Capable Able Equipment Rental

Serving market niches opens rental and service opportunities

by Clair D. Urbain

What started as a one-man operation in the late ’90s has grown today into Able Equipment Rental with more than 165 employees, more than 3,200 pieces of equipment available for rent and three locations in New York and New Jersey.

Able Equipment Rental has more than $79 million invested in specialty rental equipment for the construction and warehousing industries. It serves the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas with three facilities: one in Deer Park, New York, and others in Edison and Pennsauken, New Jersey. That's Steve Laganas, owner.

“We started with a small office, one file cabinet and one lightbulb hanging from the middle of the room,” recalls Steve Laganas, who owns Able Equipment Rental with his wife, Eliza.
Laganas was a rigger by trade and continues to take a perfectionistic approach to his work, always looking for a better way to do things. That desire led him into the equipment rental business, first specializing in lifting and aerial equipment, then expanding into other types of equipment rentals.

Over time, Laganas built an excellent reputation and an up-to-date aerial lift rental fleet. Carefully, he brought on employees who shared their expertise and soon Able also became well known for its extensive air compressor fleet.

“We went outside the standard 185, 375 and 400 psi air compressor models and expanded into 900, 1,150, 1,300 and 1,600 psi products. We became established as a niche player for larger aerial equipment and compressors as well,” Laganas says.
Adding larger equipment was only part of Laganas’ strategy; he knew that to be an excellent rental house, the company had to provide better service and better equipment than the competition. “Successful companies must take good care of its customers. That’s truly what drives the business,” he says.

Laganas complements Able Equipment Rental with two other businesses: Able Rigging, which specializes in tower crane jumping, moving crane equipment and at-height installations throughout the Northeast; and Able WeldBuilt, a manufacturing company that produces specialty trucks such as wreckers and car carriers. “The WeldBuilt facility helps us meet customer needs,” says Laganas. “If a piece of equipment needs to be modified to better meet a customer’s needs, we have the expertise and capability to get that accomplished.”

Able Equipment Rental has more than $79 million invested in specialty rental equipment for the construction and warehousing industries. It serves the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas with three facilities: one in Deer Park, New York, and others in Edison and Pennsauken, New Jersey.

Today, Able Equipment Rental has three locations: the home location is based in Deer Park, New York, which serves Long Island, New York City and its boroughs; a facility in Edison, New Jersey, which serves a much heavier industrial and warehouse base in northern New Jersey; and a facility near Philadelphia in Pennsauken, New Jersey, that carries a mix of industrial and construction rental equipment.

Able Equipment Rental’s Deer Park location sets it up well to serve the needs of specialty contractors who do a significant amount of work in New York City. “For example, we don’t have just one glass mini crane, we have four or five of them and they are always out on rent,” says Joseph McCaffrey, business corporate manager. “We don’t just have one type of specialty telehandler, we have seven or eight of them and they’re always out on rent. We are finding that specialty contractors have found that if they go to our competitors, they get the answer, ‘Sorry, we don’t carry that,’ or maybe, ‘We’ve never even considered carrying it.’”

Building on strengths
As Able Equipment built its reputation as an aerial lift provider, it continued to add to its fleet with equipment that complements its aerial niche.

“We offer equipment that matches the unique infrastructure in New York City. We have been able to build our business by providing the tools that can move equipment into underground vaults or lifting building materials to upper floors. Standard lifting equipment doesn’t fit those needs, but that is what we provide our customers.” says Mitch Garfinkel, vice president of sales at Able Equipment Rental.

“We offer specialty equipment that serves 20 different types of customers,” explains Mitch Garfinkel, vice president of sales at Able Equipment Rental. “We offer equipment that matches the unique infrastructure in New York City. We have been able to build our business by providing the tools that can move equipment into underground vaults or lift building materials to upper floors. Standard lifting equipment doesn’t fit those needs, but that is what we provide our customers.” he says.

Able’s customer base is diverse, but still very much a niche market: Rigging, glazing, bridge deck, highway, landscaping, general, concrete and mechanical/electrical/plumbing contractors have come to Able Equipment Rental for specific equipment needs.
Once customers come to expect availability and service for the unique lifting equipment, they begin to look to Able Equipment for other equipment needed on the jobsite. With a rental fleet value of more than $79 million, air compressors have become the second largest rental item in the company’s rental fleet.

