's you. It's that simple, right? So fall protection required in a boom lift per OSHA ANSI and then scissor lifts, it's not required. But what you will find as you go around to different sites, you'll find that customers will require you to wear it in a scissor lift as well.
00:17:51
Speaker
Why is that? Well, because we all know that employees and people will sometimes get a little bit brave and they'll try to do things that they maybe shouldn't do in that lift, like standing on the mid rail or standing on a bucket, trying to reach something a little higher.
00:18:06
Speaker
One of the things that you'll see companies sometimes will require, and you guys may have seen job sites that say, hey, if you're any anywhere off the ground, you got to wear a harness. That's where that confusion kind of comes in.
00:18:17
Speaker
Well, I've always been confused about it. So my rule has always been for our guys, just you have a harness in your toolbox, just put it on. It's that simple. yeah Because I never want that to be the reason someone's going to come over and start talking to us.
00:18:29
Speaker
You know what? You're right. And it's funny, too, because you got to realize that not all of these ocean enforcement officers are specialized in boom lifts and scissor lifts. They all have their different areas of of expertise. Some are electrical wizards, some are aerial, some are forklifts, some are you name it. Right.
00:18:45
Speaker
So they may not know the rules completely, but that might be enough for them to come over and start talking to your folks if they see they're not wearing a harness and a scissor lift. So you're right. It's just like a DOT inspection on the road.
00:18:56
Speaker
We always told our folks, make sure that your your headache rack and everything, all your chains, your straps, everything's high and tight. It looks organized. It's secured properly. Because a DOT enforcement officer going down the road that sees like a picture perfect storing of all the the ratchet binders and chains and everything else versus going down and seeing like a real sloppy, messy, you know, what are they going to think at that point?
00:19:18
Speaker
Which one are they going to pull over first?
Training and Customer Safety Demands
00:19:20
Speaker
Right? And that's that's exactly it. I always tell my guys, i if they have time, wash the trucks. Because, you know, if you still have a nice clean looking truck, the odds are going to bother you are much less than if you have a dirty, you know, if things are broken, hanging out of toolboxes, things like that. Just, you know, keep the trucks looking clean and hopefully they don't bother us.
00:19:39
Speaker
yeah Yeah. You'd be amazed at how how much of a difference that makes. Oh, it's true. Yeah, no, definitely. I kind of want to go back back to the forklift and the mute certification. and Kevin, can you break that down for some people who may not understand what mute exactly is or what the forklift entails?
00:19:58
Speaker
kind of Explain that so that they know where they fall into, which certification they need to get or what they need to do. Yeah, sure. So mue stands for Mobile Elevating Work Platform.
00:20:09
Speaker
It used to be called an AWP, Aerial Work Platform. But with the new standards, that's changed. And now it's it's M-E-W-P, Mobile Elevating Work Platforms. And that's ANSI A92 is the standard that's associated with those pieces of equipment.
00:20:25
Speaker
As far as the forklifts or industrial trucks, that's going to be anything like your industrial forklifts or your telehandlers. And that's going to be the ANSI B56 standards that kind of supply standards for that.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. And, you know, we talked about small to large companies and typically a event rental company will have a forklift no matter what, whether it's a, you know, a little pallet jack or an electric pallet jack, or just a standard forklift.
00:20:55
Speaker
Do these trainings cover just standard warehouse forklifts, even if they're gas, natural, or propane, or electric as well? Yeah, so actually the beauty of the ARA program from the forklift perspective, a lot of the manufacturers cover the telehandler portion.
00:21:12
Speaker
Like, I'll give you an example, JLG, Genie, because they manufacture the telehandlers. When it comes to the industrial forklifts, which is class one through five fork trucks, um they they hadn't in the past.
00:21:24
Speaker
I don't know if that's changing with JLG. I think they've assumed some new equipment in their their lineup, so that may be changing. But ARA offers the full gamut, right? It's not just all the mute stuff, but it's also the forklifts class one through five and also class seven. Class seven is your rough terrain forklift. It could be a straight mast rough terrain forklift or it could even be like a telehandler, right? To educate people.
