By Brian Matuszewski, Manager, Sustainable Strategies, ARI

The constant demand for fleets to adopt more sustainable, environmentally friendly vehicles is nothing new. In fact, it has only gotten – if anything – more pressing over the years.

Lower gas prices have taken some of the urgency out of the discussion to consider alternative fuel vehicles, but questions around the long-term effects that traditionally fueled vehicles have on the atmosphere and environment remain.

The impact of vehicle emissions is significant: nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from vehicles and 83 percent of GHG emissions attributable to transportation come from light, medium and heavy duty trucks. A recent report from the University of Michigan suggests, however, that individuals who choose to adopt simple, well-known sustainable measures can have a big impact on the overall environment. In fact, the authors specifically considered measures people could take that would not require a major change in lifestyle.

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By Wendy Eichenbaum

Let’s say that you are evaluating your company’s scheduling tool. You want to know what makes an ideal experience when scheduling a meeting. To do this, you meet with customers and ask a typical CX question, What makes a great experience when scheduling a meeting?

The problem is that you can wind up with silence. Your customers freeze up, struggling to recall specific examples of good and bad experiences. Instead they recite a laundry list of features. And the customers feel ineffectual and guilty, unable to give you directed answers.

When you talk with customers, start with questions that facilitate their ability to recall experiences. You do this by restructuring your questions. Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson has a process to design the opening question. We can build on this process to help customers discuss their ideal experiences.

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Edmunds.com

New Report Says Prices for Used Compact and Subcompact Cars Fall, Even as Overall Used Car Prices Hit All-Time High

According to the report, compact cars are down 1.5 percent and prices for used subcompact cars are down 5.7 percent year over year. The price movements stand in sharp contrast to overall used car prices, which are up 3.2 percent to a first-quarter record of $18,838 per vehicle.

Edmunds analysts say all of these trends result from one overarching cause: America’s love affair with SUVs.

“Low gas prices and easy credit are making SUVs – and their higher price points — more appealing to used car shoppers, but they’re also creating a great opportunity for small car shoppers who now have a wider selection at lower prices,” says Edmunds.com Director of Industry Analysis Jessica Caldwell.

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30% of Small Fleet Operators to Adopt Fleet Management Solution by 2020 

This study analyzes the North American commercial vehicle telematics market from the base year of 2015 through 2022.

Major topics include evolving market trends, market sizing, business model and pricing structure, breakdown of unit sales by solutions and service types, opportunity analysis, revenue analysis, telematics penetration by vehicle type and fleet size, market share analysis, and exclusive OEM partnerships. An executive understanding of the market is provided via a 360 degree perspective.

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Wall Street Journal

A group of business and former military leaders wants to limit states’ ability to regulate driverless cars, calling for sweeping federal legislation to avoid a patchwork of rules they believe could hinder adoption of the technologically advanced vehicles.

Executives including FedEx Corp. Chief Executive Fred Smith and retired U.S. generals associated with a Washington group that lobbies to reduce America’s oil dependence plan to meet with politicians in the nation’s capital on Thursday to discuss recommendations for speeding introduction of driverless cars.

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McKinsey.com

Insurance companies seek to deliver enhanced products and services by investing in new technologies and partnering with others in the smart-car environment.

When it comes to connected cars, what was once considered to be the stuff of science fiction is now reality.

Many cars are equipped with sophisticated sensors that can monitor not only miles driven, location, and routes used but also a person’s driving behavior as well as vehicle data such as oil temperature, brake wear, and tire pressure.

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Alaska Dispatch News

The Anchorage Police Department is paying nearly $140,000 to change the locks on its entire fleet of patrol cars after someone broke into a city tire shop in early April and exposed a security weakness — some cop cars have the same keys.

Early in the morning on April 7, a burglar forced open the door to the tire shop on Fairbanks Street. When police officers responded to a report of the break-in at 2:51 a.m., there was stuff scattered everywhere, said Anchorage police spokesperson Jennifer Castro. Shelves, cabinets and drawers had been rummaged through.

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By Kelly Frey, VP Product Marketing, Telogis

It’s human nature – when we’ve been doing something the same way, day after day, year after year, it becomes a blind spot. We don’t stop to think about it unless something forces us to.

That’s what’s happened when the new ELD mandate was announced, requiring mandatory adoption of electronic logging devices for hours of service (HOS) by December 18, 2017.

We have time to reach compliance – but there are significant advantages to jumping into the new technology sooner rather than later. Along with the HOS going digital, it’s time to rethink paper-based driver vehicle inspection forms (DVIRs) as well.

A daily chore for millions of commercial vehicle drivers, filling in DVIR slips by hand as part of their pre or post-trip inspection is just one of those compliance tasks that we didn’t argue about. The legislation demanded it and we just got it done.

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Forbes

Automotive executives have been suffering sleepless nights for years worrying that new technology thrusters like Google, Apple and Uber will suddenly blind-side them and effectively destroy their businesses.

Investment researcher Evercore ISI, in a report called “The Empire Strikes Back”, says maybe this isn’t inevitable and reminds the traditional industry and its suppliers that not least because of their sheer size, they still have some formidable weapons in their armoury.

The nightmare scenario is that the traditional automotive business will be vulnerable to these upstarts when transport becomes a commodity that you summon via an app.

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The New York Times

Imagine you are driving on a highway late at night when a big-rig truck closes in behind you. You relax because it is keeping a safe distance and seems to be obeying the speed limit. Now imagine that truck is driving itself.

Despite Silicon Valley’s enthusiasm for self-driving cars, it could be years before there are many of them on the road. But autonomous 18-wheelers? One start-up is betting that is a different matter.

That start-up is Otto, led by 15 former Google employees, including eight engineers.

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