FleetManagementWeekly AmeriFleet
November 15, 2016

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Trump and the Sustainable Fleet

As we have a president-elect who has called climate change a “hoax,” it’s clear that sustainability is not going to be his focus. His appointment of climate contrarian Myron Ebell to look into the E.P.A. and his vow to withdraw from the Paris Agreement are worrying climate scientists and those who are deeply concerned about the impact of these actions on the life of our planet.

Automakers were quick to call for weaker fuel economy standards, but since fleets have been so prominent in their adoption of eco-friendly vehicles and sustainability initiatives, we are eager to learn how fleets plan to adapt to the new order. NAFA and CALSTART have been in the forefront of working for fleet sustainability – we hope their good work will continue, but will fleets embrace sustainability if the federal government does not?

Multi-national fleets may take a different view of this as they work within countries that are committed to the Paris Agreement and are taking bold steps to reduce their carbon footprint. Trump may turn America’s back on the serious climate turmoil we face now and in the future, but the rest of the world will not.

Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief


Thought Leadership

Fleet Marketing – Guiding principles for fleet providers to improve marketing and increase sales.

Fleet Asset Management – Best practices for work truck management.

On Accident Management Learn ways to save money on your fleet’s collision repair costs.

Safety & Risk — Impactful driver safety and risk management tools and techniques.

The Fleet CX Toolbox – Solid steps to implementing and improving fleet customer experience.

Guidance for the Multinational Fleet — An expert’s view on the global fleet.

BIG Data. BIG Results. BIG Future– Harnessing big data to achieve big results using cutting edge technology.

Customer Driven — Engage your organization to create customer loyalty, trust and superior service.

Talent Management – Smart guidelines to help you manage the talent in your workplace.


latzko-ken

VIDEO: Focusing on Fleet Driver Management

CEI’s value proposition centers around both accident management and driver safety – essentially covering both ends of the spectrum.



VIDEO: Customer Experience
bean-jeof
  Jeof Bean: How to Become a Great Customer Experience Company
 

Is it your company’s aim to become more focused on Customer Experience? If yes, expert Jeof Bean has some fantastic tips to get you started.


VIDEO: Growing and Advancing AFLA
elliott-bill
  Bill Elliott: A New Strategic Plan for AFLA
 

AFLA’s Board of Directors recently adopted a new strategic plan that focuses on growing and advancing the organization.





The Fleet Spot


ARI Logo ARI® Vehicle Replacement Prioritization Tool Eliminates Guesswork for Company Fleets

The new process puts the data directly into a fleet’s hands allowing them to pinpoint the right time to replace a vehicle 

ARI has empowered fleet managers with direct, online access to data vital in deciding the best time to replace a vehicle with the ARI Vehicle Replacement Prioritization Tool®.

This new technology from ARI helps companies gather and analyze data from their fleets to create a ranked list of which vehicles in their fleets should be replaced first.

READ MORE

telematics Joined up Thinking a Must for Connected Fleets

TU Automotive

Traditional fleet management systems that monitor driver behaviour, maintenance and fuel economy are increasingly being integrated with new Internet of Things (IoT) functionalities and infrastructure such as with the smart city or the smart road.

Automated tolls, traffic light management systems, truck weigh stations and road user charging systems are being increasingly used to make fleet management as well as fuel and traffic management as efficient as possible.

READ MORE

nissan_leaf_001 City of Denver Commits to Adding 200 Electric Cars by 2020

Denver Post

The city of Denver plans to add 200 plug-in electric vehicles to its fleet by 2020, saving the city an estimated $800,000 over the next decade and cutting 2,300 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the cars’ lifetimes.

The city said it will start replacing its out-of-service cars with the more sustainable alternative in 2018, said Tyler Svitak, energy and transportation administrator with Denver’s Department of Environmental Health.

READ MORE

pedestrians_and_bicycles Will Pedestrians and Cyclists Bully Self-Driving Cars?