00:21:49
Speaker
yeah right now andnna you please to educate people Yeah, so this is a class seven industrial truck. This is considered a forklift, but there's special training that you have to undergo to get this license for this compared to your industrial forklift class one through five.
00:22:05
Speaker
And the reason for that is because, you know, this thing is telescoping way out, right? You've also got different load charts. The machine can actually... move left and right on the axle oscillating axle and you can adjust for level so for everyone listening and not watching kevin gurn is holding up a jlg telehandler yeah or a lull or high reach forklift what else do people call there's a million people call petty bone yeah yeah shooting boom forklift you name it yeah all the same machine
00:22:36
Speaker
For the tent guys, 10K telehandling, that's what we're using to raise structures 90% of the time now. So yeah, you need to be certified folks to run that. Yeah, absolutely definitely.
00:22:48
Speaker
And it's more than just the industrial forklift certification. when you When you get into those machines, I mean, ultimately, if you think about the physics involved with something like that, you're reaching out with a ah very heavy load. And you know sometimes maybe you're suspending a load, especially in the in the tent industry, you guys might actually use slings.
00:23:07
Speaker
and things like that to suspend a load. So there's just specialized training that you really need to understand be aware of. Totally. No, definitely. I mean, that's the route we kind of went. And when we were starting to do these, and like i said, change our safety culture, one of the things that got brought up was, hey, you guys should take a rigging class.
00:23:23
Speaker
I said, why do we need to take a rigging class? There's... We're not crane operators. No, we're lifting pieces of equipment off the ground. So we did that like in 2018 or so and have done it again since. And yeah, it was great physics and some cool things to learn from it.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's interesting, um the equipment side of things, I've definitely investigated more accidents, you know, customer accidents and other things than I have on the event side of things.
Electrical Safety at Heights
00:23:52
Speaker
But most of those investigations, i was I was doing at least one investigation per year associated with electrocution or an electrical accident. And if you think about it, the all these machines, right, the mutes, the scissor lift, the forklift, ah the telehandler, the boom lift, they all go up.
00:24:09
Speaker
Where do you typically find high voltage? So it's horrible to say that, but man, electrical safety. And I know, Kevin, you've seen my electrical safety presentation. Kyle, I think you may have seen it at one of the shows as well, but you really got to pay attention to some of these things because the incidents that can occur. And and when you're talking about electricity, people don't know enough about it. They don't respect it enough.
00:24:32
Speaker
And it's not one of those things that you can hear coming or see coming or smell coming. And by the time it happens,
Introducing the ARA GT Tool
00:24:39
Speaker
It's already too late. It's over. Kevin Vasquez, you got roasted in a Facebook group because of a photo you posted. You guys are doing like a 20 meter and they there's high voltage lines in the back.
00:24:49
Speaker
I'm smart enough to know like ah Kevin did his research. He knows he's good enough. He's far enough away. but Yeah, yeah. The picture... Yeah, the picture looked like it was, they were almost on the frame. And no, it was it was actually, you know, quite a bit away. But just the way the picture looked, you know, as we were taking it down.
00:25:07
Speaker
Even that guy went, okay, let me look at this. And I did some math. I go, you know what, we actually should be three more feet away, even more to give us that extra safety, you know, that extra little umph to be away from that. So yeah, it was, you know, you just got you know, there's a common phrase that I see around look up and live.
00:25:26
Speaker
you know And that's one of the things to think about when you're in those machines and doing that. Yeah. It's not even that. even I don't know if you remember this, Kevin Gern. I don't remember what it was, but I guess it was a Boy Scout camp somewhere. And they decided they were going to carry like a 20 by 20 high peak across the field.
00:25:46
Speaker
And they never paid attention to what was above them. So they lifted up and they walked it into the power lines. That's horrible. Yeah. I've seen people pushing scaffolding like that's already on wheels and, and you know, large scaffold setups and and run into power lines and things like that. There's yeah, you really got to pay attention. one of the things in the fire service they always would teach us before you put a ladder up clear overhead, you know and you'd hear guys screaming that out on ah on a fire scene in the middle of the night as they're throwing ladders and people are like, they saying they're saying clear overhead, which means check up before you throw that ladder up because that thing is electrically conductive.
