Fleet Advantage selected by Maines Paper & Food Service

Fleet Advantage, a leading innovator in truck fleet business analytics and equipment financing, announced that it has successfully deployed its proprietary data-driven lifecycle management initiative with Maines Paper & Food Service Inc. headquartered in Conklin, New York. Maines has ranked in the top 300 of Forbes' America's Largest Private Companies list since 2004 and is the seventh largest independent foodservice distributor in the country with annual revenue of approximately $3 billion.

"We are always seeking better ways to serve our customers and reduce costs," says Terry Walsh, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Maines. "Fleet Advantage demonstrated innovative ways to reduce our overall cost of ownership with their comprehensive analytics and their lifecycle management software." Walsh noted that Maines has also reduced fuel consumption as the result of several spec changes in the new equipment and is poised to take advantage of government-mandated fuel economy improvements and future technology advancements through the use of Fleet Advantage's flexible financing options. "Along with improved efficiency on our road equipment, we also see administration and analytics benefits at headquarters, with tools such as the online portal that allows us to access data in one place," said Walsh, adding that "Fleet Advantage's early execution has been above our expectations and has already reduced our operating costs significantly."

Fleet Advantage provides Maines with an extensive range of services using Big Data – a technology term referencing the huge amounts of data now available to businesses and the emerging analytics platforms for processing that data -- to achieve the Lowest Cost of Ownership (LCO), with the added benefit of helping the company achieve corporate sustainability goals. The Maines fleet includes more than 500 high-efficiency refrigerated trailers and 400 tractors. A total of 67 percent of the tractors are new 2012/13 model years and are powered by clean diesel technology with advanced idle reduction technologies as well as numerous state of the art safety systems including collision avoidance and lane departure technology.

John Flynn, chief executive officer of Fleet Advantage, explained that "Maines expressed a genuine and exceptional concern for the safety and welfare of their employees and the environment by installing state-of-the-art emissions reduction technology and safety features as a standard for their growing transport fleet." He noted that clients are quickly realizing the benefits of the company's fleet analytics tools as it relates to cost saving -- especially as diesel prices climb and resale markets fluctuate. "Our focus at Fleet Advantage is to deliver innovative services, and cost savings that exceed client expectations. The added environmental and social sustainability benefits are icing-on-the-cake." He explained that Fleet Advantage serves as an off-site analytics department for fleet clients, delivering data capture and intelligent interpretation. This Information Technology, combined with the company's equipment design and engineering capabilities and flexible financing, gives their clients a rapid response strategy to meet changing market and regulatory conditions.