“Our air compressor business runs the full gamut from 185 to 1,600 cfm. That’s why we use the term niche market,” Garfinkel says. “We’re not a plate compactor house. We’re not a concrete mixer house and we’re not a Bosch electric breaker house. Anything we deal with from a concrete nature will probably be pneumatic or hydraulic. We are unlike a general rental center, where you can rent a carpet steamer, lawn mower or a small pressure washer. The biggest thing for them is going to be a mini excavator or a skid steer loader. Our niche is equipment above this size and type.” Able also carries a deep stock of 25 to 400 kVA generators, light towers and ground and air heating units ranging from 400,000 to 1 million Btu in capacity.

Able Equipment Rental has seen its greatest rental growth recently in rough-terrain telehandlers. Within the last three years, it has seen a 30 percent growth in rental demand, which it is meeting by adding several JCB rough-terrain telehandlers to the rental fleet.

“Rough-terrain telehandler business has been an exploding market over the years,” says Garfinkel. “It’s one of the most versatile machines in the marketplace. It’s the first machine on a jobsite to unload trucks and stage equipment. You can put a bucket on it. You can put a set of forks on it. You can put an aerial work platform on it. You can put a broom or jib on it. It is used in many ways on any jobsite,” he says.

Navigation know-how
With three locations that serve the New York City, Newark and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, Able Equipment Rental finds it must keep moving equipment to match the supply with demand across the three facilities. “To meet demand, we have 17 tractor trailers on the road moving equipment to customers as well as between our facilities,” says Laganas.

“Our ability to mobilize is key to our success,” says Garfinkel. “The wide array of equipment we have truly allows us to cater to many specific marketplaces. Other companies are not in a position to accommodate those needs. I think that separates us from the pack.”

With Able Equipment Rental’s extensive experience in moving equipment throughout the congested streets and busy highways of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, it’s also able to help customers navigate the extensive permit and licensing process required to move oversized equipment and materials.

“We can help customers with permitting. It can be intimidating if you haven’t done it. We help them pull permits to get the equipment to where it needs to be used. We know the permitting departments in the different municipalities and although they don’t make any exceptions for us, we know where to get started. We also help the customer target exactly when the piece of equipment is going to be used so that they don’t have to pull the permit for any more days than they need. The permits can go anywhere from just having a piece of equipment on a sidewalk to closing off a whole street.

“If we need to provide flag men, we can do that. We also offer heavy hauling if they’re moving something really big. Of course, we can bring in a crane through our sister company, Able Rigging, if necessary. We can get them equipment operators if what they’re doing is beyond the sophistication level of what their operators can do,” says Laganas.

Success secret: service!

“We do a lot of trade shows and we’re very heavily involved in a variety of associations. All of the members know us and we know them. We tailor our involvement to the groups’ needs,” says Joseph McCaffrey, business corporate manager.

While rental facilities often have huge showrooms, Able Equipment Rental has instead built a huge service department. The Deer Park facility sits on 12 acres and has 109,000 square-feet under roof. “I’d say more than 50 percent of the facility is devoted toward the upkeep, refurbishment, repair and testing of equipment. It’s not like we just have a big showroom with a small shop. It’s really the other way around,” says McCaffrey.

With more than 3,200 pieces of specialty equipment in the rental fleet, the maintenance staff has extensive experience in maintaining and repairing a rainbow of equipment brands. That experience is well-recognized by Able customers that rely on the company to complete maintenance and repairs for them, no matter what the brand or model of equipment they have. Able mechanics regularly work on equipment owned by their customers.

“A lot of contractors appreciate that we can do extensive maintenance and service for them. Many rental companies say, ‘No, all I can do is rent it to you,’ ‘All I can do is fix something I have rented to you,’ or ‘I can’t fix something that you own that we have never serviced.’ Our guys have seen everything. We can fix just about anything,” says McCaffrey.

This is one of 11 fully equipped service trucks Able Equipment Rental dispatches for planned and emergency maintenance. It offers preventive maintenance services for many of its clients’ owned equipment fleets. From left to right are some of the members of the Able Equipment Rental maintenance staff: Bruce Sullivan, Danielle Murphy, Vincent Pellizzi, Lauren Andreyev, Melissa Vesely, Dave Lysohir and Dave Schick.

Able’s maintenance and repair service extends far outside its state-of-the-art eight completely outfitted service bays and other repair areas at the Deer Park facility. Able Equipment Rental also operates 11 fully equipped service trucks that go out to customers to provide preventive maintenance and emergency repair services.
“We try to create a relationship with a customer by initially offering to service their other pieces of equipment to show them our dexterity and expertise,” says Garfinkel. “When we show them our breadth of knowledge, they soon learn that we are not just a boom or scissor-lift company. It increases the customer’s confidence in us. It allows them time to avail themselves to all the other services that we provide.”