00:26:25
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. You know, I was thinking, we're talking about the forklift and the mute and kind of where that falls into these party rental companies, just to um touch base on that one more time, as far as the smaller companies go.
00:26:38
Speaker
I'm a small company. I do some 40 wide and below and some tables and chairs. What are some of the things, I don't have a safety culture. What are some of the things that I should look at starting to ingrain in my business to make it a safety culture oriented business?
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah, you know, i don't want to say it's necessarily the easiest lift you've ever had, but it can be pretty easy if you've got the right support. And ARA provides a ton of resources for you to get yourself on the right track, and they're free to members.
00:27:11
Speaker
So... You know, one of the things that you can do is log into RentalU and start utilizing some of that content that's in RentalU for your employees to be able to be properly trained. Training is key. And it's not enough for me to say that training is key, but documentation of that training is key, right?
00:27:28
Speaker
Because if you don't document it, it never happened. If you utilize the learning management system, the LMS that's provided to you as an as an ARA member, and there's other associations out there that have training content as well, it's not just ARA.
00:27:41
Speaker
I know ATA and MATRA also have content that's available. start utilizing that stuff, start making sure that you fill out some sort of ah a log or a sign in sheet or marking completion of of employees and put it in a file.
00:27:54
Speaker
Because it's not it's not just enough, unfortunately, anymore to train your employees, but you actually have to document that training as well. So tap into some of these free resources that are available to you.
00:28:06
Speaker
Reach out if you're ever in question of what you could be doing better you know that's a raise a ah phone call away you can reach out to one of our safety training managers uh sean willick at our office you can reach out to me more than happy to to help you get on the right track but again we've talked about a couple of those key things so and it starts from the top down and it starts from day one of walking through that door make sure you get people on that right track right away yeah i agree and and you know i I called you and i think when you first started going, getting going in ARA and you came and visited our location and you did a walkthrough and you showed me some things and talked about some things and I wasn't going to get fined by you. So it was nice to have somebody come out and check and see what I needed to work on and do.
00:28:51
Speaker
So that way, if OSHA ever showed up or whoever it was, i would there wouldn't be heavy finds involved. You know, they're going to find something or see something. But, you know, it was nice to have you come out and actually check our location and see what we could do and what we could change.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny. first First days that I hit ARA's, you know, ground and start working for ARA, the first several months, that was something that I offered to members. Hey, if you want me to come out and do a mock OSHA walkthrough with your leadership team and teach them, you know, things that I see, I'm more than happy to do that.
00:29:23
Speaker
But a lot of people were like concerned, right? I don't know if I want ARA in here walking through pointing out my safety violations or I'm insured with ARA insurance. I don't know that I want Kevin Guerin out here walking through looking safety violations.
00:29:35
Speaker
It's not what it's about. It's for me to educate and for you guys to get better. That's that's what it's about. there's There's no, I'm not taking pictures. I'm not documenting anything. That's for you guys to do. I'm just there to educate.
00:29:45
Speaker
Are you going to teach us you know what what to do? Like, oh, hey, they're coming for a forklift. Take it outside. Don't let them in the building. Lock all the doors. Close the windows. Yeah. yeah Absolutely. Like if that's if you're contacted by OSHA and it's in in reference to a very specific forklift that maybe they feel they got a report that it should be taken on a surface. It's it's unsafe.
00:30:07
Speaker
You know, there's nothing that says you have to walk them through your entire building to get to that forklift before they get there. You park the forklift in the parking lot. And it's right there. Their investigation is on that specific unit.
00:30:18
Speaker
That's where they investigate it. That's where they look at it. That's where they do the research or whatever. And then they leave. If you're silly enough to walk them through your entire facility to get to that forklift, that's problem.
