FleetManagementWeekly AmeriFleet
August 18, 2015

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Driving Safety

We know that fall is just around the corner when we learn about the annual NETS’ Drive Safely Work Week. This year, the theme of this outstanding October workplace campaign is #Plan Ahead – Your Key to Driving Safely. Check out the NETS website; there you can download the free toolkit for this campaign, but you’ll also see that the organization offers other tools to help you promote safety in your fleet and at home.

Jeof Bean authors another excellent column; this month he talks about the valuable role customer experience plays in the direction of brand value and the longevity of companies. That’s where we all want to be.

Enjoy this issue, and be sure to check in at FleetManagementWeekly.com for daily updates.

Janice Sutton
Executive Editor


INDEX: Find All of the Fleet News and Information You Need on Newly Redesigned FleetManagementWeekly.com

All posts from the newsletter can be found on our newly redesigned web site, FleetManagementWeekly.com,

Browse these categories:

Association News — Find out what’s going on at associations of importance to the fleet community.
Fleet Trends & Issues — Check out articles about current fleet issues and trends
Fleet Safety — Read news about various aspects of fleet safety, including interviews of fleet safety leaders
Fleet Videos — Watch video clips of fleet newsmakers
Interviews — Read Fleet Management Weekly’s interviews with industry leaders.
Telematics — Learn about the latest in fleet telematics news

Read monthly columns: Fleet Marketing, Fleet Asset Management, The Mobile Employee, On Accident Management, The Fleet Customer Experience, Think Global. Plan Local., The Fleet CX Toolbox, and Fleet Safety.


van-amburg-bill

VIDEO: Sustainability Encourages Fleets to Innovate

When it comes to minimizing fuel usage and other forms of sustainability, fleets need to be encouraged to innovate so that they will drive meaningful change.



VIDEO: Understanding Overall Risk
carver-chris
  FAIR Score Helps Underwriters Analyze Fleet Risk
 

While individual driver scores can tell you whether your drivers make good choices, the FAIR score helps underwriters to understand the overall risk that’s associated with any given fleet.


VIDEO: Overcoming Imperfect Driving Habits
horrocks-terry
  Saving Your Salespeople from Distracted Driving
 

The same traits that make a good salesperson are often associated with less than perfect driving habits – but those driving habits can be improved.





The Fleet Spot


Alexander Barton Alexander Barton Named New Director of Accreditation Development at NAFA

Fleet management association offers Sustainable Fleet Accreditation Program

NAFA Fleet Management Association announces the formation of a new position that will focus on development for the NAFA Sustainable Fleet Accreditation Program. Alexander Barton will hold the position of Director of Accreditation Development. He previously worked with NAFA on business development which included selling advertising for FLEETSolutions magazine, as well as exhibits and sponsorship for the annual Institute & Expo.

READ MORE

rasmussen-lori The Keys to Maximizing Vehicle Transport Value 

Changing fleet expectations, new technology, or ever-increasing pressures on profitability have made vehicle relocation more complicated than moving assets from Point A to Point B.

In an effort to raise fleet manager awareness of the evolving challenges and opportunities, this white paper, written by PARS president Lori Rasmussen, provides expert recommendations for finding