We interviewed Jeff Schlesinger, newly appointed president of LeasePlan USA, at NAFA I&E in Tampa. We were keen to hear “what’s next” at the global fleet leasing and management company.

Schlesinger gave us some insight into the company’s strategic plans, and one thing he debunks is the notion that LeasePlan USA is for sale.

“LeasePlan USA is being transformed from a company that looked exclusively at large, global, corporate fleets to other adjacencies to the fleet market. The core of the core of our product is providing fleet management services to the large global fleet; and we also believe our reach and products are attractive to corporate fleets of all sizes. In addition, we are looking at the entire mobility model as a long-term addition to the corporate space. It is important to understand where future generations will impact the industry and prepare for the next five-to-ten years.

“LeasePlan Europe has already started its transformation; and globally the mantra is “One LeasePlan.” The company is centralizing a lot of key functions from commercial to operations to IT — everyone is viewing this as one LeasePlan whether you are sitting in the United States or an office in Europe, Mexico or South America.”

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Part two of a three-part series on negligent entrustment: How to build a strong, enforceable safety policy.

By Kevin Reilly, Editorial Communications Manager, The CEI Group, Inc

In part one of my negligent entrustment series, I outlined the main grounds for a fleet-related negligent entrustment case. In this part, I will outline how to build a strong safety policy that a fleet manager can properly enforce. If you do not make a safety policy that is transparent, fair, and evenly enforced, you will leave your company open to negligent entrustment liability, and a host of other issues.

Start building a better safety policy by involving as many levels of the fleet structure as possible, including top executives, HR, legal, risk managers, and even field managers and drivers.

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By Jeofrey Bean

Tap the insights and experience of successful customer experience professionals to improve your fleet services.

A board of directors advises the company about its overall business strategy. A customer experience advisory board is similar, but is specific to the topic of customer experience. If your company is serious about improving its customer experience, a key step is to create an advisory board dedicated to that end.

The job of a customer experience advisory board is to identify where the existing customer experience can be improved and to recommend when a new customer experience should be created.

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Bloomberg

After years toiling away in secret on its car project, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has for the first time laid out exactly what the company is up to in the automotive market: It’s concentrating on self-driving technology.

“We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook said in a June 5 interview on Bloomberg Television that amounted to his most detailed comments yet on Apple’s automotive plans. “It’s a core technology that we view as very important.” He likened the effort to “the mother of all AI projects,” saying it’s “probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on.”

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The Washington Post

New Jersey drivers have been ratting out each other for distracted driving as part of a new enforcement campaign, and their attorney general couldn’t be happier.

Since April when the New Jersey State Police first invited people to call #77 to report distracted drivers, the state has received nearly 1,100 calls. Law enforcement officials have followed up by issuing summonses or mailing 632 warning letters to the vehicles’ owners, officials say.

Enforcing laws against texting and driving has been notoriously difficult, and law enforcement agencies around the country have been trying different approaches.

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Reuters

Big automakers are rushing to launch self-driving cars as early as 2021, but the industry’s major players are moving slowly when it comes to widespread deployment of a less expensive crash prevention technology that regulators say could prevent thousands of deaths and injuries every year.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd said on Thursday it would make automatic braking systems standard on an estimated 1 million 2018 model cars and light trucks sold in the United States.

This includes high-volume models such as the Rogue and Rogue Sport compact sport utility vehicles, the Altima sedan, Murano and Pathfinder SUVs, LEAF electric car, Maxima sedan and Sentra small car.

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The Verge

Honda has been one of the more cautious automakers when it comes to self-driving cars, and a recent study put the company at 15th out of 18 in terms of overall advancement.

At a media event this week, however, Honda shared more about its plans and set a target of 2025 for introducing vehicles with Level 4 autonomous driving capability.

Honda has already said that it intends to have vehicles capable of Level 3 freeway driving on the market by 2020, and is reiterating that goal today.

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The New York Times

Any part of a car that talks to the outside world is a potential opportunity for hackers.

That includes the car’s entertainment and navigation systems, preloaded music and mapping apps, tire-pressure sensors, even older entry points like a CD drive.

It also includes technologies that are still in the works, like computer vision systems and technology that will allow vehicles to communicate with one another.

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By Mark Boada, Senior Editor

Lukas Neckermann is the managing director of Neckermann Strategic Advisors, a mobility consultancy based in London, England. He was the keynote speaker at NAFA’s International Fleet Academy in Tampa, Florida this year. Fleet Management Weekly interviewed him the day after he delivered his presentation.

You were talking about how we are in the midst of a mobility revolution. Can you please explain the basics of what is happening and why?

We are in the middle of a transformation based on three converging trends. The first trend is zero emissions, or the electrification of not just the automobile but all forms of transport, especially road transport. Second is zero accidents, which is achievable by the widespread adoption of self-driving or autonomous vehicle technology. And the third is zero ownership, which is the trend that encompasses car sharing, ride hailing, ride sharing and more broadly speaking the sharing economy.

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USA TODAY

For as long as there have been cars, there have been travelers using them to get away.

The experience has been evolving for more than a hundred years, but at its heart, road travel is about wanderlust and connecting with family and friends.

As the brand that brought the Model T to the masses, Ford has an outsized place in American road trip history. Ford Motor Company even employs a futurist (or, in corporate language, a “Manager, Global Consumer Trends and Futuring,”) to study where road travel has been and take a proactive look at where it will go.

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