Abstract: Vehicle leasing companies and companies with vehicle fleets are using the Internet to make leasing more efficient and easier. Some major national leasing firms are developing ordering capabilities on the World Wide Web for customers.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 United States Chamber of Commerce
It had to happen. With the growing pervasiveness of computers and the Internet, it was only a matter of time before vehicle-leasing companies and their business-fleet customers would begin to tap the vast system of computer networks and make leasing easier and more efficient.
Joyce Hutter, who manages the sales fleet for Hollister Inc., a medical-supplies manufacturer in Libertyville, Ill., uses FleetWeb, an Internet ordering and inquiry system from Donlen Corp. of Northbrook, Ill. Donlen was the first major leasing company to go online with such a system. Since September, Hutter has saved time by going through the Internet rather than faxing orders to lease replacement vehicles for her fleet of 120 midsize cars.
Hutter likes the ease of clicking a mouse to find the answers to car-buying or leasing questions via FleetWeb. When she finishes an order, she says, she knows that Donlen staffers won't have to call back to clarify a point. "FleetWeb asks me all the questions upfront," she says, "and there are no problems with the technology."