Able Equipment Rental’s maintenance staff can service a wide variety of equipment brands and models. In fact, many customers use Able mechanics to keep their owned fleets in good repair.

On-site preventive maintenance is an important part of Able’s maintenance program. With its extensive experience with electrical power generation, it’s a natural fit to offer on-site preventive maintenance services. Able can provide these services for the power generation equipment as well as for other support equipment in the facility. “There are many generating plants in New York City. Many of them own boom, scissors or fork lifts or have telehandlers and they rely on us to do monthly maintenance work on that equipment,” says McCaffrey.

Sales selection process
Able Equipment Rental has 16 salespeople working out of its three locations. “We have had an extraordinary growth in salespeople in the last two and a half years,” says Garfinkel.

Able’s management team describes its salesperson hiring process as slow and very determined. “Some salespeople prefer to stay in a niche and help those customers that need to be led by the hand. These are the same salespeople who have practical knowledge about the equipment. They have been through classes, they’ve operated it and maybe they’ve even rented one in a previous position and used it successfully.

“On the other hand, some salespeople, just by their nature, want to know about every new thing that comes in. They’re very aggressive and they look for applications where it can be rented,” McCaffrey says.

“There are salespeople who have the insight, drive and passion to learn about everything,” continues Garfinkel. “They make themselves invaluable because they take the time, make the investment and learn about all the products we offer so they can offer more value to their customers.

“There are other salespeople who find a comfort zone with a certain type of equipment. They are most accustomed to that equipment and their applications, and they gravitate to those customers needing that type of equipment,” Garfinkel says.

“Our vetting process is stringent. We think it’s a privilege to work here, but at the same token, we want to be privileged by the people who come to work here. They have just as much to offer as the company has to offer them,” Garfinkel adds.

“We’re very picky about who we hire,” says McCaffrey. “We recently hired a mechanical engineer. It took more than a year to find the right person who had the exact experience we wanted and the personality we thought would work here.”

Marketing matters
Although the construction market has been strong, Able Equipment Rental has implemented an aggressive marketing program to keep its name in front of customers.
As Able adds equipment to its rental fleet, management works closely with the marketing department to develop e-blasts to customers who would be interested in that type of equipment. “We also feature used equipment we have for sale,” McCaffrey adds.

Online presence
Able Equipment Rental has an active Facebook page. Staff members monitor it for comments or questions and regularly post images of rental equipment in action. “We don’t use it to celebrate or recognize anniversaries, graduations or births. That’s not the purpose of our Facebook account. We want to use it as a way to keep customers aware of what we offer,” says McCaffrey.

“Our Facebook postings show a unique technical attribute where somebody could say, ‘Wow,’ ‘Gee whiz,’ ‘That’s cool,’ or it has human interest. For example, we sent a boom to do service work on the Montauk Lighthouse. We got some great pictures of that.

Everybody loves the Montauk Lighthouse. We posted that on Facebook and we got many likes for it. The same thing when we send a boom to Rockefeller Center for the holiday tree lighting,” McCaffrey says. “We’ll do Hanukkah lightings with scissor lifts. It’s almost like rescuing a cat caught in a tree with a boom lift. Everybody likes it.”

When it comes to Able Equipment on LinkedIn, it’s up to individual salespeople to cultivate his or her own page. “The salespeople use LinkedIn to stay in contact with their customers. They will do a thumbs up or a like about their customers’ LinkedIn posts. We don’t use LinkedIn the same way we use Facebook,” says McCaffrey.

“Open houses and trade association meetings are effective ways of cultivating customer relationships,” says Laganas. “We spend a month planning our open house so it’s a slam-dunk success when it happens. We include tents and entertainment and make sure there’s a lot to see and things to touch. We also have giveaways.

“All salespeople are prepared in advance and invite their customers. We have a welcome team and we give facility tours. We have a credit person on hand should the customer decide to pull the trigger on a rental or purchase,” Laganas says.

“We do a lot of trade shows and we’re very heavily involved in a variety of associations. They can be urban or suburban, heavy construction or landscaping associations. We go to their functions. All the members know us and we know them. Some of the association meetings are meant to be purely social. Others are meant to be informative. Some of them are meant to be demonstrative. We tailor our involvement to the groups’ needs,” says McCaffrey.

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