00:30:29
Speaker
You open up the door for that. Yeah, you just got to smart about some of this stuff. Yeah. No, that's great. You've done a lot with safety. Now, I heard a rumor that you're coming out with a tool that's specific to the party industry. Is this true?
00:30:44
Speaker
It is true. Yeah, it's going to be released here very soon. And probably the timing of this broadcast, it will be released maybe a day or two before this thing hits the air. So you're right. You're absolutely correct.
00:30:57
Speaker
It's coming out and it's basically a tool to help ensure further safety on 10 installation
Development and Benefits of the GT Tool
00:31:04
Speaker
sites where you guys are using stakes. Okay. Are you able to elaborate on that? you know Absolutely. I mean, you know honestly, there's always been this question. And and when I first came to ARA and I went to some of the ATA and major events and some of the tenting events to try to get a better understanding of the industry, I understood the ballasting blocks.
00:31:22
Speaker
like That makes sense, right? like That weighs how much, okay, that's how much ballast it's applying. But what about that tent stake right there? How much holding force or ballast does that actually provide?
00:31:32
Speaker
And it was always interesting to me because I got answers that were just all over the place and just littered with loophole statements. loophole statements being, well, typically, or about, or generally, i guess, right?
00:31:49
Speaker
In average soil, if you would test with a a tent stake ahead of time, and you would hit a tent stake with an average swing, and it was an average person using a typical sledgehammer on ah on a windy day, and the moon is in the third phase, then about this much holding power.
00:32:09
Speaker
if the tent stake would do this, right? But it's one of the things, right? Assuming that it was in the correct location at the correct angle. and you know Yeah, so like when I first heard these statements and then I went to some manufacturers and I said, hey, how much holding power does that tent stake give you in soil?
00:32:25
Speaker
Like, what are you guys calculating that that's going to give a tent installer? Well, you know, it's it's probably ah about a thousand pounds in typical average soil if it's installed perfectly. And there was just all these loophole statements in this short little sentence that they were trying to come together to tell me it's got about a thousand pounds of holding force.
00:32:45
Speaker
You know, and it's like, oh, my goodness, like there's no real good way. So me being a problem solver and somebody that's enjoyed physics and and things like that, I thought, man, there's got to be a better way to do this, right?
00:32:56
Speaker
And I know tent installers are not gonna be real careful with very high tech scientific calibrated tools with digital boards and batteries. And you know they're gonna look for a tool that they can throw in the back of their pickup truck and not worry about it, right?
00:33:10
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. So after hearing all this information, I kind of in the back of my head was starting to think about soil density. And I had had some accidents previously when I was working in the equipment rental industry.
00:33:24
Speaker
where the question came up during deposition, you know, Mr. Gern, how do you know that that was soft soil that the machine flipped over on? So after I had that first deposition where they were questioning me on how I knew it was soft soil, other than the fact when I walked on it, I sunk in myself and I'm only, you know, 200 pound human being versus thousands of pounds in a machine.
00:33:46
Speaker
So I realized, you know, quickly, like, my word isn't good enough. So I did research and I found out there's a tool out there, a scientific tool called a penetrometer that measures soil density.
00:33:56
Speaker
yeah and And from that experience on the equipment side, and what I started to see is this big question mark on the event side coming to ARA, I thought, you know, there's got to be a way that I can correlate this.
00:34:07
Speaker
There's got to be a way that I can make something that is basically a very crude penetrometer with dimensions and tools and things that are already common on the event side and the tenting industry side.
00:34:20
Speaker
I started to sketch and I designed and drew up what is now known as the ARA GT tool. And it's the ARA ground testing tool. Oh, that's not the GT, I thought.
00:34:30
Speaker
ah Well, yeah. don't know if I want to put that out there for public reveal, but if you look at the Clemson if you look at the clemson validation study that we did with k Clemson University, you'll see that they they called it the GERN tool.
00:34:43
Speaker
So, yeah, that's that's the original name, but I didn't want that out there. So yeah you didn't like otherwise I renamed that and just called it the GT tool. So it's the ground testing tool.
