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

What do you think of when you hear the word “change”? For some, it can conjure up thoughts of fear, uneasiness, and potentially more work.

If you allow those thoughts to take hold, it can obscure your ability to grow and do what is right for your organization. Change is happening in our industry at a rapid rate. Are you positioned to turn this change into an opportunity? I would suggest the key to adapting and taking advantage of change is to watch for it, learn from it, embrace it and act upon it.

It seems that everything changes in a blink of an eye, but does it really? Or are we just not listening and watching for the smaller steps leading up to a major change that eventually impacts us?

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The Detroit Bureau

Daimler AG disclosed it will take another year to complete the integration of Athlon Car Lease International, which it acquired earlier this year, making the German automaker one of the largest managers of vehicle fleets Europe.

The company put up $1.2 billion to acquire Athlon, a leader in fleet management company across Europe, so Daimler Financial Services can expand the company’s “business mobility” services with Daimler Fleet Management.

“The importance of business mobility continues to grow. With the acquisition of Athlon, we are strengthening our competitive position in business mobility. Both Daimler Fleet Management and Athlon have a strong heritage and are successful in the market,” stated Bodo Uebber, Board of Management member of Daimler AG responsible for Finance and Controlling and Financial Services.

“With a combined portfolio exceeding 350,000 vehicles we will be an important player in the European fleet business. With Athlon, we will enhance our mobility solutions for companies,” stated Klaus Entenmann, chairman of Daimler Financial Services AG.

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By Janice Sutton

When Dr. Will Murray died early this month, we lost a tireless researcher and advocate for road safety, and a great friend to a broad community of coworkers.

As great as our loss is, his death is devastating to his family and friends in Huddersfield, England. Will was a devoted husband and father to his two sons, and a dedicated and passionate soccer coach.

Of Will, it can be truly said that our pain at his passing is conquered by the joy and honor of knowing him; we never missed an opportunity to spend time with Will when we were visiting the UK. His dedication to road safety sprung in great measure from a genuine interest in ameliorating the unnecessary human loss and suffering caused by collisions.

Ed Dubens, Executive Director of eDriving —where Will was Director of Research— perhaps put it best when he told Fleet News , “Even those [who knew Will] only a short time or interacted with him briefly at a conference came away recognizing the complex and compassionate genius he was.

“Everyone who came in contact with Will always enjoyed every minute they spent with him. His charisma and congeniality were unrivaled and his passion for our industry and saving lives was palpable in every conversation.”

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The Washington Post

An engineer has invented a device that he believes could eliminate distracted driving.

He also says at least one mobile phone provider appears close to rolling out the gadget to its users and that another provider has shown an interest in the technology.

But, then again, Scott Tibbitts and his colleagues at a company called Katasi have been trying to persuade cellphone providers, automakers and the federal government to deploy his gadget for half a decade now.

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In a newly published case study, ARI® is sharing how it worked with Red Hawk Fire & Security, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, to drastically reduce accident rates and liability costs using real-time technology to monitor driver behavior on an ongoing basis and identify at-risk drivers before accidents occur.

The case study details how Red Hawk worked with ARI and saw a 68 percent drop in the number of accidents year over year and saved $1 million in liability costs.

Red Hawk partnered with ARI in 2014 with an interest in lowering their accident rates. They were seeking a solution that would not only track and report the on-road activities of their drivers, but would also provide both proactive and corrective action if needed for their drivers.

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Manheim

By applying statistical analysis to its database of more than 5 million used vehicle transactions annually, Manheim has developed a measurement of used vehicle prices that is independent of underlying shifts in the characteristics of vehicles being sold.

Wholesale used vehicle prices (on a mix-, mileage-, and seasonally adjusted basis) declined 1% in November.  This brought the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index to 124.7 for November, a decrease of 0.3% from a year ago.

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The Washington Post

Here is a strategy for start-ups dealing with regulators who might shut down your product: Make it free.

Scrappy self-driving car start-up Comma.ai released a free software kit on Wednesday to help developers learn to build a device that can turn any car into an autonomous vehicle. The year-old company, which is founded by a well-known hacker and backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors, hopes to accelerate the development of self-driving cars while skirting the ire of Washington.

The move raises questions of how the United States should foster innovation for promising technologies that also carry great risks.

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The New York Times

First the Obama administration bailed out much of the American auto industry, pulling it out of a tailspin. Then it reshaped the business, with regulations and policies intended to increase fuel economy, improve safety and add jobs.

Now, under President-elect Donald J. Trump, the industry is bracing for another wholesale makeover. Perhaps no industry could be affected in more ways by the new administration than the auto business.

That became all the more apparent this week, with Mr. Trump’s selection of Scott Pruitt — the Oklahoma attorney general who is a climate-change skeptic and close ally of the oil and gas industry — to run the Environmental Protection Agency.

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By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

Last month, we left off mid-stream in describing the planning of a customer-centric sales AND marketing strategy. Let’s finish up:

Know Thy Customer

With advances in customer relationship management tools that now incorporate every milestone in the buying cycle all the way back to a prospect’s first website visit along with instant, segmented digital surveying capability, companies can obtain more information about buyers and buying habits than ever before.

Combined with the availability of a broad range of more timely sales reports, the “opportunities” picture has never been clearer.

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IIHS.org

Consumers who choose a 2017 Top Safety Pick+ award winner shouldn’t have trouble seeing the road on nighttime drives.

Good or acceptable ratings in the Institute’s new headlight evaluations set the latest crop of qualifiers apart. Thirty-eight models earn the “plus” accolade, and 44 earn Top Safety Pick.

IIHS toughened the criteria for Top Safety Pick+ to reflect new headlight evaluations launched in 2016. The recognition program is meant to encourage manufacturers to offer state-of-the-art protection for people in crashes, along with features that help drivers avoid crashes in the first place. In addition to good or acceptable headlights, the latter includes automatic braking technology, which has been part of the criteria since 2015.

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