Our History
First in Fleet
In 1939, our founder Zollie Frank, proprietor of the nation’s largest Chevrolet dealership Z Frank Chevrolet, pioneered the fleet management industry in North America when he developed a creative solution for a pressing client need. A large Chicago company, Petrolager, was losing salespeople after helping them fund the down payment on a personal vehicle that they would use on the job. Zollie designed a closed-end leasing solution to help the client improve salesperson retention while incurring a predictable monthly cost. With the acquisition and lease of 75 vehicles, the Wheels business was born. From those humble beginnings, Wheels grew into an industry leader.
And now, with the October 2021 announcement of the Wheels and Donlen merger within Athene Holding Ltd, a new entity has emerged – a customer-centric powerhouse provider of comprehensive fleet management solutions. Today, Wheels Donlen manages over 525,000 vehicles in North America, and over 2.5 million vehicles in 59 countries worldwide in global alliance with ALD Automotive.
Wheels’ history is marked with a series of industry firsts, with product innovations and business growth being driven by the evolving needs of our clients.