Ten years ago, Automotive Fleet published a series of forecasts for 2025. It was a snapshot of where fleet leaders, industry partners, and subject-matter experts believed the work was headed and what would shape decisions long after the news cycle moved on.

Mike Antich led that effort, and if you’ve spent any time in the fleet world, you know his name carries weight. He wasn’t just a longtime editor and observer of the industry. He helped define how we talk about fleet in a way that’s grounded, practical, and focused on what happens after the meeting ends and the vehicles roll.

Antich passed away in December, right at the close of 2025. And as the industry moves into a new year without him, it feels like one of those rare moments where looking back isn’t just nostalgic, it’s clarifying. The forecasts aren’t interesting simply because some predictions hit. They’re interesting because they show how he thought. Calmly. Methodically. Without hype. With deep respect for the people doing the work.

The series was published in early 2015 and covered five big areas: productivity tools, vehicle maintenance, fleet taxation, fleet license and title services, and new vehicle purchasing.

Reading the series now, what stands out isn’t a handful of “called it!” moments, though there are plenty. It’s the method behind his thinking.

Antich didn’t write forecasts to sound bold. He wrote them to be useful.

He viewed technology, regulation, operational reality, and human behavior as a single interconnected system. He listened hard to the people closest to the work. And he had a steady instinct for what would create pressure on fleets, even when it wasn’t the most exciting thing to talk about at the time.

Now that 2025 is officially behind us, it feels like the right moment to revisit those forecasts. Not as a victory lap. Not as a rewrite of history. But as a real-world check on what held up, what evolved, and why the way Antich framed these trends still matters for what comes next.

The Biggest 2025 Fleet Trend We Called Early

The biggest thing Antich got right was the kind of future fleet would have. Not one defined by a single breakthrough, but by layered complexity.

Across the forecasts, the same truth keeps emerging: fleet, Antich believed, would become more connected, more data-driven, and more operationally demanding.

And that is exactly what happened.

Data Became Both the Tool and the Job

In the Productivity Tools forecast from early 2015, the big idea wasn’t “more tech.” It was tech moving into the vehicle itself and changing how fleets run day to day.

The forecast projected that mobile devices would become the primary way drivers handle fleet tasks, with mileage reporting, trip logs, vendor searches, and key documents going digital and living on phones or tablets. It also anticipated tighter integration between vehicles and mobile tools, with vehicle data syncing wirelessly and feeding applications that automate routine work.

It also anticipated something we’re all living with now: the move from collecting data to operationalizing it. The forecast discussed vehicles generating richer data in the years ahead to support proactive maintenance scheduling and driver behavior management. It also projected that fleets would be able to make replacement decisions based on each vehicle’s individual condition and history, rather than a blanket lifecycle policy.

And that’s the part that aged best. Data didn’t just “solve problems.” It became something fleets have to govern, defend, clean up, integrate, and translate into decisions.

Which sounds simple until you’re the person trying to make five platforms agree with each other on a Tuesday morning.

By the end of 2025, the question wasn’t “Do we have data?” It was “Can we trust it, connect it, and act on it fast enough to matter?”

Maintenance Got Proactive, Not Easier

The Vehicle Maintenance forecast projected that as vehicles became smarter, diagnostics would increasingly come directly from the vehicle, and service actions would become more automated and guided, including routing drivers to the appropriate shop based on what the vehicle would report.

It also predicted the shift toward predictive analytics and big-data-driven maintenance decisions, with fleets moving from reactive repairs to proactive intervention, using real-time condition data to anticipate failures and manage downtime.

But what I appreciated rereading it is that the forecast didn’t pretend this would make maintenance “simple.” It explicitly flagged that vehicle complexity would increase downtime in some cases, especially when diagnosis becomes more specialized and repair workflows become more dependent on advanced systems, tools, and skilled labor.

It also projected issues fleets know all too well: continued parts shortages, ongoing technician shortages, and higher labor rates driven by the increasing sophistication of vehicle systems.

So yes, maintenance got more proactive. But it also got more complex, more specialized, and more operationally critical.

In 2025, proactive maintenance isn’t a “nice-to-have.” It’s how fleets protect uptime in a world that rarely gives you a clean week.

Digitization Didn’t Reduce Enforcement

This is where the Fleet License and Title Services forecast really holds up.

