Certified Woman-Owned Fleet Vehicle Supplier in Monroe, LA
Jim Taylor Buick GMC › Commercial & Fleet
If your organization tracks spend with certified diverse suppliers, your fleet line is probably one of the largest categories you have never been able to count. Jim Taylor Buick GMC is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise, which means the trucks, vans and SUVs you were going to buy anyway can now be reported as diverse spend — without changing your specs, your budget or your replacement cycle.
We are a woman-owned, family-owned dealership group in North Louisiana, and Jim Taylor Buick GMC in Monroe is one of three rooftops. This page is written for the people who actually have to defend a supplier decision: fleet managers, procurement leads, and the supplier diversity analyst who has to reconcile the numbers at quarter end. It explains exactly what our certification is, what it is not, and what we can put in writing.
- Certification:
- National Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE), issued by WBENC
- Certified entity:
- Jim Taylor Buick GMC LLC
- Certificate no.:
- WBE2601859
- Granted / expires:
- 21 September 2026 – 30 September 2027
- Issued via:
- Women’s Business Enterprise Council – South, a WBENC Regional Partner Organization
- Ownership test:
- 51%+ owned, controlled, operated and managed by women
- NAICS / UNSPSC:
- 441110 — New Car Dealers · 25101500, 25101900, 25170000, 78180000
- Location:
- 500 N 18th St, Monroe, LA 71201
- Brands:
- Buick and GMC (plus Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Ford across the group)
- Fleet contact:
- Bobby Barton, Fleet and Commercial Sales
[email protected] · (318) 387-7022
What our WBENC certification actually means
WBENC certification is not a participation badge. To qualify, a business must be at least 51 percent owned, controlled, operated and managed by one or more women; the women owners must have unrestricted control of the business and demonstrated management of day-to-day operations; a woman must hold the highest defined title in the company’s legal documents; and there has to be documented evidence of female contribution of capital and industry expertise. The majority women owners must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. Certification is reviewed and renewed annually.
It is also worth saying plainly what certification is not. WBENC itself is direct about this: certification is a marketing tool and does not entitle or guarantee any company a contract. We are not asking you to buy from us because we are certified. We are telling you that when you do buy from us, the spend is reportable — and that is a real, countable benefit you cannot get from a dealer who is not certified.
One distinction that trips up a lot of paperwork: woman-owned and minority-owned are two different certifications with two different certifying bodies. A Women’s Business Enterprise is certified through WBENC. A Minority Business Enterprise is certified through the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Corporate programs typically roll both into a single “diverse spend” or “small business sourcing” number, but they report them in separate buckets. We are a WBE. If your program requires MBE specifically, we will tell you that up front rather than letting you find out at audit.
How our vehicles count toward your diverse spend
There are two ways the money moves, and it is worth knowing which one applies to you.
| Reporting tier | What it covers | How our vehicles fit |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | What your organization pays directly to certified diverse suppliers | You buy fleet vehicles from us. The invoice total is Tier 1 diverse spend, full stop. |
| Tier 2 — attributable | What you, as a prime supplier, pay diverse subcontractors on a specific customer’s contracts | Vehicles bought for a job or contract can be reported against that customer directly. |
| Tier 2 — allocation | A proportional share of your total diverse spend, based on each customer’s share of your revenue | Your annual fleet spend with us raises the total pool that gets allocated across your customers. |
For a lot of regional employers, fleet is the single easiest category to move the number in. Facilities services, IT and office supplies are already picked over. Vehicles are a large, recurring, budgeted line that almost never gets looked at through a supplier diversity lens — usually because nobody realized there was a certified option within driving distance.
Corporate supplier diversity programs have been through a lot of change. Many have been renamed — small business sourcing, economic impact, supply chain resilience — and some large companies stopped publishing their diverse spend numbers. The programs themselves largely did not go away. Recent survey work puts executive support for these programs at 87 percent, with 53 percent of the largest U.S. public companies still maintaining a diverse supplier policy.
Practically, that means the question is no longer “does your program require this.” It is “does your program still track it, and under what name.” If the answer is yes under any name, our invoices count.
If you hold federal contracts
This is the one place where the requirement is not voluntary, so it is worth being precise about it.
Under Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 19.7, a solicitation expected to exceed $900,000 — or $2 million for construction — generally requires a large prime contractor to submit a small business subcontracting plan. That plan must carry separate percentage goals for six categories: small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business. Government-wide, the statutory targets include 23 percent of prime contract dollars to small business and 5 percent to women-owned small business.
Here is the honest limit, stated up front rather than buried: we are not certified as a federal Women-Owned Small Business, and we do not claim to be. WBENC certification and SBA WOSB status are two different things. The federal WOSB category depends on SBA small business size status, which is based on company revenue rather than on who owns the business, and we have not applied for it.
What that means in practice: if your subcontracting plan needs a supplier who counts against the federal women-owned small business goal line specifically, we are not that supplier, and any salesperson who tells you otherwise is wrong. For corporate Tier 1 and Tier 2 diverse spend reporting, which has no size test, our WBENC certification is exactly what your program is looking for. We would rather you know which of those two things you are getting before you file anything.