00:34:55
Speaker
think it's, you know, better sound. It's built out of 304 stainless. I sketched out this idea. I took it to leadership at ARA. I said, hey, there's a problem in the industry and I have a solution, I feel. And, you know, they looked at it and they said, this isn't normally in our wheelhouse to design tools, but let's run with this and see where it goes.
00:35:12
Speaker
So I came back. I ordered raw material, raw stock, 304 stainless, went to my buddy's machine shop up the road, and we started machining and built the first two prototypes for the ARA GT tool, did some destructive testing on those ones and found some ways to improve them, made some improvements.
00:35:31
Speaker
At that point, we had two working prototypes and we needed to validate it. So previously, you know, i i was a part of the ballasting calculator, with ATA and we ended up going towards Clemson because I wanted i wanted somebody that was maybe familiar with but some of this already.
00:35:50
Speaker
And I ended up working with their mechanical engineering department to validate the scale on the ARA GT tool. And that consisted of ah Clemson students and a rental vehicle and driving 3,800 miles across the Southeast in several different soil types and doing things with scientific measurements, such as a dynamometer and a penetrometer and a moisture meter, and then validating that against the scale on the ARA GT tool.
00:36:17
Speaker
So now there's a ah tool that's out and it's gonna be able for you, for an installer, to quickly get a better understanding of what the soil condition is and the holding power of an average 40 inch by one inch tent stake in that soil type across the site.
00:36:35
Speaker
Obviously, the testing is important, but I would probably say the most important part is probably documentation, I would assume, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And we provide a form that is downloadable, but also in the manual, and you're able to document that site and make sure that you retain those.
00:36:53
Speaker
If you're dealing with codes enforcement, you're dealing with you know fire marshals on a site and they start questioning things, you can show them the documentation that you've tested the soil and you know how much holding force you're gonna have on those tent stakes.
00:37:05
Speaker
We've all had that conversation with codes enforcement where they're giving you a hard time, but I tell you what, if you are out there on that site and you're doing a test with something you know as shiny as that 304 stainless and very scientific looking and taking documentations and you're doing soil measurements,
00:37:22
Speaker
I think that's gonna satisfy them pretty well. Yeah. So are you envisioning that this tool is something the installation crew has or the sales staff or both? So yeah, that's been a good question it's come up. Honestly, it's something that I envisioned both having.
00:37:35
Speaker
If you're going out to a site as a salesperson, you need to figure out, okay, there's no underground utilities. can we stake this and save money versus having to ship all this ballast in to put this tent up?
00:37:46
Speaker
At that point, your sales crew is going be taking a look at the site, going across it, and within 10, 15 minutes, they're going to have a good understanding of what the soil consistency and density is and the holding power of the tent stakes.
00:37:59
Speaker
At that point, they can quote it appropriately, but understand weather impacts you know holding force of of a stake.
Standardizing Stake Installation with the GT Tool
00:38:08
Speaker
ARA released a study, it's a tent staking guidance document.
00:38:12
Speaker
And that was a part of the study that I did with Clemson as well. It wasn't just validation of the GT tool, but it was also these other factors. And that's available on ARA's website for download.
00:38:23
Speaker
But it talks about things that could impact holding power, right? So we did a study on age of a tent stake. and how that would impact the holding power of a tent stake. We did a study on- got a question.
00:38:36
Speaker
Does the older the stake hold better? See, that's what you would think, right? And that's what I thought too, because it's going to be pitted to be rusty or it's going be, right? Maybe a little bent. It actually had very, very small amount of difference between brand new shiny tent stake and rusted and painted and dinged and dented and like maybe even a little bit of a tweak to one really yeah minimal minimal which was good information good data
00:39:05
Speaker
There's the nugget of information someone can get from the podcast today. but I know, right? Yeah. You want another one? Yeah. Moisture content? That definitely affected it. and I think guys can all understand that. Yeah. Right?
00:39:18
Speaker
So that's why the installation crew should have one of these as well, because when they get out there, they want to confirm the results of the salesperson that maybe quoted it a month before, right? Yeah. Or a year. It could be a year, you know?
