contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . july 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message r.l. polk & company type acquired by ihs inc. industry automotive founded detroit mi 1870 founder ralph lane polk headquarters southfield mi area served worldwide key people stephen r. polk chairman president and ceo tim rogers president polk richard raines president carfax michelle goff senior vice president chief financial officer website www.polk.com r. l. polk & company is a provider of automotive information and marketing solutions to the automotive industry insurance companies and related businesses . 1 polk was acquired by ihs inc. on july 15 2013 2 and is based in southfield michigan with operations in several countries including the united states canada germany united kingdom france japan china and australia . its corporate mission is to collect and interpret data and apply our automotive business expertise to help our customers make good decisions . 1 contents 1 company history 1.1 1990s 1.2 2000 and beyond 2 carfax 3 see also 4 references 5 further reading 6 external links company history edit polk s illinois state gazetteer 1880 r. l. polk & company was founded by ralph lane polk in 1870 in detroit mi as a publisher of business directories . in 1872 the company first published a city directory for evansville indiana plus a listing of post offices in nine states . additional directories followed in the ensuing years as the business grew . 3 claiming 1000 directories by 1960 . 4 affiliates included the polk husted directory co. of oakland california . 5 in addition to city directories the company published bank directories . in 1907 r.l. polk & co. was publishing a gazetteer business directory for the state of michigan and windsor and walkerville ontario as well as gazetteers for alaska arkansas california idaho illinois oklahoma indiana iowa kansas kentucky maryland minnesota north dakota south dakota montana missouri nevada oregon washington state pennsylvania tennessee texas utah west virginia and wisconsin . 6 in 1921 a conversation between ralph lane polk ii and alfred p. sloan who later became president of general motors helped fuel r. l. polk & company s entry into the automotive industry . during the conversation sloan asked polk to impartially tabulate and publish statistical information on cars and trucks in operation . r.l. polk & company launched its motor vehicle statistical operations in 1922 when the first car registration reports were published . 7 in 1922 r.l. polk & co. published its first passenger car registration report covering 58 makes and accounting for 9.2 million passenger automobiles on america s highways . from 1951 to 1958 the company pioneered the use of electronic punch card tabulating equipment . in 1956 polk s reporting services included monthly statistics on boats business aircraft motorcycles commercial trailers and recreational vehicles . in 1976 the national vehicle population profile nvpp was introduced . 1990s edit in 1993 polk combined their canadian activities with blackburn marketing services to form blackburn polk marketing services inc. bpmsi . polk also acquired a 35 % interest in carfax from blackburn marketing services . in 1995 polk entered an alliance with marketing systems gmbh and acquired a substantial minority interest in the ultimate perspective t.u.p . in 1996 polk completed acquisition of the blackburn polk operations and renamed it polk canada marketing services inc. pcmsi . this acquisition unified and strengthened their north american operations in polk s strategy to be a global information services provider . they also announced their first automotive loyalty award winners . in 1997 polk acquired the mss division of automatic data processing s european operations . in 1999 polk completed acquisition of carfax and sold advertising unlimited inc. to norwood promotional products . 2000 and beyond edit in 2000 polk sells its consumer information solutions cis business units direct marketing data information services polk verity city directory and the compusearch and prospects unlimited units of polk canada to equifax . polk launches garage predictors and polk canada inc. announces polk canada net . polk also completes its acquisition of marketing systems group . ralph lane polk ii is inducted into the prestigious automotive hall of fame ahf located in dearborn michigan in 2001 . stephen r. polk is also a part of the ahf as a director 8 and r. l. polk & co. is also considered a sapphire level supporter . 