CPA Bulletin

12 CPA Bulletin > November 2021 www.cpa.uk.net learning to overcome travel restrictions. However, he now noted more growth in face- to-face meeting requests since the easing of lockdown restrictions and so perhaps a hybrid approach would become the norm. Sunbelt’s Glyn Matthews said that the pandemic had shown how people could be trusted to work from home. They spent less time commuting, were often less stressed and more productive and their sense of well- being improved. A flip side was that, in some cases, decision-making between people could be slower and less spontaneous. He added that using Zoom and Teams software had helped companies respond rapidly to the demands arising from Covid-19. “It pulled everyone together and we could work quickly with various government departments in planning and delivering hundreds of testing centres across the country. Many organisations that perhaps had five-year plans to implement digitalisation techniques now found themselves delivering them rapidly. Also, using telematics to obtain good, reliable data had enabled improvements in efficiency and consistency: “In many cases we can tell people on a site that they have an issue with equipment before they know,” he said. “Above all, necessity drives innovation. We have seen this with Covid and we’re now seeing it with climate change, which more than anything will drive digitalisation.” Ryan Pike from Trackunit said that large projects like HS2 had driven the adoption of new approaches. “Many have a mandate and set standards, which could lead to changes in procurement. Customers will become more interested in the benefits that particular pieces of equipment can offer and in ways of managing them efficiently.” Interestingly, he mentioned how Trackunit had created a global downtime indicator using its telematics data during the pandemic, showing levels of activity in different markets and indicating which were picking up and when. This could be useful for suppliers in forecasting demand. Point of Rental’s Glenn Pearson said that the pandemic had accelerated the take-up of software solutions as people working from home needed access to data. “The hire industry is also now looking at e-commerce, having traditionally been resistant, fearing commoditisation of procurement and alienation of customers. But Covid has shown the need for online ordering and contactless ways of doing business.” He added that conducting business on Zoom or Teams often made meetings run more strictly to time. This had also enabled Point of Rental, like many other organisations, to engage with staff across the globe more easily and create a sense of involvement. Closing the Conference, CPA Chief Executive Kevin Minton reiterated the fact that industry collaboration had been a recurrent theme. The Association would ensure that the industry could continue to work together in addressing the challenges of achieving net carbon zero and digitalisation, and the CPA will be establishing working groups for wider discussions. Indeed, the Association is to appoint a Technical Officer to work full time on net zero carbon and it is clear that these themes will be embedded in the CPA’s activities for the foreseeable future. Alan Guthrie’s tool and plant hire blog has a Site-Eco section discussing challenges and opportunities in achieving net zero: www.site-eco.com. ASSOCIATIONNEWS: 5