00:39:28
Speaker
Yeah. A lot can change. For sure. Absolutely. And then the biggest thing that we found that was just mind blowing to me was when you come off of the top of your tent stake and you go up to the top of your tent, that guy or that ratchet strap, if that's at a 45 degree angle, that's optimal.
00:39:48
Speaker
But in a lot of cases as tent installers, when we install that that tent and we put that stake in the ground, we try to keep it closer to the tent as possible, right? Because the closer we keep that tent stake to the tent, the less it's sticking out, the less room it takes up, less of a trip hazard, right?
00:40:05
Speaker
Well, we did a test where we kept it at 45 degree angle for the guy coming down to the top of the tent stake. And of course, the tent stakes were straight into the ground, fully into the ground every time. We did that test, but then we moved it in, so it was a 15-degree difference, and we did a 60-degree angle pull test where we came off the top of the tent stake and went up to our winch assembly and did a pull at 60 degrees.
00:40:27
Speaker
We saw anywhere from 20% reduction in holding power of that tent stake all the way up north of 80% reduction she in holding power that tent stake.
00:40:40
Speaker
When I saw those numbers, like my mind was blown. Like it makes sense there's going to be reduction. But when we saw the one result of 80% loss of holding power because it was just moved in and it's now pulling a 60 degree angle, like that is huge, huge.
00:40:57
Speaker
It's a double-edged sword because like you said, you move the stake in, safety. You know, the world is litigious. So if you get your optimal 45, you're out average six, six and a half feet from the tent.
00:41:12
Speaker
Someone's could walk into it. Someone could, I've seen people walk right into a ratchet strap and take it right to the neck because they're just talking or texting on their phone and walking. So what do you want to do as the business owner? You're like, well, I don't want to get sued. So I'm going to move it in.
00:41:25
Speaker
Well, you're probably opening yourself up to much higher risk so by moving it in. if that type comes down that's a much worse scenario than someone potentially walking into a ratchet or a stake Yeah, i you know, ultimately doing this project and and, you know, at this point near completion has just given me ah real sense of of pride being able to help the event side in in their own special way, right?
00:41:48
Speaker
Coming to ARA and being able to help on the equipment side was was easy when it came to the MUP and forklift stuff. But being able to push this thing across the goal line, knowing that it was a thing that grew inside my brain and then started to to build it with raw materials, and then was able to literally for three weeks drive around with Clemson students measuring soil and putting 3,800 miles on a vehicle.
00:42:12
Speaker
It's really been a passion of mine over the past several years, and it is awesome to see it come to shape. The biggest thing is the way this tool works, it's not testing soil on the top. We've had these tests in the past because not that anything was was wrong that we were doing previously, we were working with the information we had.
00:42:30
Speaker
There were studies out there that would say if you dug your thumbnail into the top of the soil, right, then it means this, right? Or if you hit a tent with an average swing, with an average sledge, and it's it's a direct hit not a glancing blow and like everything's perfect, then it means this, right?
00:42:45
Speaker
And those aren't bad things. Those aren't bad pieces. that was That was our way of moving the industry forward because prior to that, we had nothing. Hopefully this is just that next step. This tool is measuring soil 12 inches down.
00:42:58
Speaker
We did study on soil horizons. We understand that the holding power of a tent stake does not happen in the first few inches of
Resources for the GT Tool
00:43:04
Speaker
soil. It's 10 to 12 inches below the soil where you're actually getting that true holding power on that tent stake.
00:43:10
Speaker
And that's exactly where this tool tests, down there. And it's super easy to use, very robust, 304 stainless steel. Thing is gorgeous looking. Can't wait to see it out there in use.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. I'm going to say this. I've gotten the chance to use it, and I'm not that smart, and I was able to figure it out. So you i think anyone else can use it. Yeah. I'll even give ah a little bit of a teaser here.
00:43:34
Speaker
You know me with safety, right? One of the things I wanted to make sure we had on this thing were safety decals. Now, Kyle has got to see this sneak peek of this thing, but this thing is wrapped in safety decals telling you eye protection, hearing protection, read the manual, crush points, and it even has a QR code that you can access a video on how to use it.
