What is the condition of that 1999 Taurus just picked up in Menominee, WI? Is that 2-year-old Intrepid outside of Houston in good enough shape for the new sales rep in Dallas? These are some of the questions that may arise when managing a vehicle fleet. Every day, fleet managers ask transport companies to relocate or store a vehicle, and learn from their transporter that the vehicle is in poor condition or is damaged. The delivery vendor attempts to verbally describe the condition and might fax a condition report indicating the dings, dents, and coffee stains. But too often, the description of damages is a vague or subjective voice mail message about a dent and dirty carpets.

To deal with this problem, AmeriFleet Transportation in Alpharetta, GA, has introduced Ameri-FleetInvision, an online imaging and condition reporting system for its fleet customers. For the past several months, the FleetInvision system has been tested with a group of AmeriFleet clients who have helped design the system. With a targeted rollout of late fall 2001, AmeriFleet will be offering this additional service to select customers.

Several Viewing Angles of Vehicles are Posted On-Site

By accessing AmeriFleet's Web site, www.AmeriFleet.com, fleet managers will have online access to view condition reports and digital photos of fleet vehicles. For managers responsible for thousands of vehicles across the country, it is nearly impossible to physically review the condition of each individual vehicle in a fleet. Using the FleetInvision system, scanned images of the condition report, as well as digital photos of vehicles, can be viewed on the AmeriFleet Web site via secured password access. The AmeriFleet transport driver fills out a detailed condition report of the vehicle at pick-up, which is posted to the Web site for the client. In addition, selected vehicles are photographed using a digital camera, with several different viewing angles published to the Web site.

"In its initial offering, AmeriFleet is providing digital images to clients requesting vehicle storage service's at AmeriFleet company locations. As the service grows, AmeriFleet hopes to offer this service on every fleet vehicle either stored or transported by its drivers on behalf of their fleet clients," said Helene Kamon, vice president, AmeriFleet Transportation.