By Kim Davidson, Marketing & Communications Manager, Flexco
March 6, 2024
Flexco Fleet Services rings in 2024 celebrating a 32-year milestone as an industry leader in Fleet Remarketing Services. As a family-owned and operated company, they’ve also managed to stay true to their original vision—to deliver efficient, effective vehicle remarketing services, while maximizing profits for their customers. When things work extremely well, you stay the course, and Flexco has done that successfully for over three decades.
A lot has changed over the course of 32 years in fleet, but one thing hasn’t: Flexco’s commitment to keeping things simple and operating an integrity-based business where customers’ needs remain their North Star.
Fleet Lease Exchange Company, DBA Flexco Fleet Services started as a one-man endeavor back in March of 1992 by Ron Shoemaker. With a $7,500 line of credit (of which Ron had to take a lien out on his house as collateral), and a desire to build something greater than what existed at the time, Ron began by buying vehicles from companies and dealerships and reselling them to other car dealers in and around Columbus, Ohio.
For eight years it was just Ron, his dedication, hard work, and ability to envision a bigger, better picture of how vehicle remarketing should and could be. Back then, Ron was running his own titles and utilizing independents to help with transports. By the time he was able to hire his first team member, Janet Smail (who just recently retired, after being with the company for 24 years), he was remarketing over 600 cars a year. Ron had a vision, and he was determined to see where he could take it.
Fast forward to 2024 and Flexco prides itself as a company with over $100 million in yearly sales, and is run by Ron’s son, Chad Shoemaker, Chief Executive Officer. Chad took the reins in 2017, however Ron still plays an integral role in the company as a trusted advisor and contributing decision-maker.
Ron and Chad’s ability to build and nurture invaluable business relationships, while engaging trustworthy and highly qualified independents has allowed Flexco to keep its internal associate count under 35—with 50% of staff having been with Flexco for over 8 years, and a third for over thirteen years (with some as tenured as 18-24 years!).
The Secrets to Success
Flexco believes that when you put your people first, they’ll stick around to excel and thrive. And that has allowed Flexco to thrive, as well.
It’s important to Flexco that their team members have the power to make impactful decisions, and the freedom to contribute ideas and recommendations to leadership. This helps streamline and improve internal processes, as well as their ability to make important decisions quickly. Additionally, Flexco team members are well-versed and highly proficient in their roles—which adds deeper value to the delivery of core services.
When onboarding and retaining talent, Flexco’s objective is to make sure associates feel seen, heard, happy and fulfilled. As a result, associates are more likely to stick around long-term.
Vice President of Sales, Brian Myers stated, “Much of Flexco’s incredible growth and addition of invaluable services throughout the years is a result of being a ‘Solution-driven’ company. We have always been open-minded and listened to our partners’ needs. The results have made us a total fleet services solution for our customers. A few of the offerings that have been added over time include transportation services, employee & driver sales, and title and registration services.”
By putting customers’ needs at the forefront, and identifying and alleviating their pain points, Flexco helps set clients up for success. And customer success is a reflection of Flexco’s ability to adapt when needed and provide Best-in-class fleet services. A prime example of this is the way in which Flexco handled a growth spike in Transportation demand following Covid-19, as their transportation demand tripled. There are a variety of reasons for the increased growth, but according to Flexco, the major reason was their ability to consistently dispatch vehicles for customers in a matter of days, not weeks.
Meredith Jones, Flexco’s Transportation Manager stated, “All at once, what had worked before was not as successful, and a better solution was needed, and fast. It was imperative that we implemented solutions that would help automate timely processes within our Transportation Management System. It was incredibly important to us that the pain points we began experiencing with such quick growth were not being passed on to our customers. As part of the solution, a new load board was implemented and a robust, all-in-one car hauling platform was put in place. This new technology allowed Flexco the ability to vastly improve the speed and efficiency of dispatch transportation requests and the transport of vehicles.”
As a smaller but agile company, Flexco benefits hugely from their ability to make decisions swiftly and adjust as needed expeditiously—something many larger companies often do not have the capacity to do. Flexco credits their entire team for their ability to pivot and adapt swiftly, which gives them this keen advantage. Teams work together to create solutions that make things run more smoothly both internally, and for customers.
The Flexco Difference
Flexco works with small fleets, to Fortune 500 companies, as well as fleet management companies. In fact, Flexco can oftentimes move vehicles for Fleet Managers faster than they might have the ability to do so themselves—saving them time and alleviating the stress of accommodating a smooth and timely sale.
As many in the fleet services industry have experienced, bigger doesn’t always equate to better, and in larger companies where administrative backups and red tape may cause delays and customer frustration, Flexco may just be the breath of fresh air fleet services customers are looking for.
Flexco understands what great customer service feels like, and that makes all the difference. Melissa Turba, Senior Remarketing Manager at Flexco, stated “We answer the phone, we return calls and emails in a timely manner, and we work diligently to seamlessly align with customers and their team members to ensure a positive, and successful customer experience—whether it’s remarketing, a vehicle transport, or title and registration challenges.”
Per Chad Shoemaker, “Without our customers, we don’t have a business. Without our associates, we don’t have happy customers. It all works together, and we know that. It’s why we are 100% steadfast in our commitment to delivering an experience that is nothing less than exceptional.”
Giving Back to the Automotive Ecosystem by ‘Paying Opportunity Forward’
Many in the automotive and fleet industries are unaware of it, but Flexco Fleet Services also gives back to the community through a 501(c)3 organization called The Hourglass Foundation. The non-profit’s mission is to empower first-generation, low income, and diversely underrepresented students through scholarship opportunities that support educational pursuits in auto tech and other skilled trades, including HVAC, plumbing, construction, electrical and similar.
The Hourglass Foundation not only helps underserved students in their educational endeavors, but their valiant efforts also contribute to the overall automotive ecosystem by helping to raise awareness for auto technology and other skilled trades as viable career paths—of which women are still vastly underrepresented. As a result, they are part of a larger solution to help reduce the overall skilled trades workforce shortage.
Notably, two of the four current scholarship opportunities that The Hourglass Foundation offers includes a ‘Women in Auto Tech’ Scholarship and a ‘Women Rock Trades’ Scholarship. After adding these two new scholarships in 2023, the overall student scholarship application rate at The Foundation increased by over 900%! This is a great indication that women are, indeed, getting more involved in and pursuing auto tech and other skilled trades arenas historically dominated by men.
Since 2020 The Hourglass Foundation has raised over $79,000 in funding and has helped over 70 students in their educational pursuits. The Hourglass Foundation raises funds through corporate sponsorships, partnerships, individual contributions, and even vehicle donations.
When asked what inspired the idea of setting up a Foundation, Co-founder, Chad Shoemaker stated, “Ron and I really wanted to give back to the community in a way that aligned with the automotive industry, and by creating scholarships for students interested in entering automotive, or other skilled trades—it just seemed like the perfect fit. We’d be helping students dedicated to pursuing meaningful career paths, and at the same time helping our industry by investing in the next generation of skilled trades professionals. We also hope that industry colleagues and others interested in this cause would get on board and help The Hourglass Foundation continue to succeed in this mission.”
If you’d like more information on how you can support The Hourglass Foundation, please visit thehourglassfoundation.org
To end, we share a quote from Flexco Founder, Ron Shoemaker—which perfectly sums up Flexco’s 32-year journey thus far: “Wherever it is you’re going, make sure everyone on board enjoys the ride.”
For more information contact Kim Davidson, Marketing & Communications Manager at [email protected] or visit www.flxfleet.com.
