A major milestone in professional fleet administration was marked in Pittsburgh as members, affiliates and friends of the National Association of Fleet Administrators met for their 20th Annual Conference. With a record attendance topping 800 members and guests, the NAFA gathering more than lived up to its theme, "20 years of service to professional fleet administration."
Held at the Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel, the conference got off to a rousing and colorful start with a welcoming party organized around the theme of an ethnic fair. The party was put together by NAFA's Pittsburgh Chapter and featured dancers, musicians and crafts displays that typify the city's diverse origins.
Pittsburgh, widely known for its steel mills, is also important in the history of Western Pennsylvania. It is very much a "George Washington slept here" kind of place and the NAFA welcoming party featured aspects of the city's colonial history, as well as examples of the performing arts from England, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Poland and the more than two dozen other countries whose people have made significant contributions to the city.
The 24-story convention headquarters hotel overlooks the site of historic Fort Pitt and the source of the Ohio River, formed by the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. Once known as the "Gateway to the West," the three rivers played an important role in the city's growth. The watery juncture at Point State Park proved to be an appealing attraction for NAFA members taking breaks from the serious business of the conference.
As the NAFA gathering got started on a colorful high note, it ended three days later on an equally festive note with the annual banquet and dance. Also, there was much music and festive fare between the opening and closing sessions. Dixieland bands provided entertainment on both grand ballroom and hospitality suite scales. But between the periods of frolicking and cavorting, the NAFA members filled informative workshops and probed industry problems with the professional kind of curiosity that inevitably leads to serious solutions.
Hitting at the now-familiar theme of excessive government regulation, NAFA's keynote speaker Robinson F. Barker urged the group to "tell Congress and the regulatory bureaucrats that enough is enough." Barker is Chairman of the Board of PPG Industries, headquartered in Pittsburgh, and addressed the body at the request of the Pittsburgh Chapter.
Barker fears that continued government overregulation of the automotive industry may cost consumers hundreds of dollars extra per car, lead to lower auto production and more layoffs and, worst of all, not significantly improve the emission control or safety of new cars. Barker said about 24 federal agencies now influence motor vehicle manufacture and use and "the tangled web of government regulation" threatens to strangle the auto industry.
Because stricter regulations will lead to smaller cars than consumers prefer, and hence reduce sales, Barker said that by 1985, "under the worst combination of federal mandates now either in effect or being considered, about 1.1-million people may be out of work because of such regulations."
Talking money, Barker pointed out that government-mandated safety standards and emission equipment add about $850 to the average price of a 1977-model car. "It wouldn't be so bad if the consumer got his money's worth from the mountains of government regulations and mandated equipment, but unfortunately, he's shortchanged, particularly by some federal agencies that are patently absurd," Barker told his NAFA audience.
As an example, Barker said a government testing procedure for hydrocarbon emissions from a car's fuel system also measures emissions from the vinyl roof, seat plasticizers and other sources. One major manufacturer found that a new car right off the assembly line could emit enough hydrocarbons "to flunk the fuel evaporation standard, even though the fuel system may be bone dry," Barker disclosed.
The small increase in emission control that new standards for 1978 models will produce does not justify the "exponentially" higher costs to consumers, the PPG chief declared.
"Compared with pre-1960 models, the 1977 cars reduce the amount of hydrocarbons they emit by 90-percent, carbon monoxide by 83-percent and nitrogen oxides by 60-percent," Barker reported. "Getting the last few pollutants out of the tailpipe is going to be both costly and difficult."
Barker said the 1978 standards also would reduce fuel efficiency even further, a direct conflict with ever-tightening gas mileage regulations.
Because they are based on the fuel economy average for various models, the regulations will compel the auto industry to produce more small cars and limit the variety of models available, Barker said. "Thus it is clear that the automotive market as well as the product is now moving under government's indirect control," he lamented.
Barker added that "should the day come when the auto mix gives the consumer the same freedom of choice offered by the telephone company - six colors and two models - the step to public utility status for the automaker will be a short one."
"I think it is apparent that automakers and companies like PPG who supply the 15,000 parts that go into every new car can solve most of the industry's problems and dilemmas given time, the natural competition of the marketplace and good old Yankee ingenuity," Barker concluded.
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The government regulation picture painted by Barker was drawn again in even bolder strokes as John Blessing of Commercial Credit/McCullagh Leasing headed a "eye opener" session the following morning on the same subject. "There is no way carmakers can meet the 1978 emission standards," Blessing predicted. "Congress must change the standards or there will be no new cars," he cautioned.
But taking a realistic position, Blessing pointed out that it will be up to the auto industry to prove it can function in the public interest without the need for government regulation.
Looking to specific threats, Blessing reported that fleet administrators may soon become thought of as used car dealers if a proposed Federal Trade Commission regulation becomes law. The FTC used car disclosure proposal would require fleet people to maintain elaborate records on the maintenance, repair and use of their vehicles, then post such data on the window of the car when it enters the used car market. The most fearsome aspect of the FTC plan, Blessing maintains, is the requirement that such cars bear the word "leased" on the sticker, resulting in predictable financial losses as the cars are sold.
NAFA Executive Director Robert Berke told that same "eye opener" audience that the association is readying plans to testify in Washington in an effort to either persuade the FTC to modify its disclosure plan, or scrap the idea entirely.
In another major presentation to the assembled NAFA members, Thomas C. Strohmenger of the American Insurance Association outlined the ramifications of no-fault insurance laws around the country, stressing the implications such state laws have for fleet administrators.
Originally, no-fault auto liability systems were based on tort law, Strohmenger said, stipulating that no damages would be paid until and unless liability was established. In practice, however, no-fault has become a bargaining system that allows inflated settlements for minor injuries and unfair settlements for major losses.
Strohmenger, counsel to the trade group that includes 136 insurance firms, says 45-cents of every insurance dollar goes for benefits on auto coverage. He says the present tort system invites exaggeration of claims with a resultant diminution of truthful courtroom testimony.
He says the Michigan statute is the closest thing to true no-fault coverage to be found among the 26 states that currently have some form of law on the books. Michigan's law approximates the ideal, Strohmenger says, in that it provides settlements covering income loss, medical bills, and loss of service claims.
Under the ideal no-fault plans, there would be no need for an injured party to rush into tort settlement. Some states, like New Jersey and Connecticut, eliminate minor injury tort claims, reserving such rights for serious injury under their no-fault schemes. Strohmenger reported that the American Insurance Association favors a national no-fault law, while admitting that such legislation seems unlikely to clear Congress.
In addition to major speakers making major presentations, NAFA's 20th Annual Conference boasted a complete program of workshops on subjects of daily concern to fleet administrators. Operating expenses, maintenance, personal use policies, leasing and accident prevention were among the choices of subject workshops open to NAFA members.
The conference also marked a change of officers as Richard A. Beltz ended his tenure as NAFA's 14th president since the group's founding in 1957. Beltz, director of fleet control for Burlington Northern, Inc., in St. Paul, was succeeded by R.L. Breault of Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., of Nutley, New Jersey.
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