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CHATTING WITH ...
Current, past and future leaders in the equipment rental industry
Published on June 10, 2020
Hernán del Aguila
Hernán del Aguila is the founder of Partner Rentals, Co-Founder of Rental BI and the VP of IT Initiatives at Skyworks LLC. Growing up in equipment rental, Hernán has worked at companies such as Volvo Rents, BlueLine Rental and Wynne Systems.
Image: Hernán del Aguila from Partner Rentals
How and when did you get into the equipment rental industry?
My unofficial start happened at age two when my crib was taken from me to be rented at my parent’s tool rental store in Kingston, NY. The earliest memory I have is being brought to write contracts (by hand) on Memorial Day weekend, at age eight, because my Dad’s other employee got sick and he could not do it all by himself. We wrote 50 contracts that day! Officially, I started working for my parents’ business after graduating from college and it has been an exciting roller coaster ever since.
What type of roles and responsibilities have you taken on over your career?
I have been lucky to have had many different experiences in the industry. At my family’s company, I did virtually every job in the company from service and yard to sales and the occasional delivery. My family’s business was acquired by Volvo Rents in 2011 and I had the opportunity to take on leadership roles such as IT Project Management, Core Value Management, and eventually Fleet Management and Strategic Initiatives (after being acquired again and renamed BlueLine Rental).
In 2015, I joined Wynne Systems to help rental companies implement and better use their industry-leading ERP solution. The next year, I went back to my roots and opened Partner Rentals in my hometown. Four years later, it is going strong (just opened a spot in Puerto Rico and building a location in Poughkeepsie, NY) and my younger brother has taken on the day-to-day reins. As for me, I am currently working with Skyworks in an IT Initiatives capacity. Different experiences for sure!
How has the equipment rental industry changed over the years?
Well, the machines have gotten more complex and technology has seemed to make its way into every facet of the business. Thankfully, I like that. It seems that rental companies are more interested in measuring their business’ performance and leverage new tools to provide better service to their customer base.
What one piece of advice do you think would have helped you early in your career?
The most useful piece of advice I’ve gotten in my career was to try to understand why different people are the way they are and to not judge others or take things personally. I think better understanding our differences is and being optimistic about others critical to good relationships. It is easy to misinterpret others’ intentions with the many forms of communication that exist today.
How do you define success and what was a defining moment or event in your career?
I define success as the moment when you realize that you accomplished something that took hard work and energy. Successes can be big or small. For me, I experience small successes when I learn to use a new function in Excel or talk with a mechanic and better understand the way a machine’s component work.
A defining moment in my career happened in 2013 when I had the privilege of managing my first ERP conversion: Volvo Rents’ 132 locations in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It took our team seven months from contract signature to go-live and we worked out tails off! But, it was all worth it when the final shred of data made it in at 4AM and the stores on the East Coast opened up about 30 minutes later for the data entry. What a relief, and I’m fairly certain that I just went to the next day without sleeping that weekend. But we were proud and I had never felt better!
How can people connect with you?
All sorts of ways. I am on Facebook and LinkedIn and readily available to talk via phone or text. I love sharing what I know about the industry with others who are as passionate about it as I am.
