FleetMaster’s journey from university data project to multinational SaaS success

This latest acquisition is now in the process of being fully integrated into the Cox Automotive Mobility offering. FleetMaster is a specialist in cloud-based workflow technology for rental, leasing companies and dealerships. Acquisition of the company has enabled Cox Automotive to provide their customers and prospects with access to the latest mobility services, including rental hire, leasing and flexible access/subscription, across international markets.

Who is FleetMaster?

Founded in Belgium in 2011, FleetMaster specialises in providing rental companies, dealerships and automotive manufacturers with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) workflow technology solutions.

Run by four co-founders, the business was born from a university venture in which the three technical founders were tasked with working on a vehicle-related research project. They decided to focus on reading data from vehicles, such as mileage and fuel levels. They thought it would be interesting to then take that data and use it to automate business processes within the rental vehicle market. After going out there and pitching their idea to several companies, they refined their initial concept to create a cloud-based application that would give their customers the tools they need to effectively manage their vehicles. For instance, the ability to create invoices, reports, contracts, offers, and quotes quickly and seamlessly.

Unlike similar platforms, FleetMaster can be tailored and integrated to an organisations’ existing systems and there’s no expectation for them to adopt the full end-to-end offering – a USP that the co-founders have maintained and reinforced since day one.

Back then, the team focused on working with small to medium enterprise companies within the rental market – typically, those with 50 to 150 vehicles. For the next seven years, the company steadily grew in Belgium and the Netherlands based on this approach. 2017 was a turning point, as FleetMaster was approached by several multinational companies, a global OEM truck rental division, a recognised rental company and an international film production company – to name a few, all wanting to use FleetMaster’s solutions. After that, the floodgates opened and the company was inundated with approaches from many more multinationals, all wanting to tap into the technology right across their businesses.

Who does FleetMaster work with?

FleetMaster is utilised by the widest range of rental companies, OEMs and dealerships on a global scale. Its customer base is incredibly extensive, from film studios who have fleets of rentable golf carts, trucks, and bikes they need to manage, to automotive brands who use FleetMaster to manage their test drive fleets, as well as for managing hundreds-upon-hundreds of company cars.

The growth and demand for FleetMaster has gained momentum year-on-year, with the company now employing 30 members of staff within its core product team in Belgium alone. It also has global partners to support with international delivery and an office in Los Angeles for customers in North and South America.

What does FleetMaster bring to Cox Automotive?

Cox Automotive recognises that mobility is a huge growth area and presents a significant opportunity for their business. Demand for mobility solutions is growing and creating widespread change and expansion within the wider automotive ecosystem. How we buy, acquire, own, and sell vehicles is constantly evolving and FleetMaster enables Cox Automotive to offer innovative solutions to customers throughout the vehicle lifecycle.

Having FleetMaster within the Cox Automotive family is the perfect synergy, with both organisations heavily driven by technology. Current changes in vehicle ownership models indicate that it is highly likely that fleets will own the majority of connected, autonomous, shared, and electric (CASE) vehicles in future and play a larger role in the future of mobility, with shared vehicles covering greater mileages and requiring more servicing and maintenance. Bringing FleetMaster into Cox Automotive forms part of the overall vision to significantly extend the mobility capabilities of Cox Automotive across Europe in line with industry demand, and ultimately, become a global leader within the mobility arena.

For FleetMaster, the acquisition gives them the opportunity to provide their current customers with much more beyond rental and leasing software solutions. As part Cox Automotive’s global footprint, the business now has greater access to a wealth of resources, specialists and experts which will enable them to significantly fast track their technology development and realise their ambitious growth plans.

What does the future look like for FleetMaster?

The FleetMaster team have their sights firmly set on building upon the many successes that have been achieved so far, underpinned by support from Cox Automotive along the way.

As is the case with all technology companies, FleetMaster has been shaped by, and continues to be shaped, by change. Their software solutions are customisable and easy to connect to all kinds of modern third-party applications, as well and telematics, autonomous and other vehicle platforms.

At the same time as keeping pace with industry changes, FleetMaster plans to embrace change head on by exploring new territories, which potentially include the field of electric vehicle charging point data. The last decade has undoubtedly been a remarkable journey for FleetMaster, which has now taken on a brand-new industry-leading route as part of Cox Automotive Mobility.

For more details on how FleetMaster can improve fleet management, read this article, ‘5 ways FleetMaster makes operating a fleet easier.’