ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council will go ahead with its FleetPortal project despite a potential challenge from a TMC member
, according to TMC’s Carl Kirk. TMC launched FleetPortal commercially last year.
The complaint came from Jack Schickler of Service Professionals Inc. of Rochester, N.Y., who last month wrote TMC members critizing the FleetPortal project.
“As a member of TMC, I have long been concerned about the propriety of TMC’s entering into the commercial venture known as TMC FleetPortal,” Schickler wrote.
In the letter, Schickler said he had consulted with attorneys and claimed that FleetPortal violates Sherman Antitrust Act.
“Based upon all these concerns, I am calling on the officers of TMC to review their actions in support of TMC FleetPortal with consideration of the legal implications,” Schickler wrote.
Schickler’s Service Professionals Inc. operates a web site at www.fleetcross.com. On the site, Schickler is described as the FleetCross founder, a General Motors executive of 33 years and creator of GM Techline Computerized Service System for all GM dealers worldwide.
According to the web site, Service Professionals Inc. provides “custom databases, software and networks for parts and service referencing of vehicles and equipment” including web-based network services VMRS (Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standards) coding of parts and labor data.
Similarly, TMC’s FleetPortal provides online access to illustrated parts catalogs, repair and maintenance manuals, service bulletins, parts information letters, and internally generated documents as well as TMC Recommended Practices and VMRS codes.
Schickler said he sent a lawyer to the February TMC meeting in Tampa and provided a letter from the attorney, David A. Wier. In the letter dated February 23, Wier cites “Supreme Court decisions, which hold that a trade association marketing products and services that are in competition with its members can be in violation of the U.S. antitrust laws.”
“Please let me know what action you would recommend,” the letter concludes.
Schickler said he has not yet started legal proceedings.
In a statement Monday, Carl Kirk, vice president of ATA Councils and executive director of the TMC, said: “We have reviewed and considered Jack Shickler's statements; we are confident this service (FleetPortal) brings tremendous efficiencies to the industry and we are moving forward.”