Questions about Fleet Oil Company:

While I was researching a legal case concerning Western Continental Operating Company that was affiliated with Fleet Oil and Fleet White, I discovered something interesting.  When listing Fleet Oil Company as one of the appellant's in the case, it listed "(Western") as a suffix, ie. Fleet Oil Company (Western).  This immediately made me think that there were other parts of Fleet Oil that were not in the Western part of the U.S.  If there was a Western Fleet Oil, was there an Eastern Fleet Oil?  My curiosity piqued, I went on Google searching for "Fleet Oil Company" to try to determine if it extended into Eastern part of the U.S.  When I did, I discovered that Fleet Oil Company existed before the 1962 filing date by Fleet White Sr to register it as a Company in California.  What exactly does this mean?

Does this mean that the Fleet Oil Company that existed before 1962 was also associated with the White Family?  Did Fleet White Sr just create a new branch of it in California in 1962?  Why are there so many companies with the name Fleet Oil Company?  Are these separate independent companies or are they all affiliated with each other? 

These are questions to be determined.