INTERVIEW
14
ACCESS, LIFT & HANDLERS
JULY-AUGUST 2013
S
teve Couling began his two-year stint as
president of IPAF in March this year. He
officially took over the reins from Wayne
Lawson during the federation’s Annual General
Meeting, held at the IPAF Summit, in Miami
earlier this Spring.
He joined Versalift UK, Time manufacturing’s
UK and Ireland business, as managing director
eight-and-a-half years ago, but it was during
his fledgling years in the access industry that
he was attracted to IPAF and what it could
offer.
Talking to
ALH
at Versalift UK’s headquarters
in Kettering, Couling remembers how it was
the networking opportunities that first got him
interested in the Federation.
“It was some 20 years ago and I was in a
new marketplace; IPAF was an ideal way to
network because all the principles of all the
major rental companies are there. But over the
years I got more involved with campaigns and
events and now I have been an active member
of the council on-and-off for the last 18 years
and on the board of directors for the last six
years.”
In those six years on the front-line Couling
has seen some dramatic changes at the
Federation. “IPAF has become a far more
international body, and it is apparent there
are regional differences, different applications
and different legislation, but it is one industry,
and it presents itself with the same problems
globally.”
During his inauguration as president, Couling
said IPAF had experienced some growing pains.
Expanding on that theme, he adds, “When you
are knocking on the door of new regions, it can
take some time to happen and when it does
you can find you lack the necessary resources.
Sometimes the growing pains come from trying
to provide the necessary support in those
places. Others are growing pains in terms of
languages and satisfying those needs with
written materials.”
One of IPAF’s latest international ventures,
the eLearning module, seems to be
experiencing few growing pains, although its
adoption followed a period of uncertainty for
IPAF in the U.S.
New ways of training
The eLearning module was introduced to the
U.S. earlier this year with the help of North
American rental giant NES Rentals. The trial
run saw nearly all of the company’s 1,050 staff
receiving a PAL Card, and has set the scheme
up for continued success.
The eLearning module allows operators
to take the theoretical part of the PAL Card
training course online, but they must still pass
a supervised theory and practical test at a
recognized center.
“As far as training in the U.S. is concerned,
everyone is online; that is the way they like to
There is plenty for Steve
Couling to sink his teeth
into as the new president
of IPAF. He explains
all to
Euan Youdale
Couling’s view
learn and a lot of the credit has to go to Andy
Studdert, NES Rentals CEO, who has helped to
develop the cause.
“It’s a concept that can be developed across
many parts of the world, particularly with
language and geographical challenges. But we
are in the early stages and we need to drive it
now because I think it’s something that’s going
to explode over the coming years.”
At the IPAF Summit in Miama, Studdert
pointed out that attempts to duplicate the
training center model in the U.S. had proved
less fruitful than in other markets like the UK,
due to its much smaller land area. Couling
explains: “It works very well in the UK and we
have numerous centers - you haven’t got to go
very far to visit one, but it’s a little bit different
if you are in Midwest USA where the distances
are greater.”
During the Summit, Studdert gave North
America the challenge of reaching 30,000 PAL
Cards by March 2014. “I think it’s a fantastic
objective,” comments Couling, “and I believe
in setting objectives high; if we don’t quite
achieve it but we come somewhere close, that
will still be a fantastic achievement. I know
there is a lot of hard work in trying to make it
happen.”
This was the first time the Summit had
been held in the U.S., and the overwhelming
response from delegates was that it was a
great success. “I was a little bit nervous about
IPAF’s chief executive officer Tim Whiteman,
left, stands with IPAF president Steve Couling,
middle, and former IPAF president Wayne
Lawson, right.
