FordDirect to Celebrate Fourth Anniversary with 200,000 Internet Sales
FordDirect will celebrate its fourth anniversary this month.
FordDirect will celebrate its fourth anniversary this month. In just its fourth year of operations, the company will help dealers sell more than 200,000 vehicles this year through the Internet. The company was founded in August 2000 by the Ford National Dealer Council. Launched in New Jersey with just 15 dealers and a handful of Internet referrals, today FordDirect has more than 3,900 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury dealers participating nationwide. And last year, FordDirect provided dealers with more than 1.5 million new vehicle referrals and was responsible for 9 percent of Ford division retail sales. FordDirect is also expanding its services offline. “FordDirect has recently launched a new service, Call Track-10, that uses Internet technology to help dealers track phone calls from traditional advertising media, measure results from these campaigns, and train their salespeople," said FordDirect President Steve St. Andre. FordDirect Call Track-10 provides dealerships 10 national toll-free numbers that are assigned to advertising media. As calls are generated by dealers' advertisements, they are recorded and logged with available demographic information real-time into a Web site and a dealer's lead management system. Real-time tracking is made possible by a new Internet technology, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOiP), which converts voice to digits and sends them in packets over the Internet.
More Operations

Moventum Fleet Management Names Mark Iorillo Head of Sales
Iorillo brings nearly 20 years of fleet management and sales experience to the role, including previous positions at Element Fleet Management, CEI, Donlen and Ryder.
Read More →
Fleet Has a Talent Pipeline Problem. What Comes Next? | AF News Recap
Where will fleet’s next generation of leaders come from? This week, we’re looking at the industry’s talent pipeline, what certification can add to a fleet career, how to build an award-worthy track record, and the return of Automotive Fleet’s Personal Use Survey.
Read More →
Smith System Launches Driver Risk Management Program
Fleets have more driver data than ever, but identifying risky behavior doesn't necessarily correct it. Smith System's new Driver Risk Management program combines monitoring, training, and follow-up coaching to help fleets connect risk signals with driver intervention.
Read More →
Automotive Fleet Opens 2026 Personal Use Survey for Commercial Fleet Managers
Less than two weeks left! Commercial and corporate fleet managers are invited to share how their organizations handle company vehicle personal-use policies, charges, and driver eligibility.
Read More →
From AI Prompts to AI-Generated Safety Songs | AF News Recap
Can better prompts make AI more useful for fleet managers? This week, we’re breaking down smarter fleet analysis, an AI-assisted experiment that turned safety training into music, and what happened to fuel prices in August.
Read More →
How to Write Better AI Prompts for Fleet Analysis
Include these six elements in your fleet prompts to generate more relevant analysis and accurate answers.
Read More →
Fleet Meets: Eric Kilgore
This edition of the Fleet Meets series features one of the industry's best leaders driving multi-market and national operations.
Read More →
Why Reactive Fleet Management Is Becoming Too Expensive to Sustain
Research highlights a growing need for proactive management strategies to address rising costs in fleet operations effectively.
Read More →
What Your Fleet KPIs Aren’t Telling You
Tracking fleet metrics is only useful when the data leads to better decisions. This guide helps fleet leaders assess cost, utilization, and downtime more accurately, identify performance gaps, and prioritize the actions that can improve operational results.
Read More →
Hidden in Plain Sight: Fleet Compliance Risks
Fleet compliance isn't just about having policies — it's about consistently enforcing them. This practical guide reveals six hidden compliance risks common in public sector and shared fleet operations and outlines proven strategies to improve visibility, accountability, and audit readiness
Read More →