Have you ever felt something special about being a part of the industry that we share? I mean a sudden feeling of pride, a realization that after holding your head up for so many years with the large number of special interest people sniping at you, you have won a battle with dignity.
We at Automotive Fleet are now in our ninth year serving the exciting fleet market and we certainly feel that the leaders of our industry can now take a well deserved bow for all to see and recognize. This attitude was reinforced while attending the AALA and NADA meetings in January and after receiving the R.L. Polk registration figures for our market for the calendar year of 1969.
At AALS we mentally reviewed the years in which the true leaders of our industry have invested their talents and money for the good of all of us. And we noted how the shared ideas and work of the association has earned our industry respectability from both within and outside leasing itself. One needs only to recall our early years when the newcomers in a new blossoming business had little idea of proper cost structuring and offered rates that were so ridiculously low that they soon found themselves in great financial difficulties. Further, it was not too many years ago that the company fleet manager offered only a cool reception to a leasing salesman. Yet today executive and financial management are keenly aware of cash flow problems and the opportunities leasing companies offer beyond mere professional management.
You may also remember when the industry would shudder when an Ed Mullane (Oct. '69 AF) or a L.P. Francis (Jan. '70 AF) cast their charges against the integrity of the industry. Today, responsible people meet these challenges and meet them well.
In a decade when we regularly heard allegations that castigated our industry for allowances, subsidies, and special treatment, we have somehow reduced the number of wailers to a manageable minimum. Today, there is a notable surge of car dealers who are participating in both rental and leasing. And currently, when the retail auto business is not all that a number of dealers had hoped for, increasing numbers of dealers are turning their thoughts to the fleet market as a way to develop the volume they are losing out the front door. They are calling us now for guidance in increasing numbers. Apparently, fleet business isn't really so bad after all.
A good share of the credit for our industry's responsibility should and must go to the factory people who have maintained careful equilibrium between the fleet-minded dealer and the non-fleet minded dealer while still dealing fairly to nurture an industry that has real reasons for being.
"Proof of the pudding" data has just become available that confirms the fact that in both the 1969 model and calendar years new fleet car registrations topped the million mark for the first time. About 1,125,000 to be exact. Or, to really nail the figures down, it means that more than one out of every ten new cars registered domestically went directly into the fleet market. That million mark is even more significant when you reach back to only 1961 when it was under 400,000. Little wonder that our industry is receiving so much notice from so many quarters.
To conclude, it just seemed like the proper time to say "hats off" to our industry. Through some pretty rough years (and undoubtedly there will be more to come) the fleet market has emerged with an image of respectability. We offer our thanks to those leaders with vision and initiative whose conscious efforts have helped to make it the way it is. Hats off to you!
