Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

In last month’s column, I concluded that prospective customers do not have time to educate vendors on their businesses. In fact, the once-acceptable “tell me about your business” sales approach is an imposition on busy managers in today’s fast-moving environment.

Instead, prospects want to be engaged in a “rational” discussion characterized by a conversation with an expert possessing insights into their business, competitors and markets. The best way to earn acceptance, possibly even an enthusiastic response, is to recount the business challenges and opportunities similar companies have addressed. Introduce industry benchmark data, survey analyses and anecdotes from other companies that capture those business challenges.

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By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor

PARS, the Gainesville, VA, vehicle transport company, has introduced a new dashboard that allows its customers to access PARS’ products and services from within their own software. The dashboard was developed as part of a multi-year advanced IT development program under the direction of Erik Rasmussen, PARS’ Director of Outside Operations.

PARS is also developing a mobile app for its drivers. It will allow them to provide real-time, highly accurate vehicle condition and order status information. That, in turn, will enable PARS customers to make better decisions.

We sat down recently with Erik to learn more about the dashboard and the mobile app along with other new developments at PARS.

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By Keith Trumbull

From understanding material handling equipment costs to help strengthen strategy and leasing versus buying to forklift classifications and deciding when to repair or replace equipment, this column explored a range of topics related to material handling. Now we’re looking ahead to 2016.

How are you preparing your material handling fleet to meet the challenges of 2016? It’s a given that competition in your business will increase not lessen and that you’ll be asked to do more with less.

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Fleet Logistics

The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has voted to proceed with a new accounting standard that would require companies and other organizations to include lease obligations on their balance sheets. The new accounting standard is being proposed following concerns regarding the lack of transparency relating to material lease obligations that have been reported off-balance sheet.

The final Accounting Standards Update (ASU) is expected to be published in early 2016 and will be effective for public companies for fiscal years beginning after 15 December 2018; for private companies, the standard will be effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019.

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The Auto Channel

Republic Services announced today the addition of 11 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) solid waste collection trucks to its fleet serving customers in the Gardena, California area. The CNG trucks replace older diesel-powered trucks, and bring the total number of natural gas vehicles operated by Republic in Gardena to 176.

“These new vehicles support our efforts to reduce carbon emissions from our fleet vehicles,” said Ron Krall, area president of Republic Services. “It means that almost 200 of our collection vehicles serving the Gardena and surrounding areas are fueled by CNG, which aligns with Republic’s long-term sustainability strategy.”

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treehugger.com

China is so vast and so populous that there are multiple cities of 10+ million population that most people outside of the country have probably never heard about. One of those is Tianjin, with over 15 million inhabitants in its municipal area, making it the fourth largest city after Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. It might be flying a bit under the radar on the international stage, but it is doing some interesting things to try to combat China’s terrible pollution problem (being close to Beijing doesn’t help).

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PR Web

It’s no secret to many fleet owners that geofencing is quite the handy GPS tracker feature to have when it comes to keeping a watchful eye out on company vehicles. The GPS tracker system provides fleets with this popular feature which can be used in many areas of a fleet business.

Most managers recognize geofences as a way to mark off designated areas on a map, but this technology can be utilized more than one way. US Fleet Tracking lists 4 ways the usage of GPS tracker geofences helps fleet businesses.

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The Detroit Bureau

If you’re one of the 43 million American motorists expected to drive at least 50 miles this holiday weekend – indeed if you’re expecting to travel at all anytime soon – you might want to keep the results of a new study in mind.

It ranks the 10 states with the nation’s worst drivers, and based on federal highway statistics, and in the dubious lead is Montana which “finished among the top 20 in every category, ranging from 20th in Speeding to 1st in Fatality Rate,” noted Tyler Spraul, who oversaw the study for CarInsurance Comparison.com.

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By Ricardo Fonzaghi, Senior Vice President International Sales, LeasePlan International

So your fleet is going global… now what? Aside from the planning that comes with taking a fleet overseas, it is very important to understand some of the cultural variances between managing a fleet in the United States and Canada versus the rest of the world.

One of the most important cultural guidelines to keep in mind is that, in North America, a car is what you drive; in the rest of the world, a car is how you “dress” – it is a symbol of status. This is a powerful tool you can use to your advantage to realize cost savings overseas.

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Forbes

The rise of affordable automobiles in the early 20th century led to an increase in personal mobility that was unprecedented in human history. Most of us suddenly had the ability to travel vastly longer distances anytime we wanted to, no longer encumbered by the limits of human endurance.

Among the many pluses and minuses of the automobile was the ability to get further away from civilization and get off the grid.

The world is now on the verge of another mobility transformation with vehicles that communicate and drive themselves and getting disconnected from the world may become increasingly difficult.

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