By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

In the April 7, 2015 edition of the Fleet Management Weekly e-newsletter, I summarized the steps necessary to ensure success at the fleet industry’s biggest exhibition event – the NAFA I&E.

Entitled “It’s Not Too late,” the article made clear that the preliminary work needs to start well before the conference!

Here is a more complete chronology of the “best practices” NAFA I&E exhibitors should adopt every year.

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.

One of the many strengths of NAFA’s annual conference, the Institute & Expo, is the lineup of keynote speakers that bring their ideas, their passion, and life lessons to the stage year after year.

2016 exemplifies this with three individuals who will bring stunning information to this year’s conference!

The 2016 Institute & Expo takes place April 19-22 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

The event program, created by fleet managers for fleet managers, features fleet training, education, and workshops; and an Expo Floor consisting of more than 200 companies showcasing their products and services, including the Expo Floor Green Zone, showcasing the latest products and services touting sustainable practices.

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Chevin Fleet Solutions has announced the global release of ‘How to Become a Fleet Data Mastermind’ — the first in a series of informative white papers created by the company.

The guide has been developed to provide advice for organizations running fleets of all sizes, to help them understand how to better integrate processes into fleet management software that can help measure and improve performance.

Included in the guide is information and case studies that demonstrate how fleet management software can streamline workload and eliminate redundancies across systems from finance and HR applications to fleet and fuel management systems.

READ MORE and download the white paper

The Washington Post

Mayhem on America’s highways has taken the lives of just over 1 million people since 1990, a level of decimation that has gotten far less attention than the approximately 659,000 people struck down by AIDS since it began garnering headlines in the 1980s.

People have been dying on the roads ever since 1899, when Henry Hale Bliss was killed by a taxicab as he stepped off a streetcar at West 74th Street and Central Park West in New York. He is on record as the victim of the first traffic-related death in U.S. history. But these days, traffic fatalities generally are big news only when several people are killed in a crash.

The reasons about 90 people die in vehicle crashes every day — and that the number of deaths appears to be increasing — are described in a new survey scheduled to be released Thursday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

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Bloomberg Business

A shift is under way that will lead to widespread adoption of EVs in the next decade.

With all good technologies, there comes a time when buying the alternative no longer makes sense. Think smartphones in the past decade, color TVs in the 1970s, or even gasoline cars in the early 20th century. Predicting the timing of these shifts is difficult, but when it happens, the whole world changes.

It’s looking like the 2020s will be the decade of the electric car.

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Belgium-based global automotive finance, leasing and fleet software provider, Sofico, has announced record sales revenue results for 2015.

Gémar Hompes, Sofico Managing Director, said that 2015 had been the company’s most successful year to date.

“We had a hugely successful year in 2015 with record levels of turnover and employees, and saw our revenue increase by 30% in the last 12 months alone. Based on the current number of ongoing implementation projects, we are set for another successful year.”

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Forbes

If you’re tired of being blinded by headlight glare at night, and studies say many drivers are, the big French automotive supplier, Valeo, has an intriguing answer.

As one element of a range of future autonomous car-related technologies, Valeo has developed prototype high-tech glasses called Les Lunettes, which can reduce the intensity of oncoming headlights without dimming the brightness of the user’s car lights.

During the day, Les Lunettes work like regular sunglasses, but they can be activated before entering a tunnel to prevent glare from blinding the driver when exiting out the other side.

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J.D. Power

Problems with technology continue to affect vehicle reliability according to the J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS).

The number of problems with infotainment, navigation and in-vehicle communication systems—collectively known as audio, communication, entertainment and navigation or ACEN—has increased and now accounts for 20% of all customer-reported problems in the study.

ACEN is now the most problematic area on most vehicles and is the cause of the industry’s 3% year-over-year decline in vehicle dependability.

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By Don Scare and Mike Quimby

Last month, the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos went head to head in Super Bowl 50. NFL players train long and hard to keep their performance optimal. How do you ensure you have a winning fleet in place? When it comes to trucks, there are many things you can do to keep your fleet operating like a champ.

See the following playbook:

Preventative maintenance
Recognizing the importance of preventative maintenance is critical when operating a fleet. A preventative maintenance program is used to proactively avoid or reduce vehicle breakdowns. Taking pre-emptive measures can help prevent potential problems and limit vehicle downtime, lowering overall operating costs.

Preventative maintenance should be performed on a scheduled basis, including daily vehicle inspections. Remember, if a vehicle becomes unsafe due to lack of maintenance or repair, a fleet manager can be held liable.

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Driving Dynamics is excited to kick off its new Safety & Risk column in Fleet Management weekly. We look forward to delivering exceptional and informative driver safety content each month.

There is probably not a day that goes by when you see someone taking unnecessary driving risks. If you are like most individuals, this can make you quite uncomfortable—maybe even angry at times. Without a doubt, aggressive driving is a serious and growing problem. It is rude, often illegal, and always dangerous. Speeding, tailgating, frequent and sudden lane changes, failure to yield right-of-way and disregarding traffic signals—these aggressive behaviors are contributing factors in more than 50 percent of all collisions.

This One Second Advantage™ safety tip addresses what triggers aggressive driving and its results. It also includes a few common sense techniques designed to keep yourself and the situation under control.

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