A German Company Has a Solution and It’s Coming to the U.S.

By Mark Boada, Senior Editor

“Mobility management” is one of the latest buzz phrases in the fleet world, and it’s a concept that some predict is the future of fleet management. Now, you may have heard about that a lot recently, but do you really know what it means and, more importantly, how you’re supposed to get there?

Well Sixt, the largest car rental company in Germany, No. 2 in Europe and a global player in around 120 countries worldwide, has answers, and it’s planning to bring its solution – the only one of its kind, it claims — to the U.S. this year.

Fleet Management Weekly last week interviewed Stuart Donnelly, Sixt’s Senior Director of Group International Sales for Northern Europe and the U.S. about the company’s business mobility vision. Sixt, founded as a rental car company in 1912, has since added a leasing business unit and other mobility solutions such as carsharing, corporate travel, limousine services, ride-hailing, and mobility consulting. Previously run as separate businesses, Sixt recently started to offer them all via a single sales unit, according to Donnelly, “to bring one-stop mobility to the global market in both the consumer and business-to-business environments.”

So, what, exactly, is “mobility management” and what makes it different from “fleet management”?

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By Mark Boada, Senior Editor

As all fleet managers know, vehicle depreciation is their single biggest cost. So, it came as startling news recently when the British auto data research company Cap HPI reported that the resale prices of electric vehicles (EVs) in the United Kingdom have started to rise.

Specifically, the company said that some EV models have a resale value that is higher than their purchase price after one year and 10,000 miles on the road.

Now, it may be too much to expect a U.S. fleet to recoup more than in spends to acquire an electric vehicle, especially since the typical fleet holding period is three to four years. At historic acquisition and resale values, the break-even period for a hybrid vehicle, for example, is more than five years.

But, according to Tim Fleming, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book I spoke with this week, used EV values appear to be improving.

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By Greg Neuman, CEI Senior Manager of Quality Control

With consumer watchdogs constantly warning about buying used cars that have flood damage, fleet managers may be justifiably skeptical about whether it’s worth repairing one of their own.

At CEI, we’ve successfully managed hundreds of repairs of flood-damaged vehicles, but knowing when it’s possible to return one to completely safe usability is one of the most difficult tasks in the body repair business.

Vehicles are made to withstand a certain amount of exposure to water. It’s deep and prolonged submersion, especially in certain kinds of water, that determines whether repairs are worth the money or you’re better off declaring the vehicle a total loss.

What makes today’s vehicles especially vulnerable to floodwaters are the extent to which they’ve become electronic.

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Popular Mechanics

Driver-assist technologies should make driving healthier and safer, and reduce the likelihood of a crash, so you would think that your car insurance carrier should lower your rates, right?

Following a crash, the cost of repairing a vehicle may be more expensive because sensors, lidar, radar, and the computers needed to run a semi-automated driving system are expensive, and they’re often placed in vulnerable locations in the car.

Premiums won’t decrease unless the cost per accident goes down. “Our pricing is done in arrears—based on loss costs from prior years—so, as the technology expands, we’ll be able to see how that translates into the cost of insuring a vehicle,” according to a spokesperson from State Farm, America’s number one auto insurer.

Read the article at Popular Mechanics.

Wired

In order to fund our failing infrastructure without raising the federal gas tax, every road will need to become a toll road meaning that drivers pay by the mile.

Many states have studied, and some have even tried, what are known as Vehicle Miles Traveled taxes. A Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax is what it sounds like: a toll that applies wherever you go.

“Every road segment can be annotated by who owns it, prices by time of day, and notes saying who gets the money,” says Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. At the end of the month, your car aggregates the various fees and sends your payment off to the relevant agencies—local, state, and federal.

Read the article at Wired.

Ford

Ford’s redesigned Transit Connect Wagon continues to win over Boomers-born from 1946 to 1964 that grew up driving vans-with its unique combination of affordable, fun and easy-to-use people mover attributes and cargo hauling capabilities.

At 111 million strong and holding 63 percent of American financial assets, the 50+ demographic is the number one consumer demographic in the United States – far exceeding Gen X’s 61 million and Millennials’ 75 million. And one in three Boomers plans to purchase a car in the next three years, according to AARP.

Kevin Brown, age 63, of Nassau Bay, Texas, is the kind of “active Boomer” who loves the Transit Connect Wagon. Brown grew up driving vans in the 1970s and now, this Gulf Coast surfer and grandfather of nine drives a 2014 Ford Transit Connect Wagon for his work as an illustrator and custom T-shirt printer. “If I’m not shuttling family to the beach, I’m working,” he said. “My Transit Connect lets me pull double duty.”

Read the article at Ford’s Media Center.

Government Technology

According to a study by the state Office of Traffic Safety, fewer than 4 percent of drivers appear to be picking up and using their cellphones, down from 8 percent last year

The tough new California law, authored by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, allows the driver to touch the device only once while driving, to “activate or deactivate a feature or function … with the motion of a single swipe or tap of the driver’s finger,” and the phone must be mounted on the dashboard or windshield or console.

Since the law went into effect, California Highway Patrol officers have increased the number of citations they are giving to motorists. CHP data show citation issuance jumped from 66,000 in 2016 to more than 98,000 in 2017. The first ticket a driver receives for an infraction likely will exceed $150.

Read the article at Government Technology.

The Telegraph

Uber commissioned a study by Stanford and Chicago Universities, revealing that the average 2.2 per cent faster speeds of the male drivers accounted for around half of the earnings gap.

The Uber formula pays drivers based on the length of the ride, how long it takes and sometimes a “surge” multiplier which can push up rates.

“Data gathered from the National Highway Travel Survey in the US indicates that a gender gap in driving speeds exists across the population, not just among taxi services, however the Uber payment system was designed to reward faster driving, the researchers said.”

Read the article at The Telegraph.

By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

Despite the booming economy, smart companies continue to manage expenses, particularly selling, general and administrative (SGA) expenses.

According to financial consulting firm Sageworks, average overhead for scientific and technical services companies – including companies in the fleet services industry – represent over 50 percent of sales.

These are expenses that cannot be assigned to the cost of providing a specific service. A large portion of these expenses fall into the marketing bucket, such as direct sales, product development, distribution, advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and customer service.

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U.S. News

Los Angeles topped the ’10 Worst Congested Cities’ list, beating out 1,360 cities in 38 countries around the globe.

The report results were calculated by combining anonymous, real-time global positioning system probe data from 300 million connected cars and devices with real-time traffic flow data and other criteria, such as construction and road closures.

“Traffic congestion doesn’t come cheap. INRIX, a leader in transportation analytics and connected car services estimates that such congestion costs U.S. drivers nearly $305 billion in 2017, or $1,445 per driver. Those costs come directly and indirectly from sources like wasted time, fuel and productivity.”

Read the article at U.S. News.