By Art Liggio, President and CEO, Driving Dynamics

Anytime your drivers hit the road, they are surrounded by any number of people with diminished operational control.

Distractions, speeding, fatigue, aggression, DUI—it’s a minefield out there. Faced with the “other driver” and their poor decisions and actions it’s certainly no easy job to manage your fleet’s risk exposure but together we prepare your drivers to steer clear of the oncoming danger.

One area that’s a serious cause for concern is the rapidly growing abuse of prescription opioids. It’s has reached epidemic levels. The latest research shows a seven-fold increase since 1995 in the number of drivers killed while under the influence of prescription opioids. And it doesn’t appear to be getting any better as Researchers at Columbia University’s Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention expect a continued increase in the percentage of fatal crashes related to opioid usage.

So what should you be communicating to your fleet?

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Jalopnik

Last week Germany’s titans of industry held a huge summit to try and convince European cities and the rest of the world that despite negative press from Volkswagen’s global cheating scandal, diesel passenger cars do have a future and should not face bans.

But even Germany’s leader concedes she’s not optimistic about diesel cars moving forward.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that even Germany should follow Britain and France’s lead on banning new diesel cars from the road, reports Reuters. This is the first time Merkel has said that diesel cars may be banned in the country much after German company Volkswagen set off the Dieselgate scandal over emissions.

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Harvard Business Review

Poking fun at meetings is the stuff of Dilbert cartoons—we can all joke about how soul-sucking and painful they are.

But that pain has real consequences for teams and organizations. In our interviews with hundreds of executives, in fields ranging from high tech and retail to pharmaceuticals and consulting, many said they felt overwhelmed by their meetings—whether formal or informal, traditional or agile, face-to-face or electronically mediated.

One said, “I cannot get my head above water to breathe during the week.” Another described stabbing her leg with a pencil to stop from screaming during a particularly torturous staff meeting.

Such complaints are supported by research showing that meetings have increased in length and frequency over the past 50 years, to the point where executives spend an average of nearly 23 hours a week in them, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s. And that doesn’t even include all the impromptu gatherings that don’t make it onto the schedule.

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Bloomberg

Electric car owners are earning as much as $1,530 a year just by parking their vehicle and feeding excess power back into the grid.

Trials in Denmark carried out by Nissan Motor Co. and Italy’s biggest utility Enel SpA showed how batteries inside electric cars could help balance supply and demand at times and provide a new revenue stream for those who own the vehicles.

Technology linking vehicles to the grid marks another challenge for utilities already struggling to integrate wind and solar power into their distribution system. As the use of plug-in cars spreads, grid managers will have to pay closer attention to when motorists draw from the system and when they can smooth variable flows.

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MIT Technology Review

Cars that drive for us some of the time could be lulling us into dangerous distraction, according to several auto industry experts.

Researchers at the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan have told MIT Technology Review in the past that semi-autonomous features, like adaptive cruise control or Tesla’s Autopilot, could increase the incidence of distracted driving. In fact, it’s something researchers have been warning about for years.

Now, a Bloomberg report features a bunch of auto experts from across the industry all worrying about the fact that such systems are already having an impact on drivers’ abilities.

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AP News

Around the world, support is growing for electric cars.

Automakers are delivering more electric models with longer range and lower prices, such as the Chevrolet Bolt and the Tesla Model 3. China has set aggressive targets for electric vehicle sales to curb pollution; some European countries aim to be all-electric by 2040 or sooner.

Those lofty ambitions face numerous challenges, including one practical consideration for consumers: If they buy electric cars, where will they charge them?

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McKinsey & Company

Organizations have always needed leaders who are good at recognizing emerging challenges and inspiring organizational responses.

That need is intensifying today as leaders confront, among other things, digitization, the surging power of data as a competitive weapon, and the ability of artificial intelligence to automate the workplace and enhance business performance.

These technology-driven shifts create an imperative for most organizations to change, which in turn demands more and better leaders up and down the line.

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The Detroit Bureau

For so long it was thought that millennials were content to lives without cars, and now it appears they cannot live without them.

A new study shows that half of millennials would rather give up social media for a week than go without their cars. Additionally, 41% would give up an hour of sleep each day and 39% would skip a meal before giving up their vehicles.

Enterprise, the rental car company, polled millennials to determine how strongly they felt about the possibility of going without a car for an extended period of time, such as if it were in for repair. What the company discovered is that millennials are just like most folks: they feel they need their vehicles.

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Global fleets will continue to be faced with a dizzying array of fuel choices for some time to come.

By Mark Boada, Senior Editor

Now that four countries — Norway, India, France and the U.K. – have decided to ban the sales of gasoline or diesel fueled vehicles within the next two to three decades, it might seem that electricity has already won the contest to become the vehicular fuel of the future. But even if it comes to predominate, electricity may not be the universal solution for years to come, if ever.

Instead, global fleets may be forced to depend on an ever-changing variety and mix of fuels and powertrains, depending on the countries or regions in which they operate, their mix of light, medium and heavy duty vehicles, and the nature of the trips their drivers make. The reason: each of the alternatives is still struggling to overcome limitations, which include cost, range, refueling time, refueling infrastructure, and fuel availability.

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USA TODAY

A Chinese automaker reportedly made a quiet bid to acquire Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, raising the distinct possibility that the traditional member of the Detroit Three that was bailed out by U.S. taxpayers could wind up with Chinese ownership.

After years of pursuing a deal to gain greater global scale, the Italian-American automaker recently rejected an acquisition bid by an unidentified Chinese company, according to Automotive News.

The publication also reported that multiple Chinese automakers are weighing a similar bid for the maker of the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler and Dodge brands.

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