9 in 2002 polk launches the polk vehicle lifecycle system and the polk cross sell is introduced . also in 2002 ralph lane polk ii is inducted into the direct marketing association dma hall of fame the highest professional honor in direct and interactive marketing . dma inducts into the hall of fame as many as four individuals each year for the significant impact these leaders have had on the growth of the direct and interactive process . 10 in 2003 polkinsight is launched . polk total market predictor polk tmp is also introduced . in 2004 r. l. polk & company launches polk cross sell report and rlptechnologies a new wholly owned subsidiary is established . also the software engineering institute sei awards r. l. polk & company with a level ii capability maturity model integrated cmmi rating . in 2005 r. l. polk & company introduces the polk inventory efficiency award . the polk inventory efficiency award recognizes and rewards outstanding aftermarket companies for process improvements relative to inventory efficiency . 11 in 2007 r. l. polk & co. acquire a majority interest in roadtodata a rapidly growing supplier of automotive price and specifications data . 12 in 2010 r. l. polk & company partners with citytwist . 13 in 2013 ihs inc announced a 1.4 b purchase of r.l. polk . 14 the company s business to business marketing services include polkinsight the national vehicle population profile nvpp blackburn polk marketing services inc. bpmsi polk dealer marketing manager 15 the ultimate perspective t.u.p polk canada net polk vehicle lifecycle system polk crosssell reports 16 and polk total market predictor polk tmp . citation needed carfax edit the polk company announced on august 2 1999 that it had completed acquisition of carfax . polk had previously owned 35 percent of carfax in partnership with the blackburn group inc. of london ontario canada and has now acquired the remaining 65 percent . 17 carfax compiles vehicle histories from various sources with about 75 percent of the information coming from polk data . using the vehicle identification number vin each history provides potential buyers with all available facts about a used car being considered for purchase . this may include original use of the vehicle odometer records number of owners and other items that might affect a purchase decision . 17 see also edit st. louis city directories references edit a b r. l. polk & company our company who we are index retrieved on 10 31 08 archived july 2 2008 at the wayback machine . http press.ihs.com press release corporate financial ihs completes acquisition rl polk co r.l. polk heritage archived december 29 2009 at the wayback machine . polk s abilene taylor county texas city directory 1960 . r. l. polk & co. 1960 . p. 7 . retrieved 27 september 2014 . polk s san jose city and santa clara county directory . 1907 . michigan state gazetteer and business directory 1907 1908 ed . . detroit r.l. polk & co. 1907 . p. 2 . retrieved 7 june 2016 . http web.archive.org web 20071116145915 http www.salesforce.com customers business services case studies rlpolk.jsp retrieved on 11 4 08 http ias.net ahof v1n3 retrieved on 11 5 08 http ias.net ahof v1n3 retrieved 11 5 08 http www.the dma.org awards halloffame.shtml retrieved on 11 4 08 http www.reuters.com article pressrelease idus147801 21 may 2008 prn20080521 retrieved 11 14 08 http japan.polk.com news latestnews r. l. polk and roadtodata merge.htm retrieved 12 26 08 https www.ihs.com customer citytwist auto excellence award.html http www.mlive.com auto index.ssf 2013 06 information company ihs to pur.html http google.com search q cache 2uemeatcgckj findarticles.com p articles mi hb6674 is ai n26650183 polk and marketing systems gmbh & hl en & ct clnk & cd 7 & gl us retrieved on 11 4 08 http www.prnewswire.com cgi bin stories.pl acct 104 & story www story 01 27 2004 00020 97303 & edate retrieved on 11 4 08 a b http www.theautochannel.com articles press date 19990802 press027618.html retrieved 11 7 08 further reading edit directory of directories . ny r.l. polk & co. 1916 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to r.l. polk & co. . www.polk.com www.carfax.com internet archive . works published by r.l. polk & co. various dates hathi trust . works related to r.l. polk & co. various dates oclc worldcat . works related to r.l. polk & co. various dates retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title r.l. polk % 26 company & oldid 743440712 categories companies based in detroitdirectoriespublishing companies established in 1870hidden categories articles with wayback machine linksarticles with a promotional tone from july 2009all articles with a promotional toneall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from july 2009commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 17 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view