FleetManagementWeekly AmeriFleet
September 29, 2015

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Great Expectations

At this month’s AFLA conference we had the opportunity to meet with John Norris, president and CEO of AmeriFleet, and talk about the current focus of this fleet logistics company. John affirms something that author Jeofrey Bean has asserted in his monthly columns about CX: The expectations set by transactions that we have in our personal, retail lives – think Amazon and Apple – morph more and more into the B2B environment. Read our interview with John in this week’s issue.

Speaking of expectations, hear what LeasePlan’s Tom Casey has to say about realistic time frames for new vehicle deliveries. Every new model year brings its challenges.

Don’t forget: NETS’ annual Drive Safely Work Week campaign is being conducted October 5-9, but if those dates don’t work for your company, you can use the free, downloadable materials any time of the year.

Enjoy this issue, and be sure to check in at FleetManagementWeekly.com for daily updates.

Janice Sutton
Executive Editor


casey-tom

VIDEO: Realistic Time Frames for Vehicle Delivery

When it comes to understanding realistic time frames for new vehicle delivery, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration – and lead times for upfitted vehicles add another layer of complexity.



VIDEO: AFLA in Nashville
elliott-bill
  Fun & Networking in Nashville
 

AFLA’s first-ever conference in Nashville offered great networking, dynamic speakers, fun on the riverboat, and much more.


VIDEO: Vocational Fleets
latzko-ken
  Making Strides with Vocational Fleets
 

Today, there are some great ways to improve efficiencies and processes for vocational fleets.





The Fleet Spot


DSWW CEI Urges Fleets to Participate in NETS’ Drive Safely Work Week

The CEI Group, Inc. (CEI) urged fleets nationwide today to participate in the Drive Safely Work Week campaign next month. Sponsored by the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), the annual campaign is being conducted October 5 – 9 this year. CEI is one of seven members of NETS’ Fleet Safety Sponsor Program.

The theme for the campaign, the organization’s 19th, is “#Plan Ahead: Your Key to Driving Safely.” NETS has created an online toolkit to help fleets drive home the safety message each day of the week. The toolkit is available free, online at NETS’ website (www.taffficsafety.org).

READ MORE

stevies Donlen’s Mobile Apps Earns Stevie Award

Donlen was presented a Stevie® Award for their Donlen Mobile Apps in the Business/Government category at the 13th Annual American Business Awards on Friday, September 11, 2015.

“Donlen’s Mobile Apps have driven cost and efficiency savings for our customers,” said Jeff Pursell, Donlen’s vice president, technology products. “Drivers utilizing the Mobile Apps are more engaged in the operation of their vehicles and exhibit more compliant behavior.”

READ MORE

Martin-Winterkorn 10 Things to Know as VW’s Emissions Scandal Enters its 2nd Week

Geoffrey Smith/Fortune

CEO Martin Winterkorn is under criminal investigation, amid claims that VW had known for years it was breaking the law. State prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, have opened a criminal investigation into disgraced ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn on suspicion of fraud, according to broadcaster ARD.

Despite resigning as group CEO last week, he is still CEO of Porsche SE, the holding company that controls 52% of Volkswagen’s voting stock and reports to the descendants of company founder Ferdinand Porsche.

READ MORE

MB Mercedes Tops Study’s List of Carmakers Overstating Fuel Economy

Bloomberg

Mercedes-Benz topped a European lobbying group’s list of carmakers to overstate fuel economy for the second year in a row in an annual study that may receive extra scrutiny amid Volkswagen AG’s diesel-engine test scandal.

Vehicles built by Daimler AG’s Mercedes division used 48 percent more fuel on average than their published statistics claim, with gaps exceeding 50 percent on new A-, C- and E-Class models, Brussels-based Transport & Environment said Monday.

READ MORE 

Talent Management

By Sarah Sheldrick

Conflict can be a functional tool for a better workplace environment.

Conflict covers a vast spectrum of disparate relationships: it can range from mere disagreement to war. There can be conflict between individuals and institutions, or between governments or nation-states.

Conflict, when dealt with effectively and functionally, can improve relationships and makes us stronger and more confident. So, what are the steps to turn conflict into a transformative experience?

READ MORE

 
Managing Expectations

At the recent AFLA conference we sat down with John Norris, President and CEO of AmeriFleet, to talk about trends he is seeing in the industry today, and how AmeriFleet is poised to capitalize on them.

John says, “I think there are a couple of things we need to be cognizant of – it’s becoming more and more true that the expectations in the way we do commerce as consumers is bleeding more and more into the business-to-business environment. I think we can thank Amazon for that, right? Amazon says: place orders quickly, status in real-time virtually, and have everything happen as you expect it.

“How that translates to us in terms of what we are doing today is to recognize that to provide real-time status updates, we need to first capture real-time status. In an environment such as ours, where we have hundreds of people moving around the country every day of the week, the only way to do that effectively is with the right technology tools.”

READ MORE

 
The Debut of BlueIndy

Automotive News

BlueIndy, one of the nation’s first municipally supported one-way EV ride-sharing services, just went into effect on Sept. 2. The service eliminates many vehicle ownership hassles including insurance, maintenance, 24/7 roadside assistance, GPS and parking searches. All are courtesy of the city and Bollore Group, the French industrial and energy conglomerate that is investing $41 million to set up and run the service on a 15-year contract.

