ARI Ingenuity Creates an Industry Standard
Everyone is familiar with the red-and-white reflective tape on the back of walk-in vans. But hardly anyone knows that this ingenious little marker is an innovation ARI came up with for a client, and it has since saved the industry millions of dollars. Here's the story: Years ago, drilled plastic body markers, approved by the Department of Transportation (DOT), represented the state of the art in reflectors. Trouble was, they kept falling off and had to be replaced frequently. During an inspection of a client's walk-in vans, our team observed that standard reflective tape had exactly the same appearance as the plastic reflectors, only the tape was far more durable, stayed on much longer, and cost a lot less. In our efforts to go the current best practice one better, we advised our client to petition DOT for approval of reflective tape as a replacement for plastic reflectors. The client did, DOT approved—and the rest, as they say, is history.

It's About More Than Just Knowing Where to Look
Through our best practices approach to fleet management, ARI has accumulated considerable experience helping companies keep their fleets operating at peak efficiency. We recently pulled out all the stops and created significant value for a railroad company by conducting a comprehensive acquisition-to-remarketing review and leveraging various process and savings opportunities we uncovered in the lifecycle. In vehicle specification-ordering, for example, our team compiled volumes of data on factors that determined a new vehicle's net effective cost, including depreciation, interest expense, management fees, anticipated maintenance cost, anticipated downtime and fuel expenses. Equipped with this useful new information—the client had never before approached acquisition decision-making this way—both parties worked together to customize highly effective and cost-effective fleet specifications. Once proper parameters were established and the spec was set, we placed the order in a timely way and saved the client $101,451 by avoiding delivery and interim interest charges.