Comdata Acquires Fleet Team Inc.

Brentwood-based Comdata Corp. announced on November 14, 2003 that it has acquired the assets of Delaware-based Fleet Team Inc., a transaction management software and business systems company specializing in services for the commercial fleet market. Fleet Team will become an operating unit of Comdata's merchant services division, which provides point-of-sale systems and related programming for truck stops, convenience stores, and automotive retailers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Company officials say the acquisition will position Comdata to provide more highly specialized transaction services to a wider range of merchants in the retail market. Comdata is a wholly owned subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Ceridian Corp. The company provides transaction and information services for commercial fleets and merchants. It also operates electronic cash and gift certificate programs for retailers and governmental agencies, and provides payroll services for retail and other service industries. The acquisition brings together transaction technology and maintenance records on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis for fleet managers. For instance, when tires are purchased for a vehicle, that piece of maintenance history is captured, along with the purchase, in a set of comprehensive reports that track maintenance activity and costs, company officials say. According to statistics from Automotive Fleet magazine, the commercial fleet market consists of more than 10 million vehicles with fleet managers who spend more than $30 billion on fuel and vehicle maintenance expenses annually. The Comdata solutions will come to the aid of fleet managers who have traditionally struggled with ways to capture specialized data (vehicle maintenance records, warranty information, individual vehicle expenses to date) at the point of sale (POS), since most maintenance shops are configured to serve retail customers who do not typically need this information. The Comdata/Fleet Team solution ties this information together with fuel purchases at the POS device, providing fleet managers with a complete picture of up-to-date expenses pertaining to a particular vehicle. As part of the acquisition, Pat Madigan, a founding member of Fleet Team, will join Comdata as director of national accounts. Madigan previously served as vice president of support sales for national tire retailer Tires Plus.