Mercury Associates, Inc. is a leading provider of management consulting services to the fleet industry. With offices in three states, our staff of professional consultants has assisted hundreds of public and private sector clients evaluate and identify opportunities to improve all facets of their fleet management and operating practices. Our consulting team combines years of hands-on fleet management experience with more than two decades of fleet management consulting experience. This combination of experience enables our clients to tackle a wide array of challenges and opportunities, secure in the knowledge that our findings will be technically sound and defensible to senior management, elected officials, and other decision makers, but also practical and "implementable."

Our work with fleets ranging in size from fewer than 100 to more than 25,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment has given us a full appreciation of the daily demands and expectations that most fleet management organizations share in common, and of the operational, managerial, and political environments that make each fleet manager's job unique. We do not employ a "cookie cutter" approach to our consulting engagements. Rather, we tailor each project to the particular circumstances, needs, and objectives of our client. We are passionate about seeing our recommendations implemented, so we work hard to understand the communication channels and decision making processes through which a fleet manager must navigate if he or she is to effect real business process changes and tangible, measurable improvements in performance.

The key principals in our firm are:

Paul Lauria President Paul has been a transportation and fleet management consultant for more than 21 years. He has provided consulting and training services to hundreds of government, transit, utility, and corporate organizations. Prior to co-founding Mercury, he was Vice President and National Director of Fleet Management Consulting Services for David M. Griffith & Associates (DMG) and Maximus, Inc. and a Senior Manager in the National Transportation Consulting Group of Ernst & Young. A frequent speaker at industry conferences and author of numerous articles and publications on fleet management topics, Paul has worked extensively in the areas of program evaluation, strategic planning and business process reengineering, fleet replacement planning and financing, and cost charge-back system development. The clients with whom he has worked range from Walt Disney World Company to the US Army, and from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to the US Virgin Islands Department of Property and Procurement. Paul holds a master’s degree in Transportation Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Click here to contact Paul Lauria by e-mail - plauria@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page   Randy Owen, CAFM Senior Vice President Randy has been a fleet manager and consultant for over 15 years. Prior to co-founding Mercury, he served as a senior manager in the Maximus Fleet Management Consulting Group. Before beginning his consulting career, he was the fleet manager for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and for the City of Charlotte. An active member of such industry associations as the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA) and the American Public Works Association (APWA), Randy is particularly noted for his work in the areas of best practice assessments, competitiveness reviews, replacement planning, managed competition, outsourcing, and privatization. In fact, when he served as Charlotte’s fleet manager his department won a managed competition. He has also assisted such clients as San Diego County and the cities of Houston and Dallas with managed competition and outsourcing projects. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science from UCLA. Click here to contact Randy Owen, CAFM by e-mail - rowen@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page   Brad Kelley Vice President Prior to co-founding Mercury, Brad was a manager in the Maximus Fleet Group, which he joined in 1999. Previously, he was assistant fleet manager for Sarasota County, Florida. He specializes in the use of information technology in fleet management organizations. As a consultant, Brad has implemented many of the best-known fleet systems in the industry, and has assisted clients such as NASA, US Army, US Marines, GSA, State of Delaware, State of Minnesota, State of Oregon, City of Phoenix, City of Seattle Public Utilities, and the County of Seminole (FL) in integrating and evaluating commercial-off-the-shelf fleet, ERP, and asset management software options, implementation and reengineering information technology infrastructure, and integrating productivity-enhancement tools - including wireless devices, web-based reports, fleet replacement planning software, document imaging systems, and electronic repair manuals. Trained as a certified Microsoft and Citrix engineer, Brad holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Southern Illinois University. Click here to contact Brad Kelley by e-mail - bkelley@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page     Steve Burnett, CMC Associate Vice President   Steve is located in our Atlanta office. He has more than 35 years’ experience as a management consultant. Prior to joining the firm, Steve was the Director of public sector fleet management consulting services for Transportation Consultants, Inc. where he was responsible for general marketing, strategic development, and final quality control for the public sector fleet division. In addition to his work in the area of fleet management, he also has considerable experience in the areas of financial and general management consulting. He has held the positions of Partner and Executive National Director for Government Services with Touche Ross & Co., now Deloitte & Touche, and regional Vice President of David M. Griffith & Associates, Ltd. He hold a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of Tennessee and is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC).   