00:43:52
Speaker
And that's provided in English and Spanish. That's key, right? We want to make sure people understand how to use the tool and how to document that site correctly. And of course, right on top of the T handle, Kyle, i don't know if you saw it when you were kind hard not to, but this tool is electrically conductive. So yeah make sure you call 811 before you put this thing in the ground.
00:44:11
Speaker
Yeah, that'd be the biggest thing people have to remember. Yeah, yeah that you got to get that site cleared and make sure it's all, you know, free of those. Here's the anvil, which is the portion that actually gets impacted by the slide weight. But let me tell you, man, that 304 stainless really turned out really nice and and robust. It's not going to corrode or rust and mess with any of the measurements as far as the soil.
00:44:35
Speaker
are these American made? It is American made. No tariffs on this. look at that Don't hesitate. Place your order, you know, today. but it is American made. We reached out to several of our associate members to see who would be capable with tool and dye and be able to manufacture this for us in a cost-effective manner because we want to be able to pass the savings right on to our members.
00:44:56
Speaker
But we ended up going to Pioneer Tool and Forge out of Kensington, Pennsylvania.
Documenting Safety Practices
00:45:00
Speaker
And they're the ones that are manufacturing the tool for ARA. You have to purchase it direct through ARA, but it's going to ship to you from Pioneer Tool and Porch.
00:45:10
Speaker
Oh, perfect. So when they're released, ARA is going to have them for sale on their website or within the portal somewhere? You got it. It's going to be on our shop but on the website, and you can literally purchase...
00:45:23
Speaker
The tool, you can purchase replacement decals, replacement manual. The manual is free to download if you if you just want to print it yourself. But if you want to order a hard copy, additional hard copy, you can order that on the on the site as well.
00:45:36
Speaker
And also the end of the tool that has the scale, that's the portion that we assume is going to wear the most. If you need to replace it, you just order a new tip and you can thread the new one on. So I'd have to assume this will be hard to transport.
00:45:50
Speaker
Are you guys going to have it like packaged in a way that it's easy to move, things like that, make our lives as easy as possible? Yeah. So again, the tool itself is pretty robust, but we did go out and source a hard case that is a wheeled hard case.
00:46:07
Speaker
The tool fully assembled weighs about 40 pounds, but you can disassemble it and break it into two pieces. Now you're dealing with 20 pounds and 20 pounds. It is going to come in a very heavy duty and it's been destructively tested. I promise you. Kyle's laughing, but he, he may have been there for that, but it has been destructively tested as a hard case. It will hold up to some, some rigors and some abuse.
00:46:31
Speaker
Nonetheless. Yeah. It's going it's going to ship to you in a hard case. No, that's really exciting. I mean, you know, like you said, there's other tools out there. There's a stake and a sledgehammer. There's dynamometers. There's stake pullers with scales on them and all that. but The good old test.
00:46:49
Speaker
Yeah, the finger test and all that. And, you know, I think what's great about this is that you're going to have that constant swing or that constant blow to the stake. It's never going to change work. Like you're saying, you know, if you have people, you know, between us three, we're all going to have different swings of a sledgehammer.
00:47:05
Speaker
So we could get different results or whatever it may be. So this is a great tool. I'm i'm really excited to see it get out there and in use. in youth Yeah, me too. I mean, it's all physics-based. That's that's the beauty of it. I wanted it to be simple for for installers to use. I wanted it to be robust.
00:47:21
Speaker
I wanted it to not corrode or rust so that it would you know affect the ah drop of the slide weight. But yeah, everything is repeatable results. When it comes down to any kind of scientific anything, you need to have repeatable results.
00:47:35
Speaker
And that's exactly what we're able to provide with a very simple tool that's easy to use. and the proper documentation to CYA, cover your ass, if something bad does happen.
00:47:48
Speaker
Yeah. Documentation, documentation, documentation. CYA, cover your assets. Yeah, that's what you said. Oh, yes. I forgot. Yes. That's what saying. Cover your assets. Yeah. Yeah. Now when it comes to, yeah, every time I talk to Kevin, it's always documentation, documentation, documentation. that's all that matters.
