By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

As a marketing manager for a provider of B2B products or services, you know that the first question your executives will ask is “Where’s the value?” of each of your marketing tactics. Even though we are in the digital age, you can’t justify marketing value based on Facebook “likes,” Twitter “follows,” and LinkedIn connections. As it was unlikely that management would appreciate the value of traditional print advertising measures like cost-per-thousand, impressions, awareness and perceptions, the digital metrics provided by internet services are lacking.

Still, digital marketing offers value, as evidenced by its growing share of the overall marketing budget. The key to showing value is to do the additional hard work to translate and extend superficial facts with meaningful business results.

Start with the undeniable ability to own the channel. In the digital world, you can have total control over direct interactions with your target audience. You can control both the timing and content of your messages.

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Wired

Congressional Republicans released an early draft of a bill that would kill the federal tax credit that gives up to $7,500 to anyone who buys an electric car.

Electric car sales would likely continue in states that offer their own incentives like California — which provides a credit up to $7,000 — and even lets electrics use the coveted carpool lane.

“There is no question that the potential elimination or phase out of the electric vehicle tax credit will impact the choices of prospective buyers and make it more challenging for manufacturers to comply with electric vehicle mandates in 10 states,” Gloria Bergquist, spokesperson for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said in a statement.

Read more of the original article at Wired.

By Mark Boada, Senior Editor

The fuel of the future, according to many, is electricity. For some fleets, though, it’s already here.

But since most EVs and Hybrids are fueled at home, and most home chargers lack a reader, how are fleets supposed to verify purchases?

In a recent conversation with Fleet Management Weekly, Bernie Kavanagh, senior VP at WEX, revealed his company’s answer. Mobile access to fuel data? No problem – WEX is there, too. And with an increasing emphasis on managing multi-national fleets on a global basis, WEX continues to build out its global fuel program capabilities, he told us.

Bernie says, “I think clients now are at a point where they’re looking to gain greater efficiencies. Business is really starting to come back. We’re seeing it not only by geography but by industry, too. Certain business areas are stronger than they’ve been in the past and I think now’s the time that, instead of focusing on rebuilding and making sure they’ve got the right operations in place, they’re making sure they operate at top efficiency. So, they’re looking for data. The aggregation of data is more critical than it’s ever been.”

READ MORE about WEX’s current initiatives to meet the fleet fuel management demands of the future.

McKinsey & Company

Public transportation is absolutely necessary for moving people around quickly, preventing traffic congestion and accidents, limiting pollution, and freeing land for uses more valuable than parking space and roadways.

The partnerships between cities and new mobility services point to potential benefits both for cities and their residents.

“Shared-mobility services account for more than half of all new mobility start-ups around the world, and homegrown providers have cropped up in every region. E-hailed motorcycle-taxi services have proved popular in Africa, for example, while India’s city dwellers have embraced on-demand shuttle services. Product-innovation companies, which are concentrated in North America, mostly focus on developing self-driving vehicles and electric vehicles.”

The Verge

Chanje, a California startup has received 125 all-electric van orders from rental company, Ryder to be leased or rented in its New York, California and Illinois markets by the end of the year.

The vans are about 26.5 feet long, and have the capacity to carry 6,000 pounds, or up to 580 cubic feet of cargo with a curb weight of nearly 10,000 pounds.

“A 70kWh battery (which is just a tick under the smallest battery used on a Tesla Model S) gives the Chanje vans an estimated range of about 100 miles, though that depends on how much cargo is onboard. The company is working with Chanje and its energy storage partner, eMotorWerks, to install Level 2 charging stations near Ryder facilities in the launch markets.”

Read more of the original article at The Verge.

The Detroit Bureau

As more motorists buy conventional hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure battery-electric vehicles, questions arise — where will the vehicles be charged and where will all the energy come from?

To reduce the need for a major expansion of the country’s electrical infrastructure, EV owners would need to be encouraged to continue to charge at home, preferably overnight when the electrical demand is generally far lower than during the day.

“A one-for-one match would be a major challenge, according to Pasquale Romano, the President and CEO of Chargepoint, Inc., which claims to operate the world’s largest vehicle charging network. Even a modest-sized station, with six high-speed chargers – capable of “filling up” a battery in under a half-hour – would draw “a couple of megawatts,” said Romano, and would “need an electrical sub-station next door.”

Read more of the original article at The Detroit Bureau.

This fall, both Meineke Car Care Centers and Maaco Auto Painting and Collision Repair will pay tribute to military members across the country, honoring active duty military members and veterans with complimentary vehicle repairs and improvements as a “thank you” for their service to the country and patronage of their brands. The “Proud to Serve Those Who Have Served” program is part of the two legendary automotive brands’ 45th anniversary celebration.

From October 14 through November 24, Maaco and Meineke are honoring military members who are current customers, veterans who are now Maaco or Meineke owners or franchisees, and one recipient nominated by consumers through a national contest. You can learn more right here.

by Ted Roberts

I was fortunate enough to attend the Wheels Results+ Fleet Summit in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, which was fantastic from both a learning and a networking perspective. Held at the lovely Gleacher Center (part of the University of Chicago) just off the Magnificent Mile, and structured as an open forum, this event highlighted notable recent successes in Wheels’ five Results+ optimal fleet categories:

• Fleet Administration & Ease
• Driver Productivity & Satisfaction
• Integration & Control
• Total Cost Management
• Risk Mitigation

READ MORE to see the winners and to learn more about the Results+ Fleet Summit.

By Mike Cieri

Benchmarking is a way of determining what is the best performance being achieved – whether in a particular organization, a competitor, industry or by an entirely different industry.

This information can then be used to identify gaps in an organization’s processes in order to achieve a competitive advantage.

There is no single way to perform benchmarking although there are 6 steps that are considered best practice.

1. Decide what to benchmark – Because benchmarking can be applied to any business process or function, a range of research techniques may be required. It is important to pick a benchmarking project that is significant to meeting the organizations goals. Some examples to consider:

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Strategy+Business

Creating conditions by bringing experts and those with diverse talents and perspectives together can cultivate a company’s challenge-driven leadership — a distinctive kind of ‘no-leader leadership.’

“If you want to foster challenge-driven leadership, you can’t treat people purely as “human resources,” placed by budget allocation into any spot that will have them, and motivated with incentives to take on work that does not intrinsically interest them. An effective challenge-driven talent strategy focuses on spotting the right people for a project and attracting them to it, rather than on motivating and developing people you have been handed through a budget allocation process.”

Challenge-driven leadership is made for pushing boundaries, and in the end it consistently produces results.

Read more of the original article at Strategy+Business.