A-irco.org

AIRCO Information-What's AIRCO All About?

AIRCO, the Association of Inflatable Rental Company Operators, has been brewing for a while. It's finally time to crank things up and get rolling, so this is your official overview!

What's AIRCO All About?

We do have a few goals:

• To promote safe and professional practices in the inflatable rental industry.
• To provide a neutral common ground for all members of the inflatable rental industry to communicate and share their knowledge.
• To promote awareness of inflatable safety to parents and event coordinators and assist them in selecting a professional rental company.
• To establish minimum standards of operation and start the process of self-regulation in order to head off potential over-regulation of our industry by federal, state and local governments.
• To provide independent rental companies with group benefits obtained through the strength of our numbers.
• To obtain and track industry data in order to gain a perspective on the size, growth, and health of the inflatable rental industry as well as tracking injuries and other incidents involving inflatable amusements.

Data Collection

How fast is the industry growing? How many incidents and accidents are there really? How big is the average company and how fast are they growing? These are questions that affect all of us in the industry- gauging the health, growth and risks of the industry as well as trends and future plans is not only interesting stuff, it should help up toward our next goal.

Affordable insurance.

With insurance rates climbing and limited underwriters, the average small business owner is getting squeezed! By banding together, we can assume the risk and put together our own policy, rewarding safe operators and excluding unsafe operators and equipment. It will take a large group to pull it off, but we think we can do it.

Promote Safe and Professional Practices

One of the benefits of AIRCO membership will be the ability to set your company apart from other companies in your area as a safe, professionally-run and operated company. With that in mind, we do have the following requirements for membership:

• You must carry liability insurance.
• You cannot rent non-commercial quality inflatables.
• You must deliver and install all inflatables- no customer pickups on items that must be staked or secured properly.
• You agree not to purchase knock-off characters or other copyright infringing items. If you have a few in your inventory now (sponge dude, spiderguy) we ask that you downplay them and remove them from your inventory as they wear out.
• You agree to have the customer sign a training and safety checklist at every unattended rental. You agree to retain this document and provide a copy to AIRCO in the event of a complaint or incident. (AIRCO will provide this form.)
• You agree to clean and maintain your inflatables regularly and generally provide good customer service.
• Read all the AIRCO Member Guidelines here.

You Don't Have to be a Member to Participate

One of our primary missions is to provide a community for everyone in the moonwalk rental business and we understand many companies may not qualify or may not want to formally join AIRCO. No problem! Everyone is still welcome to join in the discussions and continue to recieve the newsletter.

Why Join AIRCO?

Well, first of all, your first year's membership is free. What we ask in return for membership is your information- when you apply to be a member, we guide you through a detailed survey that must be filled out each year for membership renewal. It's anonymous- the information is not tied to your membership.

We may implement a small fee in future years to cover administrative costs, benefits and group marketing efforts, but we don't forsee the fee ever being more than a minimum cost.

Reason #2- Set your company apart in your market. You will be provided with the AIRCO logo that will link to a page that explains why it's a good idea to rent from an AIRCO member. As we roll out our national awareness campaign, you'll benefit from being part of a recognized group.

Reason #3- Gain group benefits. We are seriously working toward the self-insured plan and also looking at other group business benefits such as health insurance, office supply savings and other benefits that small businesses have trouble securing on their own. The more members, the lower the costs for all.

Reason #4- Help shape the organization from within! What concerns you most? Local regulation and inspections? Lack of affordable insurance? Want a trade show just for inflatables? Help us make things happen!

When Can You Start?

We are putting the final tests on the membership system and plan to have it up and running by the end of January, 2006. Watch this newsletter for a special membership opening announcement!

In the meantime, if you have questions, comments or suggestions, join us at the AIRCO Forum to discuss!