First Priority Group Announces New Name, driversshield.com New Stock Trading Symbol, DRVR, Effective November 2, 2000
31 October 2000
First Priority Group Announces New Name, driversshield.com New Stock Trading Symbol, DRVR, Effective November 2, 2000First Insurance Carrier Plans to Expand Program PLAINVIEW, N.Y., Oct. 31 driversshield.com Corp., has announced that its new name is now effective along with a new stock trading symbol, DRVR, that will become effective November 2, 2000. The Company will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. "The driversshield.com name aptly reflects the thrust and focus of our company going forward and gives us a strong brand name we can build on," said Barry Siegel, chairman and chief executive officer. "In all three of our businesses -- claims management for fleets, automotive discounts and services for consumers, and collision repair management for insurance companies -- serving drivers is the common thread, and we're increasingly doing so through the Internet." Siegel said that the Company's oldest and still largest business, National Fleet Service, will be renamed driversshield.com FS. It provides "managed care," claims management services for self-insured corporate and municipal vehicle fleets, listing a number of America's most prestigious companies among its clients. The fast-growing Affinity division, which operates the pioneering Driver's Shield(R) auto club program of automotive discounts and services, will become driversshield.com ADS. The program is wholesaled to leading financial and other enterprises, which market it as a benefit or perk to their customers or members. Clients include, Providian Financial, Assurant Group (part of the Fortis Group), Aon, Protective Life, Priceline.com and other organizations. The Company's newest business, until now called simply driversshield.com, will now be called driversshield.com CRM, emphasizing its customer relationship management role. This business, now beginning to ramp up quickly, draws on proprietary Internet technology and 17 years of collision claims management experience to help insurers strengthen their customer relationships by managing the repair portion of the collision claims process faster and more efficiently, economically and conveniently for the customer. The Company's first insurance company client for this service, Shelter Insurance, reported that it was pleased with the initial results of the pilot program and has agreed to expand it to additional branch offices. Shelter also intends to incorporate the driversshield.com CRM system into its national call center in the spring of 2001. The Company anticipates that revenues from Shelter will begin to ramp up over the next few months, paving the way for a strong first quarter in 2001. Last week the Company reported a solid profit gain for the quarter ended September 30, 2000, its third straight profitable quarter. Siegel predicted strong revenues to continue in the fourth quarter and accelerating growth in 2001. This announcement contains "forward looking statements." Words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" and other similar expressions as they relate to the Company and its management are intended to identify such forward looking statements. Although the Company and its management believe that the statements contained in this announcement are reasonable, it can give no assurances that such statements will prove correct. Factors that could affect the occurrence of events or results discussed herein are included with those mentioned in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.