Treehugger

A fascinating study has come out of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Adam Millard-Ball writes in the Journal of Planning Education and Research about how in a world full of self-driving cars, pedestrians may have the run of the street and be able to do whatever they want, since the self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles (AVs) will give them right of way. Now, even though walking people often have the right of way now in intersections, they tend to yield to cars.

Pedestrians know that drivers typically have no interest in running them down. So why not simply step out into the street and assert the right of way?

READ MORE

Safety & Risk

By Art Liggio, President, Driving Dynamics

Year after year, reports show that fleet drivers have one of the highest incident and mortality rates related to on-the-job activities.

For anyone who has either direct or indirect responsibility for fleet safety, too often a singular ROI focus results in the unplanned consequence of limiting efforts to create and sustain a culture of safety.

However, when properly understood, a focus on safety can actually deliver significant additional dollars to the corporate bottom line.

A way to address this imbalance is to introduce the Return on Safety (ROS) performance metric when developing your annual business plan. This metric applies to every business and, especially for fleet operators, provides a meaningful and thoughtful balance to ROI.

ROI and ROS do not compete but actually support each other in helping businesses achieve their financial goals. ROS helps management focus on what is truly important: keeping employees safe and productive by eliminating the imbalance created from staying narrowly focused on ROI alone.

READ MORE

 
Customer Driven

By Laura Jozwiak, Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Relations, Wheels, Inc.

As the end of the year approaches, I like to reminisce and reflect about the personal and professional goals I set for the year.

I typically start this process in November, hoping that I might still have time to accomplish all my goals before the guilt-ridden New Year’s Resolution phase kicks in!

Some of us probably do better than others at setting and achieving goals. Out of the many different goal-setting best practices, I have found that being realistic in your expectations is the most important component. And let’s be real, reaching a major goal or overcoming a major challenge can be difficult. But so worth it! I am reminded of that fact whenever I think of a story I heard on the radio several years ago.

READ MORE

 
Game Over?

Independent

New research suggests the Earth’s climate could be more sensitive to greenhouse gases than thought, raising the specter of an ‘apocalyptic side of bad’ temperature rise of more than 7C within a lifetime

It is a vision of a future so apocalyptic that it is hard to even imagine.

But, if leading scientists writing in one of the most respected academic journals are right, planet Earth could be on course for global warming of more than seven degrees Celsius within a lifetime.

And that, according to one of the world’s most renowned climatologists, could be “game over” – particularly given the imminent presence of climate change denier Donald Trump in the White House.

READ MORE








Fleet Trends & Issues


Why the Department of Transportation’s Self-Driving Car Guidelines Aren’t Enough

Tech Crunch

Ford, GM, Toyota and VW are just a handful of the car manufacturers planning to put self-driving cars on the road in the next five years.

If you ask Uber or Tesla, they might say driverless cars have already arrived… which means we’re running out of time to secure one of the juiciest new targets for hackers.

Hacking a car is easy. Just ask Tesla, Jeep or Mitsubishi. As self-driving cars reach the masses, they’ll dramatically raise the stakes for cybersecurity. If your computer gets hacked, it can be costly. If your car gets hacked, it can be deadly.

The Department of Transportation’s (DoT) recent guidance on self-driving cars is a good start in addressing cybersecurity, but leaves a lot to be desired. Granted, the DoT does admit its lack of technical expertise, and requests special hiring tools to attract security experts who can best vet this new technology.

READ MORE

A Vehicle’s Sound System Can Be a Matter of Life and Death

The New York Times

Adjusting the acoustics of modern automobiles is not only about comfort or pizazz. There are safety considerations, too.

Advanced driver-assistance features like lane departure warnings, automated braking systems and vehicle or pedestrian proximity alerts generate their own bells and chimes. But such sonic alerts can create dangerous distractions, leaving drivers unable to determine which sounds are critical.

