More than 280 fleet managers attended GE Capital Fleet Services’ fourth annual Fleet 2000 conference, which was held Aug. 23-24, 2000, at the Sofitel Hotel in Bloomington, MN. “This is the largest attendance ever,” said Rich Bacon, senior vice president of North American sales for GE Capital Fleet Services, as he opened this year’s event. In addition to the record turnout of fleet managers, there were another 100 attendees representing other fleet service companies and auto manufacturers, along with GE Capital Fleet Services employees.
The conference featured 22 speakers and demonstration booths. The keynote speaker on the opening day of the conference was Jeffrey Rosensweig, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, and a global economics forecaster, who spoke on “Trends Driving the New Global Economy.” Rosensweig cited the U.S. lead in e-business as a key contributing factor to the booming U.S. service industries. He cited Latin America as the key growth market of the future that will be fueled by the region’s demographics in which adolescents and young adults are the largest population segment. “These are tomorrow’s consumers and by being in the same time zone as the U.S., it makes Latin America the future sweet spot of global trade,” said Rosensweig.
Mary Tavenner, executive director of the American Automotive Leasing Association (AALA), spoke on legislative issues affecting fleet management. She cited a recent study released by the U.S. Treasury Department that examined depreciation rules and cost-recovery periods for assets such as vehicles; however, the report did not make specific legislative recommendations. Also, Tavenner cited AALA’s recent success in changing a Michigan law, which reduced the amount of taxes on a leased vehicle by changing the formula used to calculate deductions.
Among the other issues discussed at the conference was mobile technology, in which Tom Moore, director of industrial relations for Randall Trucking Media Group, cited the trucking industry as being “light years ahead of most industries in adopting new technology.” Currently, out of 20 million trucks on the road, about 1.5 million trucks have mobile technology. “Trucking is a real incubator of mobile technology,” he said.
Another speaker was Barney Campbell, founder and managing director of the Campbell Group, which has worked with GE Capital Fleet Services to develop a vehicle depreciation calculation model. To help minimize depreciation, Campbell recommended that fleet managers be cognizant of product cycles, when vehicles at the end of their model run traditionally experience a decline in resale value, which can average 6 to 8 percent. Another factor influencing vehicle depreciation is seasonality. He said the best time to remarket vehicles is at the height of the used-vehicle market which is fall and spring.
John McElroy, an automotive industry analyst, who spoke on the restructuring occurring in the automotive industry, predicted that in the not-to-distant future every vehicle produced by a manufacturer will have its own Web page, which will provide information on the vehicle’s maintenance history, recall notices and other pertinent data. “The vehicle’s VIN number will be its URL,” said McElroy.
The conference’s final speaker was Michael Saylor, president and CEO of Microstrategy, who cited five trends in technology that are converging, which will impact business transactions in the future. The five technologies are: database engineering, intelligence engines, Web protocols, wireless protocols, and voice technology.