Rental Center: Power Team
Wistar Equipment's team appproach excels in air and power rentals, sales and service.
by Clair Urbain
 |
|
Meet a substantial portion of the Wistar Equipment power team: Joey DiAntonio, Bill Shuster, Don Potts Sr., Tyler Garrison, Don Potts Jr., Mike English, Eric Vincent, Mick Wistar, Scott Wistar, John Franceschini, Steve Scattolini, Matt D’Orazio, Jackie Jenkins, John DiGregorio, Hank Tapken, Bob Elliott, Carmen Testa, Bill Thompson. Owner Scott Wistar credits the firm’s success to its experienced and well-trained team. |
 |
|
Scott Wistar, president of Wistar Equipment, credits his highly skilled staff with the company’s success in air and electrical power equipment rentals. |
 |
|
Steve Scattolini, vice president of Wistar’s new business development, with the new compact DS185T4F 185 cfm portable compressor. He worked closely with Rotair engineers to develop the compact unit that meets Tier 4-Final requirements and has extremely easy service access from the rear of the compressor. |
 |
|
Mike English works on a compressor’s diesel engine to return it to service. All rentals are outfitted with Solar Trak telematic units so Wistar employees can monitor rental unit health and use. |
|
| Carmen Testa follows Wistar Equipment’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prepare returned rental units to go back into the rental fleet. They aim to return units into the rental lineup in 24 hours or less. |
 |
| Don Potts Sr. operates the parts and service aspect of the business, including parts ordering, repair and delivery for more than 1,000 pieces of rental equipment in inventory. |
 |
| Don Potts Jr. helps coordinate parts inventory with his father, Don Potts Sr. |
It’s very hard for Scott Wistar, owner of Wistar Equipment Rental Inc., to say “I” as he talks about his company.
It’s not that the word isn’t in his vocabulary; it’s more so his commitment and respect for his 30-plus employees who help make this rental firm that specializes in pneumatic and electrical power generation rentals and sales tick – and tick successfully.
“I really don’t like talking about our success. It lies in the fact that we have great employees who are experts,” Wistar adds.
Wistar’s father, Mike, set the stage and the culture for the company. “He always wore coveralls to work and if anyone needed a hand with a big job, such as pulling a flywheel, he never hesitated to help out. He passed away in 2010 from terminal brain
cancer. He was a wonderful leader and between his passing and the huge dip in the economy, it was a very tough time. But we dug our way out of it,” Wistar says.
Family roots
Wistar Equipment traces its roots back to the early ‘80s when Mike started repairing and refurbishing used equipment for resale and rental. He worked full time as a manager at an equipment rental center in nearby Wilmington, Delaware, and he worked part time on his repair business out of shop space he leased.
“I always worked with my dad on the weekends. He was a mechanic by trade. When I left high school, we started the business with essentially zero assets. We fixed up anything
for a buck, mainly compressors, and slowly built up a rental fleet,” Wistar recalls.
Much of their initial business was related to pneumatic power; its customer base was and still is contractors serving industrial facilities, municipalities and refineries. “We got our big break in 1988 when we landed a contract with a local refinery that needed 40 to 60 air compressors on a continual basis for a variety of applications. That gave us credibility with other companies and we gained ancillary business from the contractors working in the refinery. That’s when we pretty much took off,” Wistar says.
Fast forward
Today, Wistar Equipment, based in Carney’s Point, New Jersey, serves New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and parts of Maryland and New York. It’s found a niche
supplying portable air compressors ranging from 185 cfm units up to 1,800 cfm “big-air” units and portable generators up to 1,000 kW.
“We provide front-to-back equipment and support,” says Steve Scattolini, vice president
of new business development at Wistar. “We deliver all components the customers need to use the equipment. From hoses to distribution panels to even sandblasting media, we are a one-stop shop for customers.”
The firm also carries a wide variety of rental units that further support its customer base. Scattolini and Wistar estimate the firm has more than 1,000 pieces of equipment in its fleet at its 9-acre site with 65,000 square feet of shop and administrative space.
“We offer complete repair and service capability on all of the equipment we sell,” says Scattolini. “That sets us apart from other rental operations in the area.”
While Wistar holds conventional business hours from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays – its emergency service line is available 24/7/365, says Wistar. “We don’t use an after-hours answering service. When customers call us after hours, the auto-attendant forwards the call to eight staff cell phones simultaneously, including management and on-call staff. Customers get a real person on the line that can act immediately on their need,” Wistar says.
