Last year the clients phoned and mailed in orders from big cities and small towns for delivery in all 50 states. They ordered Caprices and Monte Carlos and Malibus and wagons and vans and trucks of every size from the light-duty LUV to the toughest medium-duty model that Chevy builds. The orders flowed in singly, unit by unit, and they came in by the dozens and hundreds.

In one remarkable month toward the end of the 1978 model year, the National Fleet Sales Division of Long Chevrolet, headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois, delivered more than 2,400 cars and trucks. With that awesome feat accomplished, Long Vice President Don Fenton and his 38-member staff began to realize that they were on the verge of making automotive history.

When the last order of the year was finally delivered and counted, the combined car and truck figure showed that the Long fleet people had sold a record-setting 18,883 units.

No other fleet dealer has ever sold that many cars and trucks in one year. Also, no other fleet dealer has ever topped the $100-million mark in just one year's sales revenues.

"We sell a lot of cars," Don Fenton proudly declares, "but we sell each unit one at a time."

To Don Fenton, that statement says it all. To him, there is no mystery as to why Long Chevrolet's fleet operation delivers as many vehicles as it does. But for those who aren't as close to the operation, it just seems that there must be more to this incredible automotive success story.

This, then, is the question: What makes the National Fleet Sales Division of Long Chevrolet the nation's premier fleet dealer?

At first glance, one may think that price might be the major factor. It's known that purchasing people who represent both big and small fleet operators must necessarily be price conscious. Some comparison shopping has found, on a model for model basis, that the Long price is often the best to be found.

But not always.

Overall, Long's prices are always competitive, usually lower than other Chevrolet dealers, but a bit higher once in a while. A credible conclusion on cost is simply that price isn't everything.

In becoming the premier fleet dealer in the country, it's helpful to have a popular product line that's widely accepted by fleet buyers. Last year, Chevrolet fleet sales of passenger cars and trucks led the industry while topping the half-million mark for the first time in history. According to General Sales Manager Robert E. Cook, Chevrolet's fleet sales total was 534,579 cars and trucks.

Long's fleet total for the year, 18,883 units, or one/twenty-eighth of the Chevrolet Motor Division fleet output, might not be all that impressive if there were only 27 other Chevy dealers around the country. But there are about 6,000 other Chevrolet dealers doing business in the United States, which puts the Long accomplishment into a far different perspective.

One obvious part of the reason that Long Chevrolet is the country's leading fleet dealer is the fact that Don Fenton and his staff have built up a smooth, efficient drop-ship relationship with some 2,000 of those 6,000 other Chevy dealers. Working with a comprehensive card-file system, a massive Rand McNally Road Atlas and dozens of cross-indexed road maps, Long's Jack Cushing and Dorothy Scott spend their days making sure that the right car is delivered to the right driver at the right location at the right time.

Initially, the orders that flow into Long's Elmhurst facility are coded and keypunched into the firm's Digital PDP 11/34 computer system. Because some 65-percent of the vehicles ordered will be drop-shipped to their final destinations, rather than picked up in Elmhurst or delivered by a Long driver, the drop-ship network and how it works is an integral part of the Long fleet success story.

Although all the vital ordering data is computerized, it is that essential human touch that Cushing and Scott provide that makes the drop-ship system work as smoothly as it does. Cushing, who is responsible for maintaining the 2,000 separate drop-ship agreements that Long has established with dealers all across the country, recalls that the system was originally set up with only about two dozen other dealers in 1968. Its growth, Cushing says, is based on "trust, volume, prompt payment and performance."

Cushing and Scott spend easily half their days in long-distance phone contact with their network of delivering dealers. "If anything goes wrong," Cushing says, "we're the first to know. When everything goes right, it's just part of the routine."

Taking the panoramic view, Don Fenton explains that "our dealers know that they will get a regular amount of repeat business through us, so they're very careful to completely prep the cars and make sure that they are in top condition before turning them over to the drivers. On the fleet buyer side, our drop-ship network means that we can handle all the details of paperwork, licensing, titling and final delivery as if we were in 2,000 places at once."

Earlier this year, the Long fleet operation moved from the cramped quarters it had called home since 1969 to a much more spacious facility that, it is hoped, will see it through another decade of growth. In geographic terms, the move was only about three city blocks, from the north end of the giant dealership to a new two-story structure on the south end. In terms of dealer-client relations, the move represents a new level of service that will set the standard of the industry for years to come, Don Fenton believes.

