Analysis
13 Jul 22

Unraveling North America vehicle fleet management leaders in 2022

There has been some big changes in the North American fleet and mobility market lately if you consider merger and acquisition activity taking place in the region. 

With that said, let’s take a look at what has developed in North America over the last few months and list the main players in the region today. 

Market Changes

First of all, Wheels Inc. and Donlen announced in October 2021 that they were merging under parent company Athene Holding. The combined company has some $5 billion in assets at year-end 2021, managing approximately 650,000 vehicles for more than 1,000 corporate clients in North America. 

Meanwhile, on a global scale, multinational ALD Automotive announced in January 2022 that it was acquiring another international giant LeasePlan, a move which certainly creates a leading global player in vehicle fleet leasing and mobility. 

And in June 2022, Athene Holding announced that it was acquiring LeasePlan USA. And the plan, according to Athene, is to combine Wheels-Donlen with the Leaseplan business and to create a unified fleet management business in North America. A company name is yet to be announced.  

Before we see the top fleet management players, let's take a quick look at the overall vehicle footprint in the region 

source: Global Fleet Wikifleet

National Fleet Data 

United States

Mexico

Canada

No. of light passenger vehicles

287mn

35mn 

26mn

No. of vehicles per person

0.8

0.4

0.7

Average age of cars

12 yrs

12 yrs

12 yrs

No. of fleet vehicles

8.1mn

3.5mn

1.8mn


Top Players in North America

Holman

Holman, formerly known as ARI, has the largest fleet under management in North America with some 2 million vehicles in the region. Approximately 267,000 are funded vehicles, however, coming in at No. 4 on this list.  

While most of its management takes place in the United States and Canada, the company has a joint venture with Corporación Zapata in Mexico under the name ARIZA where just over 34,000 vehicles are managed. 

Headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey (USA), the company also has offices in the UK and Germany and under the Global Fleet Services network (ARI-ORIX), it has partnered up with ORIX in the APAC region and EQSTRA in South Africa, bringing the network fleet total to some 3 million vehicles in 30 countries.  

Element Fleet Management

Coming in second is Element Fleet Management headquartered in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) with approximately 1.5 million vehicles under management, over 600,000 of which are funded (the most on this list). While most of its fleet is comprised of vehicles in the United States and Canada, the multinational is also the market leader in Mexico with more than 100,000 vehicles under management.  

The company provides fleet management and vehicle leasing of automobiles and light commercial vehicles (LCV), as well as medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks. Under the Element-Arval Global Strategic Alliance, the group manages over 3 million vehicles in more than 50 countries.  

Wheels Donlen (Leaseplan)

Jumping to the No. 3 spot in 2022 is Wheels Donlen which manages nearly 650,000 vehicles in the region, being just under 350,000 from Wheels and some 300,000 from Donlen, according to the latest data in 4Q21. Approximately 351,000 vehicles are funded. 

Considering global alliances, the number of vehicles managed reaches nearly 3.5 million. While the ALD Automotive-Wheels alliance manages 2.73 million vehicles in 59 countries, the Athlon-Donlen alliance manages 750,000 vehicles in 24 countries. 

Wheels Inc. is based out of Des Plaines, Illinois (USA) and Donlen is based out of Bannockburn, Illinois (USA). 

Note: Once Leaseplan USA with some 300,000 vehicles under management is combined with Wheels Donlen, the Athene owned group will be managing approximately 950,000 vehicles in North America. New overall numbers should be tabulated shortly.    

Enterprise Fleet Management

Dropping to the fourth spot this year but still a major player is Enterprise Fleet Management with just over 745,726 vehicles under management in the United States and Canada. A large part of their vehicles, some 579,997, are funded. 

By way of its 50 fully staffed offices throughout the region, it serves companies, government agencies and organizations with medium-sized fleets with fleet management and vehicle leasing. 

Based out of St. Louis, Missouri (USA), the companies holding group Enterprise Holdings boasts as being the world’s largest car rental provider with some 1.85 million vehicles in more than 90 countries and territories.

The rest

There are many other players in North America and among the larger ones are Merchants Fleet (USA) with approximately 170,000 vehicles managed and 75,000 funded as well as Emkay Inc. (USA) with 100,000 funded vehicles and Jim Pattison Lease (Canada) with 50,000 funded. 

For those of you who are looking to get an overall view of the Vehicle Leasing Ecosystem worldwide (before the Leaseplan USA announcement), download the latest Global Fleet E-Book on the matter.


Vehicles at port terminal waiting to be delivered (copyright: Shutterstock)

Authored by: Daniel Bland