FleetManagementWeekly AmeriFleet
September 12, 2017

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Meet Us in Las Vegas!

We are excited about next week’s AFLA Conference, featuring an outstanding program of interesting speakers and thoughtful sessions, including some mighty fine networking opportunities.

Year after year, one of our own AFLA program favorites is the Women in Fleet Management Session and Reception. This year, Kathleen Nalty will lead us to recognize and interrupt our own unconscious biases. Outsmart them, if you will. If you plan to arrive in Las Vegas on Sunday, this is a terrific start to the conference.

The last few weeks have been a challenge, on so many levels, for fleet professionals working with fleets battered and flooded by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The Fleet Management Weekly editorial team will be filming in our pressroom ‘Marche 2’. If you have a story you would like to tell us about your involvement in disaster planning and/or relief, please stop by and see us.

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.

Globally Speaking — Perspectives on the Multinational Fleets

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

On Fleet Driver Management Solutions to improve your fleet’s accident rate and cut costs on collision repairs

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

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

Fleet Spectator — A 360 view of the fleet industry.

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


VIDEO: A Full Picture of What’s Happening Inside and Around the Vehicle

Today an abundance of data gives us a full picture of what’s going on both inside and around the vehicles that we drive.



VIDEO: Driver Monitoring


  A Single Solution to Monitor Drivers and CSA
 

With the acquisition of Vigillo, SambaSafety is now able to deliver a single solution that’s designed for motor vehicle record and driver monitoring, as well as CSA monitoring.


VIDEO: Fleet Consulting

  Smart Consultation to Improve the Management and Operations of Your Fleet
 

Mercury Associates is a consulting firm driven by the primary mission of helping fleets improve their management and operations – and they’ve got the track record to prove it.





The Fleet Spot


White Paper: Factors That Influence Fleet Operating Costs

By Wheels, Inc.

One of every fleet manager’s major goals is to ensure that the fleet is operating in the most cost-effective manner by identifying opportunities for cost savings which have not been fully realized.

Wheels’ new White Paper outlines the most significant factors that ultimately affect fleet costs. Information is presented in a hierarchical format, grouping items by major cost categories: depreciation, fuel, maintenance, lease funding & fees, registration & tax and collision & safety. The impact of personal use policies and charges is also addressed.

READ MORE

NTEA Announces New Fleet Event to The Work Truck Show 2018

NTEA is pleased to announce the addition of the Fleet Technical Congress to our Work Truck Week™.

This inaugural event will be held in conjunction with The Work Truck Show 2018 and Green Truck Summit in Indianapolis, Indiana, in March 2018.

At Fleet Technical Congress, fleet managers can explore the latest technology solutions while gaining management insights from leaders of some of the country’s biggest fleets and suppliers.

READ MORE

America’s Driving Environment Is Getting Worse Every Year

By Mark Boada, Senior Editor

As evidenced by the increase in U.S traffic fatalities over the last two years, America’s driving environment is getting worse.

While experts have yet to reach a consensus as to why this is so, a review of the overall conditions gives some powerful clues that form a witches’ brew of factors that doesn’t portend well for the foreseeable future.

Let’s acknowledge that vehicles themselves have never been better built and equipped for safety. With crumple zones and ever-improving structural integrity, seatbelts and airbags, and an increasing array of driver-assist safety technology, automobiles do more to protect the driver than at any time in history.

It’s obvious, then, that other factors are overcoming these improvements. So, what are they?

READ MORE

Register Now for Essentials of Fleet Management — Early Bird Pricing Ends This Week!

New to fleet management, or growing in your role?

NAFA’s one-stop live training event, Essentials of Fleet Management (EFMS), is specially created to guide you through the latest best-practices, strategies, key skills, and resources for managing your fleet.

The three-day, in-person EFMS training is your chance to learn in a classroom of fleet professionals, about the fundamental principles of running an efficient fleet.

Register Today for this Invaluable Educational Experience Before Early-Bird Savings End on September 15!

