Perhaps more so than any other fleet sector, government fleets face a difficult challenge when it comes to budgeting. The reason is that they’re funded largely by tax revenues, and politicians who want to be re-elected are reluctant to raise taxes, even as fleet costs rise. In addition, a number of states may see declining tax revenues as a result of the new federal tax law, which has placed a lower limit on the deductibility of state and local taxes.

Our first contributor to our new column for government fleet managers, Steve Saltzgiver, is a distinguished and seasoned fleet professional, member of the Government Fleet Hall of Fame, and a Government Fleet Legendary Achievement Award recipient with experience managing a city fleet, two state fleets and two Fortune 500 fleets. He is also member of the NAFA board of directors and is a former director of the National Council of State Fleet Administrators. — Mark Boada, Senior Editor

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By Steve Saltzgiver, Fleet Management Consultant, Mercury Associates

The two best ways for a fleet to reduce its costs are to implement a sound replacement program and a departmental charge-back process. A well-designed and managed vehicle replacement program avoids the common problem of holding a vehicle so long that maintenance and repair costs make its total cost of ownership higher than that of a new vehicle.

On the other hand…READ MORE

New startup Nuro is focused on creating a new kind of self-driving car: one that is specifically geared for last-mile deliveries, like groceries or laundry.

Founded by two of the main engineers from Google’s self-driving project, Nuro is coming out at just the right time — a recent McKinsey study is showing tremendous opportunities for last-mile deliveries.

Read the article at The Verge.

The Verge

Ford’s new small economy SUV, the EcoSport will soon be available in the US, and is equipped with the latest version of its in-car infotainment system SYNC 3.

Two big names, Amazon Alexa and Google’s WAZE have been added to its SYNC in-car infotainment system for iPhone users.

“You can now get in a car with SYNC 3, plug in your iPhone, and navigate with: Ford’s navigation, Waze’s navigation, or Apple Maps. But if you fire up CarPlay, you won’t be able to use Alexa anymore until you back out to the SYNC menus. You also can’t, say, ask Alexa to get directions in Waze instead of with Ford’s navigation system.”

Read the article at The Verge.

Wired

A growing body of evidence shows that semi-autonomous systems are lulling drivers into a false sense of security. They zone out, look away, even fall asleep.

Automakers anticipated such problems, and have tried to respond with systems that keep drivers focused and aware of their responsibilities, even when their hands are off the wheel and feet are nowhere near the pedals.

Over the weekend, a driver in another Tesla Model S sedan was arrested and charged with a DUI when he was found passed out behind the wheel on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge. His blood alcohol content was two times the legal limit. He told the California Highway Patrol officers it was OK: The car was on autopilot.

Read the article at Wired.

Washington Post

A California motorcyclist has filed a lawsuit against General Motors, accusing one of the manufacturer’s robot-operated vehicles of “negligent driving.”

Nilsson’s suit is one of the first involving an autonomous vehicle, raising questions and concerns about responsibility and restitution.

A San Francisco Police Department report, however, puts the blame on Nilsson. According to the report, Nilsson tried to pass a vehicle before it was safe.

Read the article at The Washington Post.

The Detroit News

Ford is acquiring two companies, Autonomic, a Silicon Valley-based self-driving start-up and TransLoc, a transit-technology company out of Durham, North Carolina, that develops city-owned microtransit systems.

This acquisition creates a new Ford X team, dedicated to experimenting with new business models for mobility, including the cloud platform.

The team is designed to be forward-thinking, and not every idea will reach the market. The idea is to “protect the incubation group from running mature businesses,” Ford’s president of mobility Marcy Klevorn said on a conference call Thursday.

The Detroit Bureau

SkyActiv-X, the new engine from Mazda provides more torque and tests project fuel savings of anywhere from 20 to 30% compared with a conventional gas engine. That puts the SkyActiv-X in the range of today’s best diesels and even some gas-hybrids.

The Mazda team said they’re targeting real-world performance and efficiency, rather than tuning the new engine just to pass EPA fuel economy tests.

“We expect the SkyActiv-X will be the most fuel-efficient engine in the world at launch,” promises Jay Chen, a lead development engineer. Considering Mazda has been rated by the EPA as the most fuel-efficient brand in the U.S. for the past five years, that’s no idle boast.

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

Los Angeles Times

California currently has 350,000 electric cars on the road today, which is far more than any other state. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to put 5 million electric cars on the state’s roads by 2030.

Brown is proposing to meet the new electric car target with a $2.5-billion investment during the next eight years to continue state subsides for car purchases and bring 250,000 vehicle charging stations and 200 hydrogen fueling stations to California by 2025.

“The goal is to make our neighborhoods and farms healthier, our vehicles cleaner — zero emission the sooner the better — and all our technologies increasingly lowering their carbon output,” Brown said in his Thursday State of the State speech.

Read the article at Los Angeles Times.

By Wendy Eichenbaum

According to Gartner, 80% of a company’s future revenue will come from 20% of its existing customers. Who in your customer base is part of that 20%?

The answer in part comes from asking your customers one key question: On a scale of 0-10, how likely are they to recommend your product?

Your future customers will answer with a 9 or 10. These are your Promoters. They repeatedly use your product, and enthusiastically recommend your product to others. Their word of mouth fuels your growth.

Passive customers are the people who answer 7-8. They are satisfied, but have little loyalty, and won’t take the time to recommend you. They’ll be swayed toward your competitors by a new feature or price.

There is a chasm between Passive and Promoter customers. Both groups are likely to answer that they’d use your product again. But when you ask them, “Would you recommend us?,” you’re changing the stakes. Now you’re asking your customers to put their own reputations on the line with their friends and colleagues. You’ll see a big gap between 8 & 9.

READ MORE

Fortune

Ford has filed for a patent for an autonomous police car that would be capable of detecting traffic violations such as speeding and then wirelessly communicate with the vehicle and its human driver to verify identity and issue a citation.

The autonomous police car would be able to tap into surveillance cameras to spot the infractions. Or the car might just see the violation, like a human driver rolling through a stop sign, on its own.

The patent application also describes other scenarios in which police officers are in the autonomous vehicle, they’re just not driving. In these cases, the vehicle might respond and pull over a vehicle driving erratically and the human officers might need to intercede if the human driver is suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Read the article at Fortune.