When a man comes to me for advice, I find out the kind of advice lie wants, and I give it to him.-Josh Billings, (Henry Wheeler Shaw)

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.-Due de La Rochefoucauld

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat in a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.-Nelson Algren

What I need is some good advice. My days and nights for 35 years have been dedicated to this side of the fleet business. And for the life of me, there are always questions that confront me that need explanation, or at least some fountain of knowledge to help me interpret the real world.

You've heard me state my perplexity when the annual NAFA study consistently shows that fleet managers list "Initial Cost" as their No.1 influence in purchasing a vehicle while the true experts scoff, knowing that depreciation is (or should be) the key factor if you're serious about controlling cost. We just completed a survey of our own among the Top 200 commercial fleet managers with 52 percent answering, and wouldn't you know, "Initial Cost" still heads their list. We will be reporting the full results of the survey next month, but my study of some of the answers mystifies me. Try to keep in mind that we are reporting results from the cream of the crop: 104 individual responses from the people who run the nation's biggest corporate fleets. These are class professionals.

These are the same people who evidence their cost-consciousness to me at meetings and conventions indicating their quest to shave even a mil of a cent per mile off their operating expenses. These are the same people who confirm that half of them operate under the aegis of a leasing company and about three-quarters of the rest are using some lessor services. One-third of this same group admits to not utilizing a selector list and that they may - or may not - know what their lifecycling costs really are.

The study leaves me with many questions and I desperately need some answers. For instance, why would only just over one-third specify the brands of replacement tires. What this translates into is nearly two-thirds don't care if the driver is mixing Toyo tires with Good years, or something else. Now, just ask any wholesaler what a costly error this is.

Along the same lines of thinking, I'm puzzled about why the country's premier corporations virtually ignore the cost-saving, discount-based fuel credit card programs. Can you believe that only one out of five use any kind of oil company or lessor gas card? Less than one-third have any kind of a national account program where additional vital discounts abound. Is it possible those survey results are really true?

Now, maybe you can understand why I'm confused, why I need some answers, and why I need some sound advice on how to reconcile all the inconsistencies raised by these perplexing questions.