European Rental Awards: judging panel complete

The judging panel for the 2016 European Rental Awards has been finalised, consisting of four leading industry figures plus the ERA secretary general as non-voting chair.

The deadline for the 2016 European Rental awards has been set at Wednesday 10 February, so now is the time to start preparing entries.

The awards, which have been held for the past seven years, will be presented at the celebration dinner on 8 June in Stockholm during the European Rental Association’s annual convention. The awards are jointly organised by IRN and ERA.

The award judges are:

• Steve Corcoran (Chief Executive, One Call/Fork Rent Group)
• Vesa Koivula (President, European Rental Asoociation)
• Murray Pollok (Managing Editor, International Rental News)
• Martin Schickel (Managing Director, Liebherr Mietpartner)
• Non-voting chair: Michel Petitjean (Secretary General, European Rental Association)

There will be five award categories and the judges will also be able to present a Lifetime Achievement Award, as follows:

• Large Rental Company of the Year (turnover over €15 million)

• Small & Mid-Sized Rental Company of the Year (turnover less than €15 million)

• Rental Product of the Year

• Sustainable Business Innovation in Rental

• ERA/IRN Rental Person of the Year

• Lifetime Achievement Award

This year sees some changes to the categories. A new category is the Sustainable Business Innovation in Rental, which will recognise a rental company’s initiatives during 2015 to create a sustainable rental business.

Judges will consider areas such as energy use, operating efficiencies, recycling and waste management and other sustainable business practices. They will also take into account a rental company’s efforts to help its customers operate more sustainably.

The Rental Product of the Year award will also consider sustainability issues, although sustainability will not be the main judging criteria, which was the case last year.

Judging criteria for all the awards – and the awards entry form - are available at the awards website, www.khl.com/rentalawards