Automotive Fleet, July 2017

JULY 2017 I AUTOMOTIVE FLEET 43 Prague in 1995 Concurrently large multinational fleets began to create the framework to negotiate multi country sourcing contracts and fleet management service agreements Among the pioneering corporations were Johnson Johnson FedEx Johnson Controls Pfizer Coca Cola Philip Morris Mattel Allergan Imperial Chemical Industries GlaxoSmithKline PepsiCo Nestle Unilever Ecolab and Siemens The individuals who led the initial thrust for doing a global fleet agreement had little or no input on other fleet management issues such as car selection replacement cycle collision repair liability insurance or personal use policies said Dennis LaLiberty who served as the first ever vice president of international marketing for Wheels a position he assumed in 1992 LaLiberty retired from Wheels in 2002 following a 44 year career with the company and was succeeded by Norman Din who serves as vice president strategic sales A key hindrance to pan European fleet initiatives is that Europe is not a single fleet management market Each individual country has its own culture language tax regime business regulations political and economic conditions and vehicle preferences with buying sympathy to locally produced brands In addition in country business units pushed back against the corporate parent resenting it dictating the types of vehicles they can acquire Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s U S lessors ARI Wheels Donlen and Emkay expanded internationally through a series of strategic partnerships to expand their global reach In 1989 ARI named Phil Procida to be vice president international operations a position he held until his retirement in 2005 In 1989 Procida took on responsibility for global operations starting with Canada In 1992 he scouted various automotive companies in Mexico to handle vehicle deliveries for ARI clients There he met the Zapata family and fostered a relationship that led to the creation of ARIZA the joint venture between ARI and Zapata in 1993 which continues to this day Procida helped ARI establish and introduce Global Fleet Services the first alliance of leading global fleet companies Succeeding Procida was Rob Hill director of global sales and consultation In 1995 PHH now Element and Arval popularly known as the Maastricht Treaty was signed by the members of the European Community to integrate their nation states into a European Union Signed in Maastricht Netherlands the treaty became effective on Nov 1 1993 The treaty led to the creation of a common currency the Euro facilitating the negotiation of pan European sourcing and fleet services contracts The Maastricht Treaty prompted a surge of pan European fleet leasing initiatives In 1992 the largest pan European lessor was LeasePlan headquartered in Almere Netherlands which then had operations in 12 European countries It operated in the U S as LeasePlan USA and LeasePlan International Another major pan European lessor was GE Capital Fleet Services which entered the European fleet market with the acquisition of Avis Lease and Fleet Management from its U K parent company Afterwards GE Capital Fleet Services went on a buying spree acquiring numerous local fleet leasing companies throughout continental Europe In 1997 GE Capital Fleet Services created a global sales team headed by Senior Vice President Bob Miesen With the collapse of the Iron Curtain LeasePlan expanded its operations eastward by establishing its first Eastern European business unit LeasePlan Ceska in the Czech Republic which started operations in ism During this period there was a liberalization of capital markets and the loosening of credit restrictions in the U K which were favorable to third party fleet service providers These economic changes were stimulated by the policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and became known as the managerial revolution This redefined the relationship between U K corporations and the U K government requiring businesses to manage their operations more efficiently creating an environment receptive to outsourcing in house fleet functions to third party service providers As its business improved PHH expanded outside the U K in the mid 1980s to Ireland and Germany PHHs greatest success in the U K market was a card based fuel management program By the early 1990s it had 600000 vehicles under its fuel management program in Europe one reason for this success being that fuel was three times more expensive in the U K than in the U S Over the lifecycle of a U K fleet vehicle the cost of fuel was equal to the cost of depreciation making fuel management one of the most critically important fleet management services Creation of the European Union A watershed moment in the history of global fleet management occurred on Feb 7 1992 when the Treaty on European Union As interest in global fleet management grew in the first decade of the 21st Century Bobit Business Media and Nexus Communication partnered in 2013 to create the annual Global Fleet Conference which alternates between Europe and North America As a testament to the strength of multinational interest in global fleet management every Global Fleet Conference has sold out since its inception five years ago