Click here to contact Steve Burnett, CMC by e-mail - sburnett@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page     Gary Hatfield Senior Manager Federal Fleet Consulting Services Gary has over 32 year’s experience in fleet management, including 23 years directly managing large diverse fleets in Colorado and California, and 10 years as a full time fleet consultant. Now based in Bradenton Florida, he has directed and performed dozens of fleet studies for cities, counties, utility companies, and universities. He has recently taken the lead in performing several key fleet management improvement projects for the Federal government for organizations such as NASA, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the General Services Administration (GSA), and the U.S. Marine Corps. He is widely recognized as an expert on alternative fuel vehicles. Before joining Mercury Associates, he owned his own fleet consulting firm, Advanced Fleet Management Solutions, and was formerly a Manager with the Fleet Consulting group of Maximus, Inc. Gary holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. Click here to contact Gary by email – ghatfield@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page     Dr. Adlore Chaudier Senior Manager Federal Fleet Consulting Services   Adlore previously held a leadership position in the U.S. General Services Administration, overseeing the reengineering of the Federal travel per diem program and contributing to initiation of relocation reengineering efforts for the Office of Governmentwide Policy. Before joining GSA, Adlore was Vice President, Government Services, for Runzheimer International, for which he worked for 22 years, holding management positions in Consulting Services, Publications, and Business Vehicle Services. He has extensive experience in fleet, travel and relocation management; vehicle reimbursement and allowance programs; site selection; and housing market research. He has led Federal (e.g., Coast Guard, DoD, IRS, NASA, USPS), Utility (e.g., Gulf States Utilities, Citizens Utilities), and Corporate (e.g., AT&T, General Motors, Porsche Cars of North America, Starbucks) consulting projects.   Click here to contact Adlore Chaudier by e-mail - achaudier@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page     Janis Christensen, CAFM  Senior Manager  Corporate Fleet Consulting Services   Janis has more than 25 years experience in corporate fleet management. She directs Mercury’s consulting services to commercial clients, focusing on evaluating full-service lease contracts and fleet management company performance, accident management and fleet safety programs, policy and procedure development and fleet-related regulatory compliance. Before beginning her consulting career in 1998, Janis worked for over 20 years at TRW in New Jersey and California, where she managed a fleet of 1,700 vehicles. Her responsibilities included all aspects of fleet management from acquisition through disposal. She also directed the company’s alternative transportation and telecommuting programs. Since 1984, she also has served the National Association of Fleet Administrators in a variety of national and local positions. She left the Board of Trustees as vice president in 1998, after forming her own consulting company. She received NAFA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1999.   Click here to contact Janis Christensen, CAFM by e-mail - jchristensen@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page     Tony Yankovich Manager Fleet Consulting Services   Tony is an experienced management consultant and public sector manager. He specializes in program evaluations; productivity and competitiveness assessments; fleet replacement planning and financing strategies; maintenance facilities reviews and facilities space needs assessments. Prior to joining Mercury Associates, he was Senior Manager in the Fleet and Facilities Division of Eclipse, a division of Bucher, Willis & Ratliff Corporation, and Senior Consultant for Maximus. Before beginning his consulting career in 2000, he worked for Kansas City/Wyandotte consolidated city/county government for twelve years. During that time, he held several management positions in the Public Works, Operations Services and County Clerk departments.   Click here to contact Tony Yankovich by e-mail - tyankovich@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page     Julie (Pearman) Blanford Manager Federal Travel and Relocation Consulting Services Before joining Mercury Associates, Julie owned her own consulting firm, Travel & Relocation Management Solutions. Prior to that, she was Senior Management Consultant for Runzheimer International. With more than 15 years as a consultant, she has extensive experience in travel and relocation management; vehicle reimbursement and allowance programs; site selection; and housing market research. Julie is unique in her experience with and knowledge of corporate, government and military relocation policies and practices. From July 1999 through September 2000, she worked onsite in the Defense Integrated Travel and Relocation Solutions (DITRS) Office in Arlington, Virginia, assisting DoD in its travel-entitlement reengineering efforts. She has led Federal (e.g., Coast Guard, DoD, FDIC, GSA, VA) and Corporate (e.g., AT&T, AT&T Solutions, AEtna, Deere, DuPont, Eastman Kodak, Merck, McGraw-Hill, Southwestern Bell Communications [SBC], and State Farm Insurance) consulting projects.   