Merchants Fleet hosted its 2019 Employee Summit in Hooksett, New Hampshire, near its corporate headquarters on Jan. 15 2019, where the fleet management company detailed to corporate employees its recent rebranding, 2018 growth, as well as future plans for the company.

Speaking with Automotive Fleet about the significance of the rebranding summit, what it means for clients, employees, and Merchants Fleet, were Brendan P. Keegan, CEO of Merchants Fleet, and Tom Coffey, senior VP of sales of Merchants Fleet.

Serving the Client

One of the biggest takeaways at the 2019 Merchants Fleet employee summit was the evolution of its corporate structure, and focusing on its new strategy.

The 2018 strategy was designed to streamline offerings and fuel the company’s growth while staying true to their core values. As Merchants heads into 2019, the FMC will continue to expand its offerings across new segments, and simplify its name from Merchants Fleet Management to, simply, Merchants Fleet.

“We consolidated into one brand last year in 2018; and as we’ve continued to go up market, we haven’t left our roots of servicing fleets of varying sizes,” said Keegan.

Coffey expanded on the ideas of the new company strategy.

“One of the things that we started to build on last year, was our ability and flexibility in being able to offer our clients both traditional long-term leases, be they open-end or closed-end; and our ability to use our short-term mobility platform. We’ve had our mobility platform for years, but we saw it mainly as a van offering in the past, many of our clients are expanding into vocational and service fleets. The flexibility our mobility offering provides the opportunity to service that need and having truck rental is a great add,” said Coffey.

This consolidation featured an emphasis on being able to successfully accommodate the needs of its clients, by being flexible and understanding the needs of the market but also identifying new solutions.

Serving its Employees

Merchants Fleet held its Employee Summit at the Cinemagic movie theatre in Hookset, N.H. The summit featured activities, popcorn and drinks, music, and presentations by leadership.

The main purpose of the Summit was to celebrate past successes, educate its team on future innovations it has planned, share the growth strategy, and show appreciation for its employees.

“Sometimes, when you’re on a winning team, you don’t take time to breathe and say ‘Let’s enjoy it,’ a key message to for employees is to take time to enjoy the growth we’re experiencing and enjoy the journey.”

The FMC also detailed its FleetiQ program, which was created to recruit the best and brightest minds in fleet

“Every fleet company is doing great things. What we’re trying to do is learn from all of them, learn from ourselves, and say ‘How can we take the best that is out there, and put that into one organization and make it the best in the fleet industry.’ That’s the energy behind our FleetiQ program,” said Keegan.

“With the FleetiQ program we’ve been able to attract a lot of new employees. While some of our competitors are consolidating and downsizing, we’re going the opposite direction,” added Coffey.