What we supply
At Jim Taylor Buick GMC in Monroe we carry GMC Sierra 1500, 2500HD and 3500HD, Sierra chassis cab, Savana cargo and passenger vans, Terrain, Acadia and Buick Enclave. Across the group we can source Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Ford, which matters when your fleet policy is written around a particular platform or your drivers are used to one.
| Rooftop | City | Brands | Typical fleet use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Taylor Chevrolet | Rayville, LA | Chevrolet | Silverado work trucks, chassis cab, Express vans |
| Jim Taylor Buick GMC | Monroe, LA | Buick, GMC | Sierra work trucks, Savana vans, executive and pool vehicles |
| Jim Taylor Ford | Ruston, LA | Ford | F-Series, Super Duty, Transit vans, Ford service |
We also handle the parts of a fleet relationship that happen after the sale: scheduled maintenance, warranty work, recall administration and parts supply. If you are consolidating service to fewer vendors, that is a conversation worth having at the same time as the vehicle order.
What your procurement team gets from us
Supplier onboarding is where good intentions usually die. To make it quick, we keep a standing packet ready:
- Our current WBENC certificate for Jim Taylor Buick GMC LLC — certificate WBE2601859, valid through 30 September 2027
- Completed W-9
- NAICS code 441110 (New Car Dealers) and our supplier classification details
- Certificate of insurance, issued to your entity with your required limits
- Diversity questionnaires and supplier portal registration, completed by us
- A named contact: Bobby Barton, Fleet and Commercial Sales — [email protected] or (318) 387-7022, ask for him by name
If your program requires annual recertification evidence, we will send it without being chased. Certification lapses are the most common reason diverse spend gets clawed back at audit, and that is an avoidable problem.
Why Monroe-area fleets buy local
We serve Monroe, West Monroe, Bastrop, Sterlington and the Ouachita Parish area. For a regional employer, buying fleet from a dealer forty minutes away rather than a national remarketer changes some practical things: units get delivered rather than shipped, a service problem gets handled by someone who knows your account, and the economic impact of the purchase stays in the parishes where your employees live. That last part is increasingly what corporate programs are measuring now that many of them have been reframed around local economic impact rather than demographics.
We have been a family business in North Louisiana for more than two decades. The certification is new. The way we do business is not.
Related
Start with the paperwork, not a pitch
Email Bobby Barton, Fleet and Commercial Sales, at [email protected], or call and ask for him by name. Tell him which supplier portal you use and what your program needs to see, and we will send the certification packet the same day.
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Jim Taylor Auto Group a certified woman-owned business?
Yes. Jim Taylor Buick GMC LLC holds a National Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) Certification from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, certificate number WBE2601859, granted 21 September 2026 and valid through 30 September 2027. It was processed and validated by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council – South, a WBENC Regional Partner Organization. WBENC requires a business to be at least 51 percent owned, controlled, operated and managed by women, and verifies it with documentation. All three Jim Taylor rooftops are separately certified, each as its own legal entity. WBENC certification is recognized by more than 1,000 corporations as well as many state and local government agencies.
Does buying fleet vehicles from a WBE-certified dealer count toward our supplier diversity spend?
In most corporate programs, yes. Dollars you pay us directly are reported as Tier 1 diverse spend. If you are a prime supplier to a larger customer, the vehicles you buy from us can also be reported as Tier 2 spend on their behalf, either attributed directly to their contracts or allocated as a proportional share of your total diverse spend. Your supplier diversity or procurement team will know which method your program uses.
Is woman-owned the same as minority-owned?
No, and it is worth being precise. A Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) is certified by WBENC based on women’s ownership and control. A Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) is a separate certification, generally through the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Most corporate programs count both under the broader heading of diverse or small-business spend, but they are tracked as distinct categories. We are certified as a WBE.
We hold federal contracts. Does this help with our subcontracting plan?
It may, depending on the category. Federal solicitations expected to exceed $900,000 — or $2 million for construction — generally require large prime contractors to submit a small business subcontracting plan with separate percentage goals for small business, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, HUBZone, small disadvantaged and women-owned small business concerns. The women-owned small business line specifically requires SBA small business status, which is based on company size, not just ownership. Ask your contracting officer how your plan treats WBENC-certified suppliers, and talk to us about what documentation you need.
What kinds of vehicles can Jim Taylor Buick GMC supply for a fleet?
We stock and order GMC Sierra 1500, 2500HD and 3500HD, Sierra chassis cab, Savana cargo and passenger vans, Terrain, Acadia and Buick Enclave. We handle single-vehicle replacements through multi-unit orders, and we coordinate upfitting, ship-thru and delivery. Tell us the spec and the timeline and we will tell you honestly what is realistic.
What documentation will you provide for our supplier onboarding?
A certification packet with our WBENC certificate, W-9, NAICS code (441110, New Car Dealers), certificate of insurance, and our registration details for whichever supplier portal you use. We can complete portal registration and diversity questionnaires directly rather than sending them back to you to fill in.
Who do I talk to about a fleet order?
Bobby Barton, Fleet and Commercial Sales at Jim Taylor Buick GMC. He handles commercial and fleet accounts for this store, including spec, ordering, upfit coordination and the certification paperwork your procurement team needs. Email him at [email protected], or call (318) 387-7022 and ask for him by name. Either way you are dealing with one person who knows the account, not whoever happens to be on the floor.
Do we have to be located in Monroe to buy from you?
No. We serve Monroe, West Monroe, Bastrop, Sterlington and the Ouachita Parish area, and we deliver across North Louisiana and beyond. Most fleet conversations start with a phone call and a spec sheet, not a showroom visit.