Avery DuBose, 22, likes to say that he has been involved in the equipment rental business since before he was born.
His grandfather, Bob DuBose, who started Rental Guys in Chico, Calif., also was one of the founding members of the California Rental Association (CRA). His father, Alex DuBose, took over the business in 1993.
“As a kid, when I was age four to age eight, I used to walk around the yard and pick up nails, sweep the mechanics’ bays and wash equipment. At nine, I wrote my first contract on Point of Rental, selling propane,” says DuBose, who is currently the company’s vice president.
“The first legitimate role I had was in the summer after my freshman year of high school. My dad told me if I learned how to run the counter on weekends by myself, he would pay me so that that I would have money for off-campus lunches. I did that all through high school,” he says.
While he watched his father run equipment and write contracts, he figured he also wanted to be a “rental guy” when he grew up, but it wasn’t until high school that he determined the equipment rental industry would be his chosen career.
DuBose attended The ARA Show™ for the first time when he was a year old with his parents pushing him around in a stroller.
“For me, being a part of the American Rental Association (ARA) wasn’t so much of a choice for me as it was a way of life. It is all I have ever known. I don’t know what it is like to not be a member and there is so much available to members such as RentalU, The ARA Show, member discounts and more. It is well worth the investment to be involved,” he says.
The inventory at Rental Guys includes booms up to 135 ft., excavators up to 35,000 lbs., trenchers, track loaders, skid-steers, chippers, aerators, sod cutters, generators, telehandlers and more.
“Our target customers are homeowners and small to mid-size contractors. We carry most everything the national equipment rental companies typically have, but with more emphasis on homeowner rentals,” he says.
In the past few years, he says he has played a role in adding technological partners to the company with Trackunit, SmartEquip, Culture Index and TSO Mobile, helping bring change to the company.
“The change I am most proud of is the increased focus on employee recognition. In the past few years, we started an employee of the month program, we now present four annual awards at our Christmas party, and we have increased bonuses. This has raised the overall morale of our staff and contributed to employee retention,” DuBose says.
“Everyone on our team feels that the work we do empowers and enriches our community and that is the best part of all our jobs. If I had to pick individual job functions that I like the best, those would be working with and managing our staff, working with vendors, building partnerships with our customers, fleet acquisitions, fleet turnover, leading our leadership team and critical thinking to develop processes and procedures to better our business,” he says.
Embracing technology, he says, is a way to attract his generation to the equipment and event rental industry as a career.
“Personally, I think that the rental industry in the past few years has done a great job of introducing technology that will appeal to the next generation. I would encourage companies to embrace the technology that is becoming available and use it to better the business as well as empower your people to make informed decisions as well as improve efficiency,” DuBose says.
“From personal observation, it is hard to motivate a young technological person when you are trying to do business the same way you did in the 1980s,” he says.