By Ed Pierce, Contributing Editor
While vehicle registrations can be difficult enough to manage for one vehicle, the task becomes even more daunting when you’re a company handling thousands of vehicles. From car rental companies to fleet management companies, vehicle registration is an integral part of managing company-owned cars. These companies usually rely on tag & title businesses to ensure their vehicles are properly registered and kept up to date. But while this field is dominated by larger businesses, there are a few smaller players that have managed to make a name for themselves in recent years.
One of the most notable of these businesses is J3 Management Group, a sister-run tag and title company specializing in serving fleet vehicles. Founded by sisters Lora Dunton and Karla Jackson, J3 Management Group has experienced major success in the two short years since its inception, due in large part no doubt to the dynamic effort of these sisters and their families. Based out of the larger Atlanta metropolitan area, J3 Management Group is quickly establishing itself as a company worth watching.
Picking up the pieces
Dunton and Jackson first entered the industry 20 years ago, working in the family business with their mother and siblings. The tag and title ran the gamut from registrations to renewals. But when their mother passed away in November of 2019, things within the business began to change. Dunton and Jackson were pushed out of the family business and had to start over from scratch.
“We had poured our hearts and souls into our business,” said Jackson. “But we picked up our chins, cleared out of our mother’s office, and walked away not quite sure what to do. Until the light bulb flickered on, and we figured it out.”
In January 2020, only two months after leaving the family business, the sisters founded J3 Management Group. Still dealing with the loss of their mother and their business, they were quickly hit with the additional stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. But instead of slowing their business down, the pandemic actually catapulted them to the next level. Within six months they were able to hire their first employee and purchase their own building, a former bank in Decatur, Georgia that would become the future home of J3 Management Group.
They began making cold calls to leasing companies, car rental companies, and anyone with an interest in vehicles. Their goal was to help companies ensure correct ownership on their titles, beginning in Georgia and quickly growing out nationwide. From the beginning of the pandemic to now, they’ve already managed to spread out to over half the United States.
Building a reputation for service excellence
Similar to the family business they worked in with their mother, J3 Management Group is a tag and title registration service specializing in exceptional customer experience. The company works with state and county motor vehicle departments to complete initial vehicle registrations and annual registration renewals, keeping their clients’ vehicles legal to drive on the road.
J3 Management Group serves leasing companies, fleet managers, rental car companies, car dealerships, financial institutions, small businesses, and individuals. The company operates with a team of seven employees that is continuing to grow at a rapid pace.
J3 Management Group works with commercial fleets as well. “In a lot of these states you don’t have to have a big rig to have a commercial account,” says Dunton. “If you have a fleet then you can be on a commercial account. So, we register and renew commercial fleets and some big rigs as well.”
Despite the relatively small size of J3 today, the team members’ bright yellow shirts were everywhere at the most recent NAFA I&E conference coincide, and according to Jackson, the company plans to be ubiquitous in the fleet industry in the years to come.
