“After January 1, no one may drive wagons through Rome’s streets after sunrise or before the tenth hour, except for hauling materials for temples, public works, or removing debris by special permission.” — Lex Iulia Municipalis (45 BCE)

I’m feeling nostalgic these days, not for the fleet problems of Roman times, but for the wisdom of Ed Bobit, our company’s founder. He always opened his Publisher’s Page with a quote to illustrate his point. I’ve been revisiting those editorials to see what challenges the fleet world faced then, and how “The Coach” would tackle them, looking for lessons that still fit today’s turbulent times.

My research took me back to the early days of Bobit Publishing, from its founding in 1961 through 1990. With the separation of time, it’s easy to call that period “the good old days,” but you wouldn’t know it from reading Coach’s columns.

The industry’s most pressing issues flowed through his typewriter: gas shortages and rationing, vehicle scarcities and long order-to-delivery times, downsizing from V-8s to four cylinders almost overnight, new emissions standards and faulty tech to meet them, seat-belt mandates, double-digit inflation that pushed operating costs through the roof, and ever-changing tax and depreciation rules.

In the 1960s and early ’70s, fleet managers were still fighting for professional recognition and were often viewed as playing a minor role in the corporate hierarchy. Communication was via memo or phone, recordkeeping on index cards, and maintenance logs on paper.

Wrote one fleet manager to Ed: “Do [fleet managers] operate out of a cubicle with no hired help? … give the boss’s wife’s car a wash … code this month’s rental bill … update the fleet manual? … The nights aren’t long enough.”

Ed went on to explain the difference between fleet administration and fleet management — the latter was not as appreciated as it should have been (or is).  

A sense of family and folksiness permeated those early editorials, particularly when he allowed his daughter, Barbara, to pinch-hit for him. “The professional fleet men are already doing what can be done to cope with the fuel shortage… now let’s all hope Pop doesn’t start hoarding gin instead of gas,” wrote Barbara in 1977. (Seriously.)  

The 1980s saw the evolution of lessor to fleet management company, and Coach was there to defend the role of fleet managers as outsourcing began. “… it is high time that we elevate today's fleet administrator to an integral part of the corporation as a manager,” he wrote in 1983.  

The rise of the spreadsheet and fleet software created new expectations around KPIs, long before the term became an acronym. Coach was advocating for better data — and better data analysis — when telematics was still a military application.  

By the late ’80s, business life was changing, from typewriters to PCs, the rise of fax and modems, and the dawn of the digital age. In a 1990 column, Coach described internal debates about replacing receptionists with voicemail. He fought it “like a true Spartan defensive football player.” (Michigan State was his alma mater.)

Coach often stressed that the fleet world is always in flux, with mergers, regulations, and new technologies. “The condition of the industry is anything but static,” he wrote in 1990. “The fleet market could be equated to Barbarians at the Gate… with a flurry of significant changes affecting us all at an accelerated rate.”

Coach wrote about how veteran fleet managers were being laid off amidst cost-cutting, and that newer associates were entering hybrid roles without mentors.

Does it all sound familiar?  

Whether in Roman times, the 1970s, or today, each era has grappled with modernization and automation, maintaining human connection, and balancing increasing workloads. But back then, problem-solving was analog. They did it without the Internet, emails, telematics, predictive analytics, and AI.  

What did Coach teach us?  

Panic never solves anything.  

What feels like chaos now will one day look routine. He faced five decades of the “worst problem ever,” and somehow, we’re still here.

Progress comes with friction.

It’s easy to think that today’s problems — managing cell phone distractions, sustainability pressures, privacy, and data overload — are unique. But viewed through Coach’s lens, they’re just the next chapter in a long, unbroken chronicle of the need to adapt.

People matter most.

Mentorships matter. Participate in associations. Technology will improve processes, but it should never replace human connection.

“Publishing is a very personalized business,” he wrote when fighting the introduction of voicemail. “We value each and every account.” That was true of publishing — and it’s just as true of fleet management. “The corporate fleet cannot operate efficiently without a professional fleet manager,” he reminded readers in 1988.

Indeed, he always had the fleet manager’s interests at heart.