The lyrics from “It’s Late” by Queen’s Brian May really fit the marketing challenge for fleet service and product providers headed to NAFA I&E next week: it is too late to realize all of the marketing value that comes from the industry’s biggest conference. But, it’s not too late to do the best job possible given that this is the eleventh hour.

Let’s approach the steps chronologically from April 6th onwards, keeping in mind that the term “marketing” in our B2B world revolves around your sales team.

April 6th: Have your sales team submit the names of all customers and prospects they should have contacted to see if they planned on attending. Did they set a time to meet at the booth (or elsewhere) and what is the sales objective of the get-together? If a sales rep has few or no customer or prospect meetings, why is he or she going? The same question should be asked of other company representatives because the value of NAFA is simply to win new business or retain existing business.

READ MORE to learn, step-by-step, the actions you can take to fully realize the marketing value of NAFA I&E — the industry’s biggest conference.

By Keith Trumbull

After what seemed like a never-ending winter, spring is finally here. This time of year, you often hear “spring cleaning” in the context of getting your home into tip-top shape. However, as a fleet manager, it’s also a great time of year to ensure your material handling equipment is well maintained. Proper maintenance is essential, as it will help prevent the loss of business or production caused by failure.

Here are some easy items to cross off your spring cleaning to-do list. It’s important to check:

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After weeks of intense judging by industry leaders, the finalists for NAFA’s 2015 Fleet Excellence Awards have been chosen. The Fleet Excellence Awards (or FLEXY for short) were designed to shine a spotlight on those who have impacted fleet management in both the corporate and public fleet segments during the previous year. Three finalists were chosen for each of the seven categories. Winners will be announced during the Third Annual Fleet Excellence Awards Gala on Tuesday, April 14 at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida during NAFA’s annual conference.

The FLEXY Awards were open to all fleet professionals throughout the United States and Canada, regardless of whether or not they were members of NAFA Fleet Management Association.

READ MORE for the list of finalists

Safety is no longer a back-burner priority for new-car shoppers. Across most types of vehicle shoppers, it’s one of the top concerns.

Many families start their shopping process by weeding out potential vehicles that simply don’t make the cut in occupant safety.

However, in 2015 that’s less straightforward than it’s been in the past. There are so many five-star federal safety ratings, so many very well-stocked safety feature lists, and so many Top Safety Picks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)—71 of them in all—that it’s hard to filter out those that are the best from those that are merely better than average.

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British-based auto-firm Delphi has completed a journey from San Francisco to New York with its self-driving car. The trip, announced in March, covered nearly 3,400 miles (5,500 km) and took nine days. Delphi says it is the first US coast-to-coast trip ever taken by an automated vehicle.

Delphi’s Roadrunner car set off with a group of engineers from Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay on March 22. The subsequent journey took it through 15 states and the District of Columbia.

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Last week, UPS announced plans to build 15 compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations to support the purchase and planned deployment of 1,400 new CNG vehicles over the next year.

Twelve of the CNG stations will be in new natural gas vehicle deployment areas, and three will replace existing CNG stations with more robust, higher capacity equipment. This purchase represents a nearly 30% increase to UPS’s current industry-leading alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet of 5,088 vehicles worldwide.

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This is one collision motorists can look forward to.

Just in time for this week’s New York Auto Show, Toyota announced plans to roll out several low-cost packages combining an assortment of advanced anti-collision technologies. Rival makers have spent the last few days promising to come up with comparable systems, suggesting that they could yield huge reductions in highway crashes, injuries and deaths.

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The average American commute to work lasts 25 minutes, according to U.S. Census data, but many workers travel far above and beyond that number. In Los Angeles, drivers spend an average of 90 hours a year stuck in traffic alone, and employees in New York City spend an average of 48 minutes a day getting to their jobs, often switching trains or busses along the way.

Commuting is rarely anyone’s favorite time of day, but it can be more than just an inconvenience: All those hours spent in home-work limbo can have physical and mental health implications, as well. CHECK OUT these five ways your car, train, or bus ride to the office can affect your well being, plus what to do about it.

From in-car Wi-Fi to semi-autonomous driving, technology is quickly transforming the driving experience. The first flowering of in-dash technology beyond simply audio features was navigation, starting in the mid-90s. And it’s an aspect of car tech that’s benefiting the most from connectivity and the rapid evolution in the space.

While streaming music via Pandora and using adaptive cruise control can take away some of the monotony of a daily commute or long road trip, directional tools like knowing where you’re going or where to park at your destination, or where to eat or even where to find emergency services if you need them are examples of essential features benefiting from recent innovation in car technology.

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Apple’s reported entry into the autonomous vehicle race will accelerate automakers’ efforts in self-driving technology and could dramatically reshape the industry, experts said this week.

Some analysts think the news that the computer giant is mobilizing hundreds to build an autonomous electric minivan by 2020 could upend the industry. Others are less concerned, but think the perceived threat will hasten automakers’ efforts into self-driving technology and electric cars.

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