We spend a lot of time tuning those beeps and pings and assessing the quality of the chimes,” said Alan Norton, senior technical leader for audio quality at Ford Motor.

READ MORE

NHTSA Says Electric vehicles, Hybrids Must Be Loud Enough for Blind to Hear

Detroit Free Press

Government safety regulators have set a new standard that requires hybrids and electric vehicles to generate enough noise so pedestrians and blind people can hear them in crosswalks and parking lots.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates the new standard could prevent about 2,400 pedestrian injuries annually once all electrified vehicles are properly equipped.

READ MORE

Buick, Porsche Take Top Ranks in Power’s Sales Satisfaction Index

The Detroit Bureau

Dealers going high-tech to keep up with cars, customers.

Buying a car isn’t an easy process these days. As vehicles get more complex, so does the once-simple process of finding the right car, truck or crossover – and then understanding all of its features. That’s why it’s increasingly important for customers to have access not just to the traditional salesperson but vehicle specialists, notes market research firm J.D. Power and Associates in its latest Sales Satisfaction Index.

The annual study delivers a few surprises as it examines how pleased shoppers were with the new vehicle buying process.

READ MORE

A Roll-Back of CAFE Mandates?

The Detroit News

Stock prices for U.S. automakers rose sharply Thursday amid signs that fuel economy standards could be weakened under the administration of President Donald Trump.

A noted climate-change skeptic is seen as a likely choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump. And an industry group on Thursday already was urging the president-elect to roll back mandates that automakers achieve a fleet-wide average of 54.5 miles-per-gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by 2025.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which lobbies for U.S. automakers in Washington, said in a Thursday memo to Trump’s transition team that Trump should move quickly to “harmonize and adjust” the stringent gas mileage rules because they “pose a substantial challenge to the auto sector due to the steeper compliance requirements for model years 2017-2025.”

READ MORE

 
Fleet Marketing

By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

In this era of digital marketing, micro-marketing is this decade’s most noteworthy consumer marketing trend.

Yet, customer-centric sales and marketing is a long-time B2B strategy that predates micro-marketing and can deliver the same benefits.

However, the value of a customer-centric approach eludes many B2B organizations, including many in the fleet industry. The problem stems from the typical marketing and sales (or sales and marketing) structure.

The definition of “customer-centric” for marketing has been traditionally focused on identifying and communicating with “target markets” through appropriate media. Messaging is usually based on an understanding of common needs.

The definition of “customer-centric” for sales begins with business relationship mapping that lays out a prospect’s stakeholders, organization, culture, industry, and strategic plan.

READ MORE

 
Crash-Test Dummies

IIHS.org

Judging from headlines, one might think dealer lots are brimming with cars that allow drivers to clock out while radar, cameras and other sensors do the navigating.

Though the U.S. market is inching toward that reality, consumers can’t buy a fully self-driving car and likely won’t be able to for many years.

The idea is tantalizing, not only for the convenience factor but also because it dangles the potential of a crash-free future. While that vision may one day come to fruition, it is far too early to retire the Institute’s crash-test dummies. There will be many crashes on the road to Vision Zero.

READ MORE








Fleet Management Resources
 
AFLA – Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association
Providing the advanced forum for corporate fleet professionals to network with industry leaders.
The CEI Group Inc.
CEI is North America’s largest provider of fully integrated fleet accident management, driver safety and risk management services.
NAFA Fleet Management Association
NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location, or fleet composition.
AmeriFleet
Offering a nationwide vehicle delivery and relocation service; serving the corporate and commercial fleet industry.
Donlen
Since 1965, Donlen has been the fleet management industry’s leading provider of comprehensive, integrated financing and asset management solutions — and that spirit of innovation continues today.
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.
Driving Dynamics
Driving Dynamics was established to help corporate fleet drivers develop expert, safe driving skills using proven, advanced driving techniques.
Wheels, Inc.
First in fleet for 76 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.



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