In addition, Wistar Equipment technicians are placed strategically throughout its service area. “They have fully stocked service trucks and they take them home with them.
They are in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Almost all of our customers are within a half hour of one of our technicians,” Wistar says.
“The service trucks are stocked with high-casualty components and filters. Our service calls are usually fuel-related. Either customers run units out of fuel or they have gotten some dirty fuel,” he adds.
Well-trained technicians
“Time after time, we get customers back because of service. Our technicians are highly trained and have lots of experience with this equipment. These are not ‘oil-changer’ techs, they are cracker-jack technicians. When a customer goes with a low-cost rental shop but then has a problem with a piece of equipment and they can’t get fast, efficient service, the $400 a month they thought they were saving gets dwarfed quickly when a line is down or crews can’t work,” Wistar says.
Again, Wistar credits his team. “It’s all about our service. We work as a team – a really good team. It’s our culture – a really good culture – and I thank my father for establishing that culture,” he says.
Wistar relies on its own fleet and staff of truck drivers to deliver and return equipment. “The drivers know their way around the job sites and are experts on the equipment. They can be sure the customer knows how to operate the equipment efficiently and safely,” says Wistar.
When equipment comes off rent, it’s delivered to the receiving yard where technicians will go over it thoroughly, usually within 24 hours of it coming back on the lot. “We have standard operating procedures (SOPs) for every type of equipment coming back on the lot. Everyone knows the SOPs. We want to get equipment back in the rental fleet within 24 hours of when it comes in,” Wistar says.
Wistar takes good care of his team members. “When my dad hired his first employee, he paid 100 percent of the health care premiums. We are still doing that for our employees.
It is brutal; we had a substantial increase in premiums from 2015 to 2016. When premiums started rising 10 years ago, I talked with my father about having the employees kicking in for part of their coverage. His attitude was as long as we could afford it, we can’t take benefits away from working people. I’ve tried my best to uphold that legacy and we’re still doing it. That has been a big challenge,” Wistar says.
While Wistar Equipment has had excellent employee retention, it’s also in the hunt for its next generation of workers. “We’ve had good experience with working with the local vo-tech school to find new technicians. Through their programs, we have been able to find some very good and reliable employees,” Wistar says.
Technology streamlines service
Telematics plays an ever-increasing role in managing Wistar’s equipment fleet. “Every piece of power equipment is outfitted with Solar Trak fleet trackers that use GPS signals to locate equipment. The unit sends encrypted information via cellular towers to Solar Technology Inc. servers. From there, Wistar employees can access that data with a personal computer, cell phone or tablet.
“This technology is incredible and lets us better monitor our equipment,” says Scattolini. “It allows us to monitor equipment location, we can set up a geo-fence that can notify us if the equipment is being moved, and we can remotely monitor hours of runtime. We can set up maintenance notifications as the equipment puts on hours so we can better plan technician’s work schedules.”
Supplier partnerships
Scattolini says they have built excellent relationships with suppliers, allowing them to help design air compressors that are smaller and easier to service. “We have worked closely with Rotair engineers to develop the DS185T4F portable compressor. We are a bridge that helps communicate customer needs to manufacturers. The smaller unit is attractive to contractors that want to use it on a truck bed or as a trailer,” Scattolini says.
“We also look for new innovative products like the Tecnogen line of generators. This give us access to a range of machines up to 3,400 kW with sound levels as low as 52 dBa. The low sound levels allow us to pursue customers needing power for party and entertainment venues. We also maintain strong relationships with key suppliers such as Atlas Copco and Sullivan-Palatek, our key suppliers for large air compressors,” Scattolini adds.
Building for the future
Wistar Equipment continues to position itself for growth. It has an extensive fabrication shop, complete with paint booth, which allows them to meet some customers’ demands for very specific equipment. “We can fabricate almost anything here, based on customer demands,” Scattolini says. “It’s a point of difference that separates us from our competitors.”
Before the end of 2017, Wistar plans to completely revamp its
administrative offices. “We are going to totally rebuild our offices using Portafab modular office space. Instead of taking four months to have contractors build
out our new offices, these modular components will be brought in and set up in a matter of days. Right now, it looks like we will have new offices in less than a two-week
timeframe,” Wistar says.
PRO CONTRACTOR RENTALS MAGAZINE
Pro Contractor Rentals provides information of value to rental centers who focus time, resources and attention on meeting the demands of construction contractors and other equipment rental customers.
