Interview: CPA President Brian Jones has his eyes on the future

Brian Jones was recognized for his outstanding contribution to the rental industry at the 2024 European Rental Awards in Lisbon, Portugal last May. There he was awarded the European Rental Association Lifetime Achievement Award during the ERA’s Annual Convention.

Jointly organized by the European Rental Association (ERA) and International Rental News (IRN) magazine, this honor is bestowed upon an individual whose career achievements have had a profound impact on the rental sector.

Brian Jones was awarded the European Rental Association Lifetime Achievement Award during the ERA’s Annual Convention this past May in Lisbon, Portugal.

Jones’ career in plant-hire began in 1971 when he joined Stephenson Plant Hire in Ruabon, North Wales as a Hire Desk Clerk. He subsequently worked for Hewden Stuart for 40 years where he held a number of positions including national sales manager and head of business development. He has also run his own company, Delyn Consultants Limited, working predominantly in the utilities sector.

“I have worked in the industry for over 50 years now and have been involved with the CPA for over 30 years,” Jones said in May upon receiving his award. “I can honestly say that I enjoy working in the industry today as much as the first day I started in the early 1970s. There have been many developments along the way, but it is the people who make our industry what it is.”

Here’s an excerpt from our conversation with Jones.

Rental Briefing: What are you working on right now?

Jones: This year, in particular, has been one of my busiest. I’m retired from day-to-day activities in the rental industry, but still very much involved with the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) as its president. The CPA has recently appointed its new chief executive, Steve Mulholland, so I have been working alongside Steve who has been a council member for over 10 years and was formerly the CPA chair.

Rental Briefing: What issues do you see as most critical to your membership?

Jones: Many of our members are concerned about getting a good return on their investment, and continued innovation is pushing prices much higher than ever before.

Probably between 85% and 90% of [small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs)] operate with an owner who owns their own machines, and family members who do the invoicing and servicing, and they are pretty content with what they’re doing.

But if they want to work on larger sites, where legislation requires compliance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, they tend to rely on the second-hand market because machines have gone up in price so much. SMEs can’t often afford to buy new or get a good return on that investment, so we try to help our SMEs as much as we can, as well as the larger organizations in our membership

Rental Briefing: How do you provide that help?

Jones: One important way we can help our members is through our relationship with the government. We’ve got a first-class policy manager, and we are constantly talking to the government about things like decarbonization and full expensing (which could give members a good grant toward buying new machinery).

But it’s all to do with us looking at the legislation and making members aware of things earlier and leading on the issues of the day. On the other hand, we need to know what is troubling them and what we can do to help them, so it’s all about communication.

Rental Briefing: What are you hearing from members now?

Jones: Competition is very, very high right now. Some of the larger companies have got lots and lots of branches, not just throughout the UK, but throughout Europe and in the States.

A lot of these companies base growth on profits at individual depots… you might have one manager who would love to trade places with his colleague at another branch. So there’s a big push on higher rates.

Rental Briefing: One of the challenges that seems to exist everywhere is the labor shortage. How is that affecting your members?

Jones: One of the major concerns for the CPA is who is going to take over the industry as current workers age out. We’re all very passionate about where these workers are going to come from, so we do our part to

Every year the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) holds its Stars of the Future event, recognizing and rewarding outstanding young apprentices and trainees.

encourage younger generations into our industry. In the UK, the CPA leads in the development of construction plant-based apprenticeships.

Every year for the past 12 years we’ve held the CPA Stars of the Future event. The awards are intended to recognize and reward outstanding apprentices and trainees who not only bring ability and commitment to their learning and their work, but also possess those extra capabilities and attitudes which mark them out as being not only the foundations of the future of the industry, but also potentially its future leaders.

It’s an absolutely fantastic event. The last one was held on July 11 and we had 80 nominees for the awards and almost 300 people in the room - apprentices, employers, training providers, and families as well.

This is a flagship event for us, as an association, to promote the industry to youngsters.

Overall, we need to be in schools earlier and make it known to youngsters that the industry is more than just digging holes, there are positions with good remuneration and a full career path to pursue. We need to be out there really communicating that.

Training is paramount going forward.

Rental Briefing: What are you looking forward to?

Jones: I go back to our youngsters; we should celebrate them coming forward. Back to our Stars of the Future event, that should inspire a massive celebration for us, having 300 people turn up for an event where we celebrate the success of all of them.

There were so many impressive nominees in that room. There’s so much to celebrate with these youngsters that are coming through for the future of our industry. We’ll be launching the Stars of the Future awards for 2025 in January.