Click here to contact Julie (Pearman) Blanford by e-mail - jblanford@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page     Len Bammer Senior Consultant Fleet Consulting Services   Len has more that 20 years’ experience as a public-sector fleet manager, most recently as the General Superintendent of Maintenance for the Denver Regional Transportation District, where he managed a fleet maintenance organization with 480 employees and an annual operating budget of $46 million. During his 20-year fleet management career, Len also has served as fleet manager for Jefferson County, CO (northwest suburbs of Denver), Larimer County, and the City of Colorado Springs. He is a past Chairman of the Board of the Rocky Mountain Fleet Management Association. In his career as a consultant Len has worked with the US Army, Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, State of Oregon, Arapahoe County, and several private para-transit companies. His particular areas of expertise include operations planning and evaluation, cost benefit analysis, transit operations, and project management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Regis University (Colorado Springs, CO).   Click here to contact Len Bammer by e-mail - lbammer@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page     Al Lundy Senior Consultant Fleet Consulting Services   Al Lundy, Senior Fleet Consultant, has over 40 years experience with Navy and Air Force fleet management programs. For the Navy, Al was responsible for developing long-range activity support plans and conducting on site management reviews. He was responsible for policy development, revision, interpretation and implementation for the U.S. Navy vehicle fleet with a replacement cost of $1.2 billion, including more than 35,402 pieces of equipment. His experience covers inventory management, cost controls and budgeting, organizational improvement, policy manual development, and risk assessment. He is credited with two extensive revisions of the Navy’s railroad manual and the Navy’s policy manual on transportation management. Al holds an MBA in Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.   Click here to contact Al Lundy by e-mail - alundy@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page Nancy Deras Senior Consultant Corporate Fleet Consulting Services   Nancy has over 20 years experience as an account management professional with U.S. Fleet Leasing (later Associates Fleet Services, CitiCapital Fleet and GE Fleet Services). Ms. Deras was responsible for managing the daily customer service needs of automotive fleet clients and received several awards, including “Client Service Representative of the Year” and “Keys to Success” for continuing customer satisfaction. Other responsibilities included the hiring, training and management of client relations representatives. At Mercury, Nancy specializes in providing client management services for corporate accounts.   Click here to contact Nancy Deras by e-mail - nderas@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page   Kevin Fareri, CAFM Senior Consultant Corporate Fleet Consulting Services Kevin has over 25 years' experience in transportation and logistics in both the public and private sectors, including fleet, traffic, facilities, safety, inventory control, materials management, asset management, and distribution. Prior to joining Mercury Associates, Mr. Fareri was fleet manager for United Services Automotive Association (USAA), which operated a fleet of 1,650 vehicles. He managed the largest private vanpool program in Texas in addition to the fleet's in-house safety program and maintenance facility. He also managed a nationwide private truck fleet with deliveries to domestic and Canadian locations, and was responsible for specifications and administration for European and Canadian based vehicles. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Transportation and Logistics from the University of Tennessee, and is a Certified Automotive Fleet Manager.   Click here to contact Kevin Fareri by e-mail - kfareri@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page   Steve Saltzgiver Senior Consultant Fleet Consulting Services Steve has over 30 years' experience in the fleet management and public transportation industry with the City of West Jordan, Utah Transit, and, for the last 10 years, the State of Utah. his experience also includes vehicle equipment sales, vehicle engineering/assembly, and diesel engine maintenance and repair. He started his professional career in a vehicle assembly plant, became a certified vehicle operator, lube technician, diesel mechanic apprentice; moved onto journeyman mechanic, maintenance supervisor, fleet manager, and finally the Director of the State of Utah vehicle fleet. This career path has given him a unique perspective on, and appreciation for, the interconnectivity and interdependence of positions at various levels as they relate to the overall success of a fleet management organization. Steve holds a Master's Degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.   Click here to contact Steve Saltzgiver by e-mail - ssaltzgiver@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page