00:48:04
Speaker
Do the trainings, do all the, all those things, right? But write down, do sign in sheets, do tests, document it all when you're doing these, these kinds of trainings, you know, with your company and the people in your company.
Building a Safer Industry
00:48:17
Speaker
Well, yeah Kevin, I appreciate everything you've done for the industry and finally coming out with our own tool for the tent side of the things.
00:48:28
Speaker
I know you said that you know in the beginning, you it seemed like you only cared about the equipment side because you came out with MOOP and forklift in our conversation the other day, but those are also very important to the tent rental side. So if anyone's listening and their staff is not forklift certified, I highly suggest you do that.
00:48:44
Speaker
ah You're going to save yourself $16,000 if you do get caught. So that's always a good bonus thing. And if anyone has questions, reach out to Kevin, reach out to Sean, just reach out to anyone at any rate. They can get you in touch with the right people.
00:48:56
Speaker
I've reached out to Kevin for some random questions before regarding certifications on different forklifts and things like that. So yeah, no, it's a great tool in our toolbox. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, before, you know, we wrap it up, I think, Kevin, if you want to Kevin Gern, if you want to give us some safety advice or just life advice to the people out there in the industry, that's ah how we like to wrap up these episodes. So let's hear what you have to say.
00:49:23
Speaker
Safety or life advice. Well... I don't know how many more minutes I have, but i' I'll tell you this from a safety perspective. And this goes back to that safety hierarchy we touched on. And if you sat through my trainings, you know it.
00:49:34
Speaker
It's one of those things where if everybody on your crew is looking out for their own safety, then nobody should get hurt that day. That safety hierarchy level goes to number two, in which case you're looking out for the people around you, your crew.
00:49:46
Speaker
And if you're looking out for yourself, priority level number one, and you're looking out for your crew priority level number two, well then, man, Really, nobody should get hurt on that site that day. It really is about safety culture. It's really about looking out for the person next to you.
00:50:00
Speaker
And the biggest thing is every single one of us wants to go home with the same number of fingers and toes that we came in to work with. And it's it's about making safety a priority. It's about looking out for that person next to you. I don't care if you got in an argument with them yesterday.
00:50:13
Speaker
Ultimately, you don't want to see them get hurt. You don't want to see them lose a finger or an eyeball or even their life. We got to look out for each other. We got to make this safe this industry safer.
Conclusion and Thanks to Kevin Gern
00:50:23
Speaker
We got to make our daily tasks and our jobs safer because we don't need anybody breathing down our necks with regulations and enforcing things upon us.
00:50:31
Speaker
We need to self-regulate. And that's really what this is all about, is making sure that we can push the industry in a direction that is safe for everyone, not just our employees, not just, but also the event goers and the general public around these sites that we're working or putting up tents or operating heavy equipment.
00:50:48
Speaker
Make safety a priority. And that's that's all I'll ask. Well, love it, man. That was great. That's perfect advice. And I think a lot of people do need to hear that.
00:50:59
Speaker
Yeah. yeah This industry has been full of cowboy stuff for 30, 40 years. And it's definitely shifting. You can see that just following companies on social media. But there's still a long road ahead of us till we become a safe industry.
00:51:12
Speaker
But we're working. We're trying hard. We are. We are. And it takes people like, like, ah like ARA, like Kevin Guerin, like those kind of people to accelerate us and get us into, you know, different brackets and a better industry. So I can't thank you enough what you've done, you know, in there you know the years you've been with ARA, helping us out and getting us to where we're at today.
00:51:34
Speaker
Hopefully many more to come. Yes. and thank Thanks for coming up with the new tool that's going to be released this month. We're excited. So if you're listening, people, get out there, buy it. Otherwise, ARA might not employ Kevin Guerin very much longer.
00:51:47
Speaker
Gotta buy this thing, yeah. Yeah. So, well, folks, there you have it. There's another episode of Under the Vinyl, and ah we'll catch you next week.