Today’s national fleets are juggling a multitude of financial challenges. With average fleet operating margins of 2-4% in the United States, these financial variables ladder up to overwhelming business concerns for over-the-road trucking companies. A survey by the Kinetic Group of 300 fleets participating in aftermarket parts programs identifies the role billings and payments can play in managing these financial challenges for fleets.

1. Understanding the Value of a
Payment Program to National
Accounts:
Cost-Drivers within the Trucking Industry

2. Top-of-Mind Concerns for Over-the-Road
Fleets.
1Kuntz, Ray. Transportation’s Role in Climate Change and Reducing Greenhouse
Gases. July 14, 2009.
Today’s national fleets are juggling a multitude of financial challenges. With average
fleet operating margins of 2-4% in the United States1, these financial variables ladder
up to overwhelming business concerns for over-the-road trucking companies.
A survey by the Kinetic Group of 300 fleets participating in aftermarket parts programs
identifies the role billings and payments can play in managing these financial
challenges for fleets.

3. Overall, 66% of respondents claimed that participation in a payments program
provided their company with the opportunity to decrease operating costs, and
nearly 71% are more likely to buy from suppliers that offer a payments program.
Payment Cost-Drivers in the Trucking
Industry.
Most Important Decision-Making Factor For Program Participation Of Those Fleets Who
Actively Participate In At Least One (1) Aftermarket Parts Payment Program

4. Fleets overwhelmingly identify parts pricing as one of the most
important decision-making factors when evaluating suppliers.
Implementation of standard pricing across aftermarket dealer networks,
however, is tricky. The aftermarket sales model for truck parts and
equipment is fairly consistent across the trucking industry. Original
Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) sell aftermarket parts to national
accounts through a network with fleets, there is no model in place to
consistently reinforce this pricing across the sales network.
A payment program implemented across your sales network guarantees
pricing to national accounts while maintaining a seamless purchase
experience.
Parts Pricing.

5. 78.5% of fleets agreed that purchasing controls offered within their billing
and payment solutions were important to their businesses.
Purchasing Controls.
Procurement managers need to
control company costs while protecting
against fraud and account misuse.
When trucks require maintenance
while on the road, the ability to
establish transaction volume or
frequency limitations, purchase order
requirements, or truck identification
requirements prior to purchase
authorization becomes a vital cost-
management tool.

6. 75% of fleets cite consolidated billings as a key program benefit.
Consolidated Billings.
The decentralized sales structure of the
trucking industry results in billings from
multiple dealers in various formats with
inconsistent transaction details submitted to
national fleets, which are managing
payments for purchases made by a
multitude of truck drivers across the
country. The time it takes to reconcile
purchase orders with invoices and issue
separate payments for individual
transactions is expensive, though rarely
quantified.
Payment programs that consolidate the
billing process minimize the amount of time
national accounts spend administering
payments - a benefit often overlooked by
fleets until they’ve experienced the time-
savings.

7. Common Pitfalls to Avoid.
• Inappropriate Credit Allocations. 25% of fleets identified “other credit
accounts” as the primary reason they do not utilize their OEM payment
accounts more often. By allocating insufficient credit lines to fleet accounts,
you may corner them into utilizing alternative methods of payment when it is
time to make a purchase.
• Limited Sales Network. Allowing only an abbreviated segment of your
dealer network to participate in your payment program creates confusion among
dealers, fleet managers, drivers, and accounting departments rather than
simplifying the transaction process.
• Restricted Account Options. When nearly 80% of payment program
participants claim that purchasing controls are important to their
management practices, limiting the account options available to a fleet may
decrease the perceived value of the payment program, and ergo limit
participation and usage.
The top reason fleets participate in a payment program is convenience /
ease of use. When implementing a billing and payment solution, OEMs need
to asses all aspects of convenience.

8. Customer-Value Equates to Business
Growth.
In the end, a billing and payment program for national fleet accounts must
provide value to their trucking business. If fleets do not find value (quantitative
or qualitative) in a billing and payment program from an OEM, the program
will not be successful.
Only by understanding top-of-mind fleet business concerns and cost-drivers in
the payments process can OEMs in the trucking industry develop a billing and
payment program that appropriately addresses fleet needs. By doing so,
however, OEMs can successfully target the 71% of national accounts that
are more likely to purchase from suppliers with a payments program and
drive incremental revenue into the sales funnel.

9. Multi Service. Innovation Where it Matters.
Multi Service invoicing specializes in the design, implementation, and management of custom
billing and payment solutions. The company collaborates with clients to isolate specific
commercial credit and payment issues, identify measurable portfolio growth goals, and design
a tailored private label payment solution to optimize customer loyalty. The company’s expertise
in business-to-business sales processes assists clients in maximizing the lifetime value of
individual commercial accounts and optimizing their overall commercial portfolio.
Thank you for your interest in this free presentation. We welcome your comments, feedback,
and suggestions. Please consider sending us a note about how this presentation has helped
you. Check out the Multi Service Commercial Payments blog at multiservice.com. If would like
to contact a private label business development analyst directly, you can call +1-913-451-2400
or email contact-private-label@multiservice.com.