Speed, Precision and Reliability Drive FEAM’s Success

The aircraft maintenance company relies on its fleet of Enterprise-provided vehicles to service and maintain cargo aircraft and keep the global supply chain moving.

Every industry has its own set of acronyms that seem nonsensical to most. But for those in the aircraft maintenance industry, AOG is the equivalent of the fire alarm for the fire department.

“Unexpected challenges happen daily in the business. There’s actually a term called AOG. It stands for ‘aircraft on ground.’ It really means there’s an urgent issue we need to figure out how to handle so we can get this plane back up in the air,” says FEAM Maintenance/Engineering President Cam Murphy. “We have to be on time for all of our customers, which means when we come up to the plane, we have a certain amount of time to fix it and get it ready to go before it leaves.”

To get its crew on the runways fast, FEAM, which is headquartered in Miami, relies on Enterprise to quickly procure and brand its fleet of vehicles, which include two-door and four-door pickups, SUVs and also lift trucks. 
“Enterprise’s role supports FEAM with the great vehicles that we need, because everything is such a time constraint,” says FEAM Line Manager Ray Serrano.
The relationship with Enterprise has also evolved as FEAM’s business has changed and grown over the years.

“In 2010, when we really started looking at some of these different things to now, the company has probably scaled over 300%. We’ve gone from maybe 30 vehicles to now we have over 200 vehicles and we’re probably getting close to 300 vehicles systemwide,” Murphy says. “So Enterprise has been there to provide opportunity and to scale quickly with us.”
Because the business of aircraft maintenance requires a high degree of reliability and availability, it’s not enough to just have a fleet of cars available to employees. FEAM actually thinks just as carefully about having enough backup vehicles, as well.

“Having a backup is always something that’s a must. Because sometimes, we need to get an oil change done or something, and they’re down temporarily. We need to have another vehicle so we can continue to work the rest of our projects. Without that, it just becomes very difficult,” Serrano says. 
Learn more about the high stakes and quick fixes that make up the routine business of FEAM in this customer case study video.