Five years ago I was introduced to the equipment financing industry. Having implemented enterprise-wide automation solutions for large financial services companies, I was surprised that the industry is vastly manual. After studying the industry, and talking to lots of business... read more
September 2015
Reprinted with the permission of Barry S. Marks and LEAN I remember the day one of my kids asked what it was like in the Great Depression. After assuring them I was not that old, I told them to ask... read more
My last blog spoke about the three elements that most strategic plans have at their core: increasing shareholder value, raising customer satisfaction levels and enhancing employee engagement. Pricing methods can influence all three of these in different ways. Raising customer... read more
August 2015
If you’re in the transportation industry, you’re riding a sea of change. There’s change from federally-mandated emissions upgrades over the last 8 years, change from technology advancements and change from a roller coaster in fuel prices. Even our society has... read more
August 2015
When you talk about asset trade cycles, fuel efficiency is typically one of the top considerations. As a result of recent gains in fuel economy, many fleets have started to base their trade cycles on fuel economy alone. And while... read more
When we last left off, which admittedly was a while ago, I hope I convinced you to put your pricing methods at the core of your strategic plan. Today, we’ll look at how to structure a strategic plan with pricing... read more
July 2015
Newsflash: Prices are going up and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just the way of the world. However, there is a lot you can do to keep yourself competitive, especially when it comes to your private fleet.... read more
June 2015
In recent years, there has been an explosion of laws addressing privacy and data security, creating a complex patchwork of federal and state laws and regulations. Additionally, state common law claims, such as negligence and invasion of privacy, have been... read more
MAY 2015
If you’re passionate about business analytics and business intelligence, it’s a great time to be in the trucking industry. With the advent of recent technologies, there is now an incredible amount of data being broadcast directly from your trucks, or... read more
May 2015
I was between bites of a good bowl of oatmeal when I heard Andrew Ross Sorkin report on CNBC that General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt had just announced the company’s intent to sell off most of GE Capital, retaining only... read more
May 2015
How does your business stack up against the competition? Are you evolving to stay competitive in the future with your products, services and delivery methods? A quote from one of the Private Independent leasing company survey participants highlighted in the... read more
April 2015
The report, issued in March, describes the IASB’s one lease lessee accounting model. It also provides an overview of some of the possible effects of the forthcoming changes to lessee accounting, and of the work that the IASB has undertaken... read more
April 2015
In days past, financial executives looked at a variety of traditional factors, such as equipment cost, residual risk and availability of capital when deciding whether to buy or lease fleet assets. However, today’s complex business environment has introduced dozens of... read more
April 2015
Fleet managers and consulting professionals alike are constantly on the hunt for the drivers behind fleet management asset optimization, which can include equipment acquisition, regulatory compliance, risk and safety, maintenance management, fuel efficiency maximization, and asset tracking, to name just... read more
March 2015
Periodically in the equipment leasing industry, cases crop up involving schemes in which equipment is marketed as being essentially “free,” because the lessee will supposedly receive payments for advertising on the equipment, in an amount roughly the same as the... read more
March 2015