LEARN MORE

On Fleet Driver Management


By John Wolford, CEI Vice President, Business Process, Quality, and Sourcing

Choosing a body repair shop is one of the most important decisions a fleet can make. If you don’t have a ready network of high-quality body shops at your disposal when a fleet accident occurs, lots can go wrong:

  • Damage that makes the vehicle unsafe to drive – like a crooked frame or broken wheel rim — can be poorly completed or left undone.
  • You can be charged for needless repairs or needlessly redundant repair steps.
  • You can be charged for original equipment manufacturer parts when cheaper used or after-market parts were installed or were available.
  • The shop can overcharge for labor.
  • The repair can take longer than necessary, driving up your replacement rental expenses, just because you’re no more important than any other shop customer.
  • The shop can bill you for storage at $25 to $50 a day if you declare the vehicle a total loss.
  • The shop can decide to keep your vehicle until you pay its bill in full.
  • READ MORE

 

Automotive Disruption


McKinsey & Company

How fast is disruption reshaping the personal-mobility landscape, and what will new value pools look like as the ecosystem evolves?

What a difference a few years makes—the automotive sector is changing, and it’s changing fast. Start-up CEOs have risen as superstars of the industry almost overnight.

Artificial intelligence is poised to become a base technology for every engineering department.

READ MORE

 

Talent Management


By Mike Cieri

With the national unemployment in the single digits, many employers are struggling to find applicants that meet the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities needed for the job.

This got me curious — how are employers targeting applicants, and how do they inform applicants they do not hire?

Let’s say, you hire 1 out of 10 applicants. Ask yourself, what are the other 9 people saying about your organization and your hiring process? At best they feel respected or ambivalent, at worst they are trashing your company on social media sites for thousands to see.

READ MORE









Fleet Trends & Issues


The U.S. House Just Paved the Way for More Self-Driving Cars

The Washington Post

Thousands of self-driving cars are now that much closer to hitting the streets after House lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday to expand companies’ ability to test the next-generation technology.

It’s a major step forward for tech companies, Detroit manufacturers and urban planners who believe automated cars will transform the economy.

Here’s what you need to know.

READ MORE

Car-Centric Houston Struggles After Loss of Countless Autos

Chron

Bryan Harvey is frequently reminded that he shares a name with the storm that dumped 50 inches of rain on metropolitan Houston and unleashed the floods that have him working 14-hour days towing water-logged cars.

Even in their despair, some victims have salvaged a smile by posing for pictures in front of the “Harvey’s Towing” sign on the side of his red Dodge Ram 5500 flat-bed truck.

More than a week after Harvey slammed Houston, wreckers like Bryan Harvey are still hauling cars and trucks from flooded neighborhoods to dealerships or to vast fields where insurance adjusters can assess the damage.

READ MORE

How to Spot a Hurricane-Damaged Used Car

USA TODAY

Hundreds of thousands of storm-damaged cars are poised to flood the used-vehicle market following Hurricane Harvey, and now Hurricane Irma is threatening to place even more consumers at risk of unknowingly buying a wrecked ride.

With as many as 1 million vehicles in Texas damaged or destroyed by Harvey’s furious floods — and Irma barreling toward Florida — analysts are warning Americans to check vehicle history reports and inspect used cars carefully before buying.

Vehicle history report company Carfax said about half of cars damaged by floods return to the road.

READ MORE

Uber Facing Several Possible Criminal Probes

The Detroit Bureau

Bribery, illegal interference with competitors among the latest allegations.

Those who thought Uber’s headaches would end with the ouster of its controversial CEO Travis Kalanick are going to have to think again.

New Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi, the former boss at travel site Expedia, has walked into a hornet’s nest that now includes at least two new, potential criminal investigations.

READ MORE

21st Century Driving


Jalopnik

Earlier this week, Tesla remotely upgraded select Florida Tesla owners’ cars to expand their mileage capacity in an effort to ease and assist with Hurricane Irma evacuation efforts.

The move was praiseworthy and appropriate, but at the root of the gesture lies a terrifying prospect of our automotive future.

As vehicles become more advanced and reliant on software systems that can be tweaked instantly, from anywhere, owner control and access diminishes and is yielded back to the company. It’s more like you’re using the company’s product instead of owning it.

READ MORE

 

Fleet Marketing


By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

My just-completed series on “Marketing Scams” resulted in more feedback than usual, and it is heartening to know that several executives are looking more carefully at marketing events to prove their real value.

In my August column, I wrote about a number of executive consulting groups and event companies offering “exclusive” executive events for a limited number of sales representatives to attend. The promise of meeting with key C-level decision-makers seemed too good to be true.

READ MORE

 

Time Management


Harvard Business Review

One of the very first lectures I give each year to new MBA students is about time management.

By the time they arrive in my classroom, they are two days into the fall term, and I can already see that some of them are barely keeping their heads above water.

I see this lecture as both a reality check and a breath of fresh air. They will never get everything done, but they can get the important things done.

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 78 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.



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