With increased advances in technology, today’s world has been accustomed to having everything here and now. The same is ever apparent in today’s event rental industry. The client of today gives notice of needing your services measured in hours and days which in times of past were measured in weeks and months. The climate in the special events marketplace has gradually come to this point as each of us becomes more flexible and eager to take on projects that test our own comfort level. With each success, we as manufacturers, you as the tent renter, and your customer the end user have a renewed expectation of what might be possible the next time around. Sadly, this success is often looked at as the expectation.

With timing being such an important part of our and your business, we constantly have to reexamine our internal systems and procedures to assure that we can be as ready as possible for those moments when your customer asks you to perform a “miracle”. There are three primary stumbling blocks that can hold you up from getting the product you need.

Q. Can we get the information to you that you need in order to make your decision?

Getting you the information when you need it is single handedly the most important factor in your evaluation of your supplier. It doesn’t matter what the cost is, or how much inventory the supplier has on the shelf if they are unavailable or unable to get you the information you need and an immediate quote for the items you are requesting. It is our goal to have your full request acknowledged, quoted, and verified within the hour of receiving your request.

Q. Do we have the product in inventory and if not, can it be made?

Here is something we can try to control. We certainly don’t have a magic crystal ball that tells us who is going to order what and when, but we do have the ability to produce a substantial amount of core inventory that eases the load on our production department to be able to focus on items not in stock as they are needed. We have also committed to continue our second working shift throughout the 2011-2012 calendar years. In peak demand times, this means that we are producing product nearly 24 hours a day.

Q. When the product is ready to ship, how can we assure to get favorable transportation rates to get the product to you in the time you need it?

Transportation is a very important and growing concern within our company. We have strategically partnered with several regional and national LTL (Less Than Truckload) carriers to provide us a perfect blend of cost and speed. Being headquartered on the West Coast, we acknowledge that there is a misperception of difference in the cost of freight and the transit time that it takes to get product to the other side of the country. In most cases, the cost of the freight has less to do with the mileage traveled, but rather the commodity, weight, shipping lane traveled, and the amount of discount from published rates a shipper receives. In a recent case, we quoted a 4000lb shipment from our headquarters in Torrance to a location in New York City. The same size shipment from Evansville, IN to the same New York City location was only a few dollars less than a product that had to travel 1900miles further.

The time it takes a shipment to travel from our facility to you is called the transit time. We always aim to provide you with the best of both worlds in transit time and cost. Many of our carriers are able to shave time from other carriers because of the design of their transportation networks. Other carriers count weekend days in their scheduling which allows us to ship product late in the week and arrive early the following week. As an example, if we ship a tent from our location on Friday, it would be delivered on Monday in Chicago, and Tuesday in New York. With other carriers, they could only do this on an airplane.

When putting an order on a truck just won’t make the event, we fortunately sit less than 10 miles from Los Angeles International Airport. Our airport is obviously a major hub for freight traveling on commercial airlines but also is a key gateway for Air Freighters that exclusively move freight between the major airports. With our shipping dock normally closing at 8:00pm EST we are able to get an order on an airplane, well after your normal working hours.

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We realize that we run our business to help you and your business become more successful and more profitable. When your customer’s needs and expectations shift, you rely on your staff and the suppliers that back you up to also rise to the challenge. We remain dedicated and steadfast to providing you the best experience that any supplier could offer and committed to reevaluating your needs on an ongoing basis.

If there is ever a time that you would have a suggestion or comment on how we can better serve you, please let us know.