“It’s there when you want it and when you need it,” said Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard in the Sept. 2 ceremony inaugurating a service he championed, sometimes in the face of a storm of political opposition.

READ MORE







Fleet Trends & Issues


CEI Integrates with CCC One Estimating System

The CEI Group, Inc. (CEI), a provider of accident management and direct repair services, has integrated its data system with CCC Information Services’ CCC One estimating platform, CEI announced today.

The action makes it possible for repair assignments to be handled directly in the estimating system of CEI’s managed network of independently owned collision repair shops. CCE One, the industry’s leading estimating software system, is used by more than 17,000 repair shops in North America, and enables them to write collision repair estimates easier, faster and with more accuracy.

READ MORE

Chrysler, Other Automakers Could Be Swept Up in Emissions Cheating Scandal

Paul Eisenstein/The Detroit Bureau

German authorities now say 2.8 million Volkswagen diesel vehicles sold in that country “are affected” by the maker’s rigging of emissions tests. But VW may not be the only maker implicated. The suspect turbodiesel engine used by Volkswagen apparently also was sold to several other manufacturers, including Chrysler and Mitsubishi for use in some of their European models.

READ MORE

Americans Steer Away from Autonomous Parking

AAA

As automakers increasingly integrate self-parking features into new vehicles, Americans say they are not ready to give up control. According to a new survey from AAA, nearly 80 percent of American drivers are confident in their parallel parking abilities and only one-in-four would trust this technology to park their vehicle. Despite this, AAA testing found self-parking technology outperformed unassisted drivers in four key areas.

READ MORE

Car Thieves Love Imports and Pickups

The Detroit News

Do you drive an import or good ol’ made-in-the-USA pickup truck? You’d better keep an eye on it.

According to a just released report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), imports and pickup trucks were the most popular vehicles stolen in 2014.

Here’s the breakdown of the top 10 most stolen vehicles in the U.S. last year:

  1. Honda Accord, 51,290
  2. Honda Civic, 43,936
  3. Ford pickup (full size), 28,680

See #4 through #10 and read the rest of the original article in The Detroit News.

VW Tries to Restore Trust

The New York Times

Martin Winterkorn, in his statement announcing his resignation as chief executive of Volkswagen his week, said he was “shocked” and “stunned”that the company had programmed some of its cars to cheat on emissions tests.

But a few days before he gave up his post, he made a promise that Volkswagen would do “everything that must be done” to restore trust in it. Then, just for emphasis, he repeated that the company would do “everything necessary” to undo the damage the episode has caused all of the Jetta, Passat, Beetle, Golf and Audi A3 diesel owners.

READ MORE

 
Think Global. Plan Local.

By Paul Fortin, LeasePlan USA, and Saskia Harreman, LeasePlan International

Benchmarking your fleet can give you a comprehensive view of your current practices by stacking up your performance data, financial results and other metrics against comparison data to identify areas of improvement or to validate existing practices.

Through benchmarking, fleet managers evaluate various aspects of their company car offering and fleet processes in relation to best practice companies, usually within a peer group defined for the purpose of comparison. This allows organizations to establish plans on how to make improvements or adapt specific best practices, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance.

An efficient fleet strategy based on benchmarking will help develop a fleet that is fit for its purpose, and serve as guidance on how it should be managed.

READ MORE

 
ADAS Can Save Lives

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Could Avert Almost 30 Percent of Crashes, but Stakeholders Must Take Action to Spur Increased ADAS Adoption, Says Study by The Boston Consulting Group. If widely adopted, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) could generate tremendous benefits to society, sharply reducing the number, cost, and severity of automotive accidents.

“Because the vast majority of crashes in the United States are caused by driver error, the lack of adoption of these technologies within the U.S. fleet is a significant missed opportunity,” says Xavier Mosquet, North America leader of BCG’s Automotive practice and a coauthor of the study, which was commissioned by the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA). “This is especially true considering that ADAS technologies also pave the way for partially and fully autonomous vehicles, which could further reduce crashes—and their cost to society—by 90 percent or more.”

READ MORE








Fleet Management Resources
 
AmeriFleet
Offering a nationwide vehicle delivery and relocation service; serving the corporate and commercial fleet industry.
GPS Insight
GPS Insight offers GPS tracking solutions to meet your organization's unique requirements and challenges.
PARS
PARS' mission is to provide you with high-quality service at competitive prices for all of your transportation needs.
ARI
Driven fleet professionals. Driving results.
LeasePlan
LeasePlan is the world's leading high-touch service provider for vehicle leasing and fleet management.
The CEI Group Inc.
North America's largest accident management and fleet driver safety company.
Element
Customizing global fleet management to achieve your goals.
NAFA
NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location, or fleet composition.
Verizon Networkfleet
Verizon Networkfleet offers GPS fleet management solutions to help small to medium-sized businesses, enterprises, and government agencies better manage vehicles and assets. For a demo visit www.networkfleet.com/demo.