CAR Fleet Control has just signed up its 150th customer in the States three years after entering the market via US distributor Gaelic Fleet Systems. Gaelic sells a version of CFC's Fleetbase system which is intelligently modified to take account of the differences between running a fleet in the UK and US.

Gaelic's Malcolm Miles said the key difference between the two markets was that vehicles are only issued to two types of driver - those who need them as part of their job and executive management. Very few cars form part of a benefits package.

'The goal of the fleet department is to serve the driver,' said Miles. He said cost control was simply not a significant factor in some utility fleets, where the operating costs of the vehicles represented only a small proportion of total turnover running in billions of dollars.

'Some companies may not even keep records of what vehicles they have, who has them and where they are kept,' said Miles. 'But as time progresses and fleet running costs become more significant, US fleet managers are becoming more cost conscious with many starting to charge costs back to user departments. It is a trend which can only benefit the fleet management software market.'