Enterprise Fleet Management: Innovative Industry Leaders with a Local Touch

Companies in the field service sector help their customers achieve sustainable growth by providing solutions to manage business processes more efficiently,
minimize costs and increase productivity. However, standing out in this complex and competitive industry isn’t easy. It requires a perfect blend of innovation and experience, and a remarkable ability to deliver reliable solutions.

Missouri-based industry pioneer Enterprise Fleet Management is one such field
service provider. Founded in 1957, it is an affiliate of Enterprise Holdings Inc., the largest car rental company in the world, and owned by the Taylor family of St. Louis, Missouri.

With more than 50 fully staffed offices in the U.S. and Canada, the Enterprise Fleet Management team of experts can assemble a customized fleet management program for its customers. The team’s expertise covers the full spectrum of a vehicle’s lifecycle, including acquisition, registration, maintenance, use reporting, fuel card programs and resale, as well as fleet analysis and
optimization.

Enterprise has the tools and technology to help customers maximize productivity, reduce costs and reach their corporate social responsibility goals. And with more than 520,000 fleet vehicles managed across North America, Enterprise also supplies most makes and models of cars, light- and medium-duty trucks and service vehicles.

“Thanks to our extensive network of local offices and our affiliation with Enterprise Holdings, we are uniquely positioned to assist our customers in managing their fleets by combining Enterprise’s expertise with our local teams’ ability to develop and maintain personal customer relationships,” said Brice Adamson, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Fleet Management.

In addition, Enterprise Fleet Management’s National Service Department – one of the nation’s largest – employs more than 100 Automotive Service Excellence
(ASE)- certified technicians. These experts, who average more than 10 ASE certifications apiece, assist clients in expediting repairs and mitigating repair expenses. The National Service Department has been recognized with the ASE “Blue Seal of Excellence” award for 21 consecutive years, an industry record.

Superior Transportation Solutions 

Enterprise Fleet Management and its affiliate Enterprise Holdings together offer a comprehensive portfolio of transportation solutions, including car rental, car-sharing, vanpooling, car sales, truck rental, online ride-matching and fleet management services.

As a total mobility provider and an integral part of the automotive value chain, Enterprise serves the needs of a wide variety of businesses, consumers, government agencies and organizations. Enterprise Truck Rental, which provides seasonal and supplemental truck rentals, is an excellent complement to leasing. The wide array of Enterprise transportation solutions allows Enterprise Fleet Management to help its customers, right-size their fleets by leveraging other transportation options.

Renowned Customer Service

Because of Enterprise Fleet Management’s affiliation with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, many Enterprise Fleet Management employees come from the rental business with extensive experience managing fleets, which they then are able to apply to
managing customer fleets.In addition, Enterprise Fleet Management’s presence in more than 50 local markets allows for each customer to receive a dedicated client strategy manager and customer service representative who meet with them at least three times a year. It doesn’t matter how big or small they are. Enterprise can help customers with important decisions that will help lower their total cost of ownership.

Finally, Enterprise Fleet Management is able to leverage the extensive infrastructure of its rental affiliate, Enterprise Holdings, to help customers manage their fleets. In particular, Enterprise’s expertise in vehicle acquisition and resale allows Enterprise Fleet Management to provide its
customers seamless support moving vehicles in and out of service.

Innovative Technology Solutions 

In 2015, Enterprise Fleet Management announced it was investing more than $100 million in IT solutions to better serve its customers, including:

• The development of a customer login website, which provides advanced
  insight into fleet performance and key metrics, enabling customers to
  lower their total cost of ownership.

• The deployment of new Microsoft Surface Pro devices to its entire North American sales team.

• The development of a web-based Fleet Planning Tool kit that allows the Enterprise sales team to access data for a customer’s entire fleet in real-time in order to provide the best advice on total cost of ownership, the right time to replace a vehicle, and so on.

• A partnership with Auto Integrate, a web-based repair and maintenance authorization tool, which is accessible to Enterprise Fleet Management’s nearly 100,000 auto maintenance and repair shop partners and is currently used by nearly 40,000 preferred vendors. This partnership allows the Enterprise team to seamlessly liaise back and forth with repair shops in real-time, thereby reducing driver downtime.

