By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

Fleet industry marketers know the limitations of social network “vanity” metrics (i.e., likes, followers, shares, clicks). They may indicate progress, but measuring real social network value takes a much deeper dive, requiring more sophisticated tools.

Fortunately, technology has evolved to the point where attribution of social network value is a reality. While we are focused on lead generation, click here for a helpful chart that cites advocacy business unit value more broadly.

For sales and marketing, determining the origin of web traffic and tracking what happens to a lead after it is received are the critical factors.

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By Mike Quimby Senior Vice President and General Manager, Element Fleet Management

There’s a lot to be said for being independent. You aren’t influenced or controlled by anyone else and you can do as you please.

However, when it comes to independently managed fleets, you may be missing out on crucial support and insight, making it beneficial to work with a fleet management company (FMC).

There are many reasons to shift from an independently managed fleet to working with a fleet management provider, from material handling and automotive expertise to leveraging their relationship with vendors for best pricing.

Let’s explore some typical reasons fleet managers opt not to work with a fleet management company.

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By Mike Sheldrick

Last month, the Guardian prophetically wrote an influential, widely read piece entitled, “Statistically, Self-Driving Cars Are About to Kill Someone.”

The Guardian argued that it was statistically impossible that the roughly 100 million fatality-free miles racked up by Tesla’s Autopilot activated cars would continue as those millions turned to billions, and yes, even trillions. One hundred million miles are roughly the rate at which a fatal accident occurs in the U.S.

Then, it happened. Actually, it happened on May 7, on a divided highway in Florida. A man in a Tesla Model S was crushed when his Autopilot-driven car drove beneath a tractor-trailer making a left turn on the highway in front of the car.

Nine days later, Tesla Motors reported the incident to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), which for some reason, sat on the information for nearly two months, before it said, in response to press queries, that it would investigate the incident.

An authoritative account of the accident will have to await the NHTSA examination. In the meantime, however, the incident has amplified discussion about the wisdom of autonomous (or semi-autonomous) vehicles.

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The Detroit News

The auto industry is waiting for a new report from federal regulators that will be used to determine whether stringent gas mileage rules requiring them to produce car and truck fleets that average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025 will stay in place.

The new rules, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, are beginning to take effect with the 2017 model year.

They call for ramping up from the current fleet-wide average of about 34 miles per gallon for cars and trucks that were required in 2016 to an eventual goal of about 50 miles per gallon by 2025.

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As terror attacks around the world, the Brexit vote in the UK, and often-strident attacks on globalization make clear, discussion of a riskier world is not a media invention. For all sorts of reasons, the pillars of the post-World War II global order, including ever freer trade and investment, are under stress.

While individual companies can do little to impact these geopolitical trends, they can—and should—take steps to minimize the growing risks they pose to employees, property and operations.

Employee compensation is usually an organization’s largest expense. Right behind it is vehicle fleets. As global political risk and even violence increases, so do the threats to vehicles, their drivers and passengers and their cargo.

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New York Times

Even as automakers and technology companies have been promoting a euphoric vision of the future in which cars will drive themselves and serious crashes will be rare, their engineers have been engaged in a sobering debate.

Just how autonomous can and should cars become? the engineers are asking.

Is there an inherent danger in technology that invites human drivers to sit back and relax — but still requires them to be ready to hit the brakes or grab the wheel at the first sign of trouble?

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Gizmodo

Last month, Google focused on teaching its self-driving cars to honk appropriately. Now, it’s taking safety into its own hands and learning how to deal with all those cyclists on the road.

According to Google’s latest self-driving car report, the autonomous cars can now detect a cyclist’s hand signals, and use machine learning to remember signals from previous rides. Its sensors work 360 degrees, including in the dark and have been programmed to distinguish between tandem bikes, bikes with big wheels, unicycles, and other types of bikes. (But can it recognize this seven-person tricycle? This remains to be seen.)

Most importantly, according to the report, “our cars won’t squeeze by when cyclists take the center of the lane, even if there’s technically enough space.” That’s better than can be said for some existing drivers out on the road.

The Washington Post

More than a decade ago, the National Institutes of Health sent researchers to high schools across suburban Washington to track teens with lasers and video cameras.

They wanted to see how their young subjects drove when they had passengers with them.

So the researchers stood outside 10 parking lots in Maryland and Virginia. The teens had no idea they were being watched as researchers jotted down details about who was riding in the cars and then monitored the subjects as some sped and tailgated away from campus.

Now, expanding on that work, scientists are using driving simulations and brain scans to try to explain not just how young people drive when they’re with others, but why.

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By Janice Sutton

We spoke with Dan Frank, president of Wheels, Inc., at the recent NAFA I&E. He talks first about the genesis and success of the company’s newly-launched reimbursement program, and follows with his views on various components of advanced driver safety technology. We questioned whether or not it could be morally or even legally incumbent upon a company to offer those available safety features on vehicles in their fleet.

Wrapping up our interview, Dan says, “The biggest issue challenging customers today is the complexity. Change is happening so rapidly in our industry. This is a 75+ year old industry, and you would think we would have it all figured out by now and it is fairly commoditized and routine. The reality is it is not. While the pace of change is challenging, it is also what makes the fleet industry so interesting, exciting and valuable to our clients.”

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The Detroit Bureau

This “could be the first road in history ever to pay for itself.”

One of the most famous roads from America’s past could soon become the highway of the future, at least if a project launched by the Missouri Department of Transportation pans out.

MoDOT, as its locally known, plans to become the first public highway department to test out a new type of pavement that not only replaces conventional concrete and asphalt but which also can generate electricity through built in solar panels. The technology was developed by an Idaho-based start-up called Solar Roadways.

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