More Visibility, More Opportunity
Bill Schankel, CEO, NAFA Fleet Management Association. (Credit : NAFA)
NAFA continues to raise its profile among legislators while focusing on driving value for members.
So far, 2025 has proven to be a very busy year for NAFA with lots of activities happening both at the national and regional level. There have been well over 100 local events organized among our Regions and Local Networking Groups in 2025, and that’s been a significant increase from last year. As these words are written, we’ve also been getting a lot of positive feedback from the NAFA Fleet Safety Symposium we held in Austin, Texas, back in June. There were a lot of great discussions that came out of that and we’re already seeing some of the solutions from that event being implemented by fleets across North America, something that’s very encouraging for the industry.
Fast moving
There is no question that 2025 has been a very active year in terms of legislation and given how fast things are moving in Washington D.C., at present, it’s important to ensure that fleets have a voice when it comes to regulations and legislative changes. In June, NAFA organized a trip to Washington, where 20 of our members met with representatives in the House and Senate right before the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. There are a range of positions NAFA, and its members have been focusing on, including catalytic converter theft, data access and privacy, as well as changes to tax credits including 45W and 30W, plus the impact of losing EV tax incentives and the impact that is likely to have on the fleet sector.
Great opportunity
We spent a full day and a half visiting senators and house representatives, and it was a great opportunity to really talk with them and get them to learn about NAFA, what we do and what our association represents. We have a similar approach in Canada where we are consistently reaching out to elected officials and decision makers, educating them on what we do and about the fleet industry. It is critical for us to be having conversations with them and ensure that the interests of the fleet industry on both sides of the border are properly represented and that we have input into any proposed regulations and legislative changes. Although it is a complex process and favourable outcomes are not always certain, NAFA is becoming more and more recognized as a go-to-resource for regulators and our members when it comes to legislative issues and that’s highly encourage for the association and the industry.
Benchmarking tool
Another initiative that continues to gain traction is our 100 Best Fleets in the Americas. This flagship program is proving highly popular among the Regions that we operate. While shines the spotlight on fleets that have achieved excellence and the key metrics that have enabled them to reach 100 Best Fleets status, the program is also an effective benchmarking tool that helps fleets measure their own operations not only against other fleets, but themselves. We’re also looking to have a 100 Best Fleets Roundtable in Canada for 2026 and we’re very excited to see more fleets from Canada take part in the program and leverage its benchmarking practices to help their own organizations, as well as grow the Canadian presence within the 100 Best Fleets of the Americas program.
