GE's trailer leasing unit marks 50 years serving trucking industry

WAYNE, PA – Sept. 5, 2007 – GE’s Trailer Fleet Services business is celebrating 50 years of service to the trucking industry Sept. 12 with branch-based customer events over the next 50 days, and a commitment of 5,000 total hours of volunteer community service from employees

“The daily challenge for us, and for our customers, is to generate as many revenue hours as possible, for each trailer in a fleet, during every 24-hour period,” said CEO Joe Artuso. “We've combined years of experience in the trailer business with the global research capability and financial stability of GE, to give customers specific products and services to help them be successful.”

Trailer Fleet Services, headquartered in Wayne, Pa., can trace its legal history back to a company called Container Leasing, Inc., which filed for incorporation with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on Sept. 12, 1957, from a location on South 19th street in Philadelphia.  It later changed its name to Transport Pool, then Transport International Pool, as the company expanded.

In 1987, Trailer Fleet Services became a wholly owned affiliate of GE, and operates today with $1.5 Billion in assets and as a $550 million revenue division of Stamford, Conn.,-based GE Equipment Services.  The unit has 1,100 employees (175 at its Wayne headquarters), 130,000 trailers, and 100 locations across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. A complete history is posted at the company's website, trailerservices.com.

“Rentals and the long-term leasing of trailers remain an important service we provide,” Artuso continued, “but what’s exciting for us is how we can now add maintenance services, remarketing services, and asset monitoring to help our customers boost their productivity, meet their cash flow goals and ultimately improve service to their end customer. We believe no one can pull all that together like we can now.”

In a letter to CEO Joe Artuso, President Bill Graves of the American Trucking Associations noted, “From your start as a trusted trailer rental & leasing company, you have grown to become a leading supplier of total trailer fleet management services to the trucking industry.  You have certainly shown "Imagination at Work" in your commitment to bring innovative solutions from across GE to help trucking firms improve their productivity, manage their trailer maintenance, and utilize new technology.  All these efforts of course help keep trailers moving and cargo flowing across the country.”

Trailer Fleet Services customers are primarily operators of trucking fleets that carry goods for others, such as Schneider National, or private fleets that haul their own goods, such as Wal-Mart.  Trailer Fleet Services' largest customer is the U.S. Postal Service.

Maintenance Services were first offered in 2000, and include providing maintenance services on both company-owned trailers and customer-owned trailers, said Tony O'Brien, currently the Remarketing Services vice president for Trailer Fleet Services. Today more than 500 mechanics, using fully outfitted mobile maintenance service trucks, service hundreds of trailers each day for national, regional and local customers. The popular service capitalizes on the company’s decades-long experience in maintaining its own fleet.

Remarketing Services, including trailer sales, also came of age since 2000. The business took its expertise in refreshing its own fleet and now helps customers do the same. If a customer says, “I wish my fleet were made up of 53-foot trailers, all three years old and of the same brand,” Trailer Fleet Services can make it happen,
said O'Brien.

“We can buy the new fleet at a volume discount price, and our branch network can absorb the customer's old fleet. GE can finance the new transaction if needed, and we can insure the trailers, do the maintenance and give asset monitoring services. All this helps the customer manage his business with predictability.” Remarketing has grown to the point where Trailer Fleet Services sells 25,000 to 30,000 trailers annually, making it the largest retailer of used trailers in the United States.

Over the years, four distinct business models have emerged from the original, which itself was an outgrowth of
a need in the trucking industry in 1957 for more rental trailers. The “children” include the National Trailer Storage (NTS) business, Intermodal Services, and Modular Space.  A fourth business, Asset Intelligence, was formed in 2005 after GE introduced its VeriWise™ satellite tracking technology for trailers, and these formerly "dumb" trailer assets became "smart."  This newest unit is devoted to expanding the use of the tracking technology to
be both cellular and satellite, and available for railcars, intermodal units, containers, and marine applications.

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GE MEDIA CONTACTS:
Patrick Brennen
484.254.0127
patrick.brennan@ge.com