Key associates within our firm are:   Kathe Carter Associate Senior Fleet Management Consultant Kathy recently joined Mercury Associates as a Senior Fleet Management Consultant after retiring from the State of Michigan. During her 30-year career there, she held management and executive positions in several divisions of the Department of Management and Budget, including Vehicle and Travel Services, Facilities, Mail, Logistics, Printing, and Real Estate. As Director of Vehicle and Travel Services, she was responsible for the management of a state-wide fleet of more than 8,000 vehicles. As the State's Deputy Director for Management, she had responsibility for managing annual capital and operating budgets of almost $1.2 billion, a portfolio of capital assets worth $40 billion, bonds of $1.9 billion, 815 employees, and a wide variety of contractual services. Kathe has completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University, and holds a Master's Degree in Economics from Michigan State University.   Click here to contact Kathe Carter by e-mail - kcarter@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page   Dayton Rumbough Associate Senior Fleet Management Consultant Dayton has 33 years of combined federal civil and military fleet service that includes 20 years of middle and senior management experience. He has directed and managed federal organizations involved in automotive fleet and public works administration, operations and maintenance. His background encompasses the development of strategic planning, vehicle replacement programming, development of operating budgets, performing quantitative/program analyses, organizational design, benchmarking, business case analysis, developing instructional fleet training programs and conducting fleet administrative, maintenance and operation audits and assessments.   Click here to contact Kathe Carter by e-mail - drumbough@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page     Dave Robertson, CAFM Associate Senior Fleet Management Consultant   Dave has over 30 years of experience as a professional fleet manager in the public and the private sector. He held three fleet management positions with the City of Houston (in the Fire, Police, and General Services departments) over a period of 16 years, and spent 17 years in the fleet leasing industry, working primarily with over-the-road truck fleets. One of the best-known fleet managers in the United States, Dave is a long-time member and the immediate past President of the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA). He has extensive experience as a fleet management instructor, has testified before the Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy on legislative and regulatory initiatives of national significance to the fleet industry and fleet management profession, and has authored articles on a variety of fleet management topics. His particular areas of expertise include emergency vehicle management, police vehicles, parts management, maintenance staffing and work flow management, maintenance facility planning, and alternative fuels. Dave holds a bachelor's degree in History from Eckerd College.   Click here to contact Dave Robertson, CAFM by e-mail - drobertson@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page     Chris Amos, CAFM Associate Senior Fleet Management Consultant   Chris is a part-time consultant with Mercury Associates in addition to serving as the Commissioner of Equipment Services for the City of St. Louis, where he manages a fleet of 3,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment. He also edits fleet management and alternative fuel articles for Automotive Digest. Chris’ previous fleet management experience includes five years as Fleet Manager for St. Louis County, MO and ten years as a US Army officer. Chris has participated in several federal rulemaking processes, testified before the Senate Energy Committee, taught at numerous fleet management seminars and conferences, and served as editor of several important fleet management manuals published by the National Association of Fleet Administrators. In 2003, he was honored as the inaugural recipient of NAFA’s Excellence in Education Award; he also is a previous recipient of NAFA’s Larry Goill Quality Fleet Management Ideas Award. Chris holds a master’s degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Southern California.   Click here to contact Chris Amos, CAFM by e-mail - camos@mercury-assoc.biz Top of Page     Tom Adams Associate Senior Associate Fleet Management Consultant   Tom has had a varied career in the federal government and as a management consultant. Over the past several years, he has participated in and managed dozens of consulting engagements. He has completed fleet management reviews, public works management analyses, fueling studies, and developed detailed organizational policies and procedures for various fleet management organizations across the country. He has also developed comprehensive facilities programs and plans for cities, counties, universities, and federal government agencies. Prior to joining Mercury Associates, Tom was a Senior Manager with Eclipse – a division of Bucher Willis and Ratliff Corporation – and a Manager with the Maximus Fleet Management Consulting Group. Before beginning his consulting career, he held a senior management position in the Department of Defense where he implemented, directed, and evaluated projects touching on a wide array of logistics management disciplines, including transportation, facilities, supply, maintenance, physical distribution, and training.   Click here to contact Tom Adams by e-mail - tadams@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page   Todd Cromett Associate Senior Fleet Management Consultant   Todd has 20 years of management experience in both the private and public sectors, including 11 years as a management analyst and FMIS system administrator in the Fleet Management Division of the Alaska Department of Transportation’s. His areas of responsibility at Alaska DOT&PF included oversight of the fleet management computer systems, fleet utilization monitoring and inventory management, annual cost charge-back rate development, and assistance in the development of fleet utilization and management policies and procedures for all vehicles in the State of Alaska. Todd spent 5 years as an IT Manager and quality control specialist for two prominent software development companies before joining Mercury Associates in 2004. He has since worked on major consulting assignments for the states of Alaska and South Carolina, among other clients. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Iowa.   Click here to contact Todd Cromett by e-mail - tcromett@mercury-assoc.biz   Top of Page