Lynda Dinwiddie, retired associate vice president of fleet and travel for LabCorp and winner of the 2007 Professional Fleet Manager of the Year Award, passed away on Sept. 24, 2022 in Burlington, N.C. She was 61.
Dinwiddie was born June 23, 1961 in Prince George County, Md. She spent most of her childhood in Silver Spring, Md. and graduated high school in Kansas. Dinwiddie continued her education at Baylor University in Texas. She lived in Mexico for two years before returning to U.S. to live in San Diego, Calif.
Dinwiddie had a 29-year career with LabCorp where she managed a fleet of 5,200 vehicles at the time of her retirement. At the time, the LabCorp fleet consisted of small station wagons, minivans, and full-size vans. Dinwiddie was especially proud of achieving a best-in-class cents-per-mile fleet cost, which was impressive considering LabCorp’s courier fleet had an annual per-vehicle average of more than 50,000 miles.
During Dinwiddie’s tenure, there was explosive growth of LabCorp’s fleet, which grew from 3,500 units to more than 5,200 vehicles. During this growth period, Dinwiddie lowered monthly depreciation, maximized resale dollars by generating 40% employee sales, implemented an online fleet safety program and adopted technology to enhance fleet efficiencies.
Perhaps the most successful and most challenging achievement during Dinwiddie’s career was managing the VW emissions recall. One third of the LabCorp fleet was impacted by the VW emissions recall, primarily more than 1,800 Jetta diesel units. LabCorp was required to keep the Jettas while waiting for courts to decide the terms of VW’s settlement. This meant than many of LabCorp’s units remained in service well beyond their normal replacement cycle.
At the same time, Dinwiddie positioned LabCorp to make a quick transition just as soon as terms of the settlement for U.S. fleets were announced. She pre-ordered 1,800 Chevrolet Equinox units, and worked with GM to expedite delivery to meet a tight turnaround time, even though timing of the settlement was uncertain.
When the VW settlement terms were finally reached, Dinwiddie was able to spring into action. Working in partnership with her fleet management company, drivers, dealers, VW, and GM, she coordinated turn-in and inspections of the VW models with the delivery of new Chevrolet Equinox. The transition was complete with a 90-day time frame.
Another major accomplished during Dinwiddie’s fleet career was the consolidation of LabCorp’s European fleet lessors Although not directly involved with the daily fleet European operations, Dinwiddie helped with the oversight of LabCorp’s fleet of 450 European fleet vehicles by consolidating their operations from multiple FMCs to just one, as well as narrowing asset control to two OEMs.
In 2017, Dinwiddie was a finalist for the Fleet Executive of the Year Award. Dinwiddie also served on several fleet advisory boards such as Fleet Response's Client Advisory Board, GM Commercial Fleet Sounding Board, and the GM Global Fleet Sounding Board.
Earlier in her career, Dinwiddie worked for Roche Biomedical Laboratories in San Diego. When Roche Biomedical Laboratories merged to become LabCorp, Dinwiddie moved to Burlington, N.C. to take a new position as fleet director for LabCorp and was later promoted to associate vice president in the fleet department.
In late 2018, Dinwiddie took an early retirement from LabCorp to help care for her granddaughter Emma. Dinwiddie is survived by her son David.
Services will be held Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022 at 4:00 - 5:00pm EST at Lowe Funeral Home & Creamatory in Burlington, N.C. For those unable to attend in person, the services will be livestreamed at www.lowefuneralhome.com