As a result of these initiatives, Enterprise Fleet Management was recognized on the InformationWeek “Elite 100” list in 2016 for setting the bar on innovative and
creative information technology (IT) programs that improve business operations.

“The trend is to provide customers who want it with more self-service capabilities. We want to ensure we can provide the technology and services our customers want today or will want in the future,” said Adamson.

For example, in 2017, Enterprise Fleet Management introduced a new mobile app, making it more convenient for both fleet managers and drivers to identify and
address issues, such as maintenance needs or opportunities to improve fleet efficiency, in real-time.

Charting a Path to Success

Brice Adamson started his Enterprise career on the rental side in Southern California as a Management Trainee in 1988, shortly after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in finance. His outstanding work earned him numerous promotions as he moved quickly up the rental ranks before raising his hand for an adventurous new opportunity in Europe. As Vice
President and General Manager, Adamson opened and led the company’s
newly formed operations in Manchester, U.K. In 1999, he took over the reins of the company’s London operations as Vice President and General Manager. Adamson’s achievements earned him a promotion to Corporate Vice President, and later, Senior Vice President of the U.K. and Ireland, where he helped develop the replacement market for Enterprise.

In 2008, the opportunity to return to the States and lead the company’s operations in the Southeast brought Adamson to St. Louis. In 2016, he was promoted to his current role as Senior Vice President of Enterprise Fleet Management and placed in charge of overseeing a network of more than 50 fully-staffed offices and a fleet of more than 520,000 vehicles.

Sixty Years of Knowledge and Experience

Enterprise has more than 60 years of knowledge and experience managing its own fleet of vehicles, which it leverages to create efficiencies and reduce total cost of ownership for its fleet management customers. This includes using Enterprise’s vehicle acquisition and resale experts (who are among the best in the industry) to buy and sell clients’ vehicles.

When asked about the significant moments that shaped the journey of Enterprise Fleet Management, Adamson referenced Enterprise Fleet Management’s separation into a standalone corporation in 2011 in order to secure the right type of funding needed for the business to continue to grow. “Fortunately, it was the right move for the business and has been a huge success to our operations,”  said Adamson.

In addition, Enterprise’s recent partnership with autonomous vehicle company Voyage has reinforced its leadership position in the industry. Voyage understands that world-class fleet management is fundamental to the long-term success of autonomous fleets. The Enterprise partnership ensures that the Voyage team is able to focus on what they do best — developing autonomous technology and
providing transportation services to community residents — without having to worry about acquiring and maintaining those vehicles.

Promising Future 

According to Adamson, there are many opportunities for growth in the fleet industry. In particular, Enterprise has been successful at developing partnerships with local governments. The company is gaining a lot of referrals from these satisfied clients that are operating local government fleets. The company considers these referrals fantastic opportunities and aims to develop consequent relationships in the future. “But there are growth opportunities in every industry, which allows us to diversify our business and continue to achieve success,” said Adamson. “This is what excites me most about the future.”

Client Testimonials

• “We’ve partnered with Enterprise Fleet Management for years and have watched their business steadily transform into a next generation data
  analytics powerhouse,” said Wes Carberry, Senior Vice President of Technology Services for Sense Corp. 

• “Throughout our partnership, Enterprise Fleet Management has always been extremely helpful, professional and responsive. It’s like we’re members of the same team,” said Larry Monaco, fleet manager at Eden Autism. “Enterprise has worked diligently to find us the best deals and respond quickly to any maintenance requests we may have. With their support, we know we’re not out there alone.”

• “Our partnership with Enterprise Fleet Management is not only saving taxpayer dollars, but also allowing us to reduce our carbon footprint and put our employees in newer vehicles with the latest safety features,” said Bill Carpenter, Senior Director of Maintenance and Operations at the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE). “We plan to apply the considerable savings we realize on fleet costs to other pressing needs for our students and schools.”

• Source: Insights Success July 2018 Issue