Some time back, Long introduced computer capability to the dealer end of the automotive fleet industry. Now in their new home, Long fleet staffers are finding more and more uses for their sophisticated computer system.

"About the only thing we can't do with the computer system," Long Fleet Operations Manager Rick Nicoletti exults, "is mount the tires and paint the cars. But we can handle every other step in the ordering and delivering process and do it faster and more accurately than ever before."

The Long digital PDP 11/34 system is soon to be on-line with the Chevrolet Motor Division's Direct Order Entry System (DOES), which will give Long clients even greater control over their fleet-buying dollar.

"Because our computer tracking system allows us to issue accurate and timely status reports, the client knows which cars will be delivered to which drivers on what dates," Nicoletti says. "The client can then project which invoices will have to be paid by what dates and all kinds of problems of cash flow and daily interest rates can be resolved."

Another feature of the move to larger quarters was the development of the Centrex III telephone system. "Centrex III," Long's Client Service Manager Rich Fenton says, "means the client can get instant answers from the account executive without being stranded on somebody's hold button."

The direct-dial Centrex III system was developed for Long fleet following a comprehensive study by Illinois Bell. The Centrex III system completely separates the fleet operation from Long Chevrolet's huge retail department, eliminating what had once been the source of serious communications bottlenecks. All Long fleet staffers now have their own personal direct-dial numbers. Or, they can also be reached at the Centrex III prime number - (312) 530-3400 - Rich Fenton reports.

Although the great bulk of Long's fleet operation deals with the sale and delivery of automobiles, the firm's truck operation is growing at an impressive rate. Headed by Ernie Lancaster, the Long fleet truck story is marked by a sizeable inventory of vehicles and a goodly complement of expertise to go with them.

"Truck sales are a whole different kind of work," Ernie Lancaster says. Lancaster reports that fleet truck clients often need a more comprehensive kind of assistance than do buyers of cars. It's often Lancaster's function to provide the client with a fleet of special purpose bodies, such as refrigerators with curb-side access, mounted on the standard Chevrolet truck chassis.

"If all trucks came from the factory ready to meet the client's needs," Lancaster says, "we would have a much easier job." But the truth of the matter is, most medium-duty trucks are equipped with a chassis, an engine, a cab and that's it. It's then up to Lancaster and his colleague, Bill Cleary, to have a body mounted on it, with perhaps a liftgate or special security system, and then have the whole package rolled to where the client needs it most.

In complicated truck orders, the whole thing works largely due to Long's single billing system. The single billing system follows a given truck order through the fleet order department into the computer to a Chevy factory to a truck body factory to a final destination, without flaw or foul-up. The Long fleet truck operation will also handle everything from the hot little LUV "4X4" series to diesel powered pickups, Lancaster reports.

Our question, earlier on, was what makes Long the nation's premier fleet dealer. How can one Midwestern dealer score over $100-million in sales in just one year?

The answer seems to be a combination of good pricing blended with good service matched with good products and topped off with good delivery.

But instincts tell us this is only part of the answer. We haven't covered Long's ability to produce a used car condition report that is the envy of the industry. Nor was Long's used car disposal system mentioned, a service that has to be a factor in garnering repeat business.

So what is the answer? Maybe Don Fenton explains it best, after all: "We sell a lot of cars, but we sell each unit one at a time."

The Long Behind the Long Chevrolet Story

Long fleet clients frequently ask how the firm got its name. Is there really someone named Long who runs the show?

Yes. Although he maintains a low profile and quietly goes about the daily business of running his huge dealership, the real Jim Long is a vital cornerstone of the huge operation.

In many ways, Jim Long is the personification of the Horatio Alger success story. Total sales for Long Chevrolet, Inc., last year, including fleet and retail, came to an astounding $180,826,000.

But Jim Long can remember growing up and working in his father's tiny used car lot in Oak Park, Illinois. He can recall the thrill of opening his first new car dealership in his own name, Long Ford, in the Chicago suburb of Bensonville. The year was 1958 and that Ford outlet had just enough room to hold two automobiles in the showroom at the same time.

Jim Long was on the move in the new car field, and moved from Ford to Chevrolet in 1962, setting himself up as the proprietor of Tom Edwards Chevrolet in Elmhurst. In 1967, Jim Long saw the potential for expansion into the growing fleet market. He changed the name of his dealership to Long Chevrolet, brought in Don Fenton, and began aggressively courting fleet business.

Today, he credits much of his firm's success to the fleet effort. Says Don Fenton: "Jim Long believes in the future of the automotive fleet industry."