It projected that vehicle registrations would increasingly be used by states to collect unpaid tolls, traffic violations, and personal property taxes. It also anticipated more registration renewal blocks, faster escalation of fines, and broader use of data sharing to support enforcement.

The forecast also projected increased security and authorization requirements, as well as more privacy safeguards around the release of vehicle licensing information. And it called the operational reality of DMV modernization pretty accurately: more services moving online, more kiosks and digital workflows, but uneven progress from state to state.

The direction was right. The lived experience was, of course, messier. But the core point landed: digitization didn’t reduce friction everywhere. In many places, it increased the consequences of being behind.

By the end of 2025, compliance wasn’t just paperwork. It was operational continuity.

Taxation Stayed Patchy, and the Gray Areas Grew

The Fleet Taxation forecast centered on a reality that didn’t change by 2025: inconsistent state laws. It projected the continuation of different approaches to taxing vehicles and leases, and it anticipated continued pressure on states to increase revenue.

Where it gets especially relevant in hindsight is the forecast’s focus on services and cloud-based offerings. It pointed out that many tax regulations were written before the internet, and projected repeated efforts by taxing authorities to extend existing laws to online services as a new revenue channel.

In other words, as fleets became more digital, the question wasn’t “will this be taxed?” It became “how will different jurisdictions interpret what this is?” That gray area grew right alongside the growth in subscription-based fleet tools and online services.

The more digital fleet became, the more complicated “what counts” became.

Vehicle Purchasing Became a Planning Discipline

The New Vehicle Purchasing forecast put a big spotlight on regulatory pressure shaping vehicle design, including efficiency gains through lightweighting and evolving powertrain strategies. It also projected that fleets would need to think carefully about total cost of ownership, and not overreact to short-term fuel price swings when setting long-term strategy.

But the most resonant part, rereading it now, was the warning about availability. The forecast discussed the likelihood that demand could outpace supply, making out-of-stock purchases harder and creating longer lead times for both stock and factory orders. It advised fleets to plan for greater flexibility on models and features to minimize business impact.

It also floated a longer-term shift away from driver-dedicated vehicles toward car-sharing or comparable services as companies looked to cut expenses. That didn’t become the dominant answer for most commercial fleets, but it did reflect a very real pressure: better utilization and cost scrutiny were going to stay on the table.

By the end of 2025, purchasing and ordering wasn’t just procurement. It was operational continuity planning.

Purchasing in 2025 wasn’t a shopping exercise. It was scenario planning.

The Right Direction, But a Messier Reality

A few forecasts were right in spirit, but the “how” and the timeline didn’t land exactly as imagined.

OEM connectivity and embedded vehicle tech grew significantly, but fleets didn’t converge into one tidy ecosystem. Mixed fleets stayed mixed, and multi-platform reality stayed real.

Service channels shifted as vehicles became more complex, but the repair world didn’t collapse into one dominant path. Dealers became more important for certain needs, independents stayed essential, and the ecosystem specialized.

And some of the forward-leaning ideas, like virtual reality becoming a mainstream purchasing tool or autonomous vehicles unlocking broader productivity by 2025, didn’t fully materialize on schedule. But automation features advanced steadily, and the forecasts’ bigger point still holds: connected vehicles are the foundation.

The Lesson Was Never Perfect Prediction

What makes Antich’s 2025 forecast series worth revisiting isn’t perfect accuracy. It’s the approach.

These forecasts focused on forces, not fads. They anticipated where the pressure would build: complexity, compliance, data management, operational strain, and the human capacity required to keep everything moving.

That’s why the series still matters. And it’s also why Automotive Fleet will always matter.

Because fleet doesn’t need more noise. It needs clarity and context from people who understand what the work looks like in practice, and who can connect the dots in a way that helps leaders plan what’s next.

Antich built his career on that standard and helped make it the brand's standard. Automotive Fleet is what it is today because Ed Bobit had the vision to build it, Antich had the drive and credibility to grow it, and the team has continued to carry it forward year after year.

Now, that momentum doesn’t stop. It evolves.

Chris Brown is leading Automotive Fleet into the next chapter, and the mission stays the same: deliver insight that’s grounded, useful, and built for the people who actually run fleets.

The best way to honor Antich’s legacy is to keep doing what he did best: stay practical, follow the forces shaping fleet, and never lose sight of how hard this work really is.

Have thoughts to share? We’d love to hear them. As Antich would say, “Let me know what you think.” Drop them in the comments below.