Arsenault Associates, a leading provider of fleet maintenance management software, reported that it produced another consecutive year of double digit revenue growth in 2008.
Meanwhile, first quarter 2009 sales were 30% higher than the same quarter in 2008, the company said.

Arsenault's revenue increased 10.2% in 2008 during which Arsenault took on 43 new fleet accounts that operate over 16,000 vehicles and other equipment in a broad array of industry sectors.

"Fuel costs rising to an all time high - forcing fleets to get better control of their energy use - had a direct effect on our growth in 2008," said Charles Arsenault, the company's founder and CEO. "Additionally, as the economy tanked during the last quarter, management had to take action to reduce operating expenses, and found that the large potential cost savings in their fleet maintenance department was low hanging fruit."

Meanwhile, considering economic conditions, Arsenault cautioned fleets to choose technology providers carefully.

"In the current poor economy, fleets who are considering investing in technology as a method of controlling and reducing costs should pay close attention to the financial condition of the technology supplier. Many companies have moved to extended 60 or 90 day payment cycles to maintain their cash flow," he said.

"As a result, some fleet technology firms must wait longer than they'd like before they're paid. Under this financial pressure and a tightening of credit lines, some of these firms will not survive the current economic downturn."

Vendors like fleet software companies must be well capitalized to carry their receivables while continuing to fund new product development and customer support services, Arsenault explained.

"This should be important to any company looking to invest in fleet technologies," he said. And he has seen these conditions before.

"The economy gets bad, and companies who previously ignored their fleet expense as 'a necessary evil of doing business' wake up to find their costs are out of control. Challenged to reduce expenses and increase the capacity of their operating staff, management discovers that fleet maintenance software pays almost instant ROI dividends," he said.

Arsenault said his company's 30 years of conservative business management practices and innovative fleet technologies has placed Arsenault Associates in a strong financial position that translates into customer confidence. "Our customers know their investment in fleet technology is sound and that we will meet and exceed both their current and future technology and business objectives," he said.

Arsenault Associates' Dossier software serves a growing customer base of more than 4,000 commercial fleets including small trucking and construction companies, Fortune 100 corporations, schools, and government agencies. They operate over 600,000 vehicles including tractors, trailers, trucks, buses and autos, plus construction and material handling equipment. More information is at www.arsenault.biz.