John Meese, AEMP’s 2016 chairman, has spent more than 40 years in the Equipment Triangle. Nine of them have been as senior director of heavy equipment for Waste Management, Inc.
For many years Meese worked for equipment distributors in the Caterpillar network. He understands the unique challenges facing distributors. And since he has also been employed in manufacturing, and as an end-user in equipment management, he knows all three parts of the Triangle from the inside out.
Meese knows that the companies who distribute, rent, and support heavy equipment are critical to the success of manufacturers and end-users. And for critical issues, such as telematics, Meese advocates for representation from all three sides of the Triangle. AEMP members and other end-users need distributors to understand their equipment needs. But distributors have business requirements too, and AEMP can help meet those needs.
When you talk to Meese, you get a broad view of what distributors need. They need relevant information about their customers; happy, repeat customers who share information again and again with their professional colleagues concerning the quality of their products and services. And some of the best information available to dealers can be had at face-to-face education events offered by AEMP.
For instance, at the conference in Las Vegas, AEMP will provide a forum for equipment managers and those who support them to get actionable information about developments in the Equipment Triangle, and to learn how technology is affecting key relationships.
Meese says the deep value of these events is the candor of the face-to-face conversations.
“The true beauty of these meetings for distributors is that the end user is not your direct customer, and therefore you really have a more frank and rich conversation because you’re both learning about each other’s business needs without having to worry about a business relationship,” Meese said.
“Distributors tell me they get news they can use immediately from our conferences. That could be about new technology or emerging expectations of equipment managers when partnering with a distributor. Soon I expect we’ll be hearing from end users about the changes breaking on us now about right to repair and insurance for heavy equipment fleets,” Meese continued, “and both will have a profound impact on the Triangle relationship.”
AEMP earned its industry reputation by leading the way to a mixed-fleet telematics standard, which received approval this year from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for acceptance as a global standard.
“Telematics drove home the point that the three sides of the Equipment Triangle had to work together to support each other and find solutions to challenges facing the industry. Interestingly, telematics is also driving that point further with the impact it is having on maintenance, finance, repair and replace, right to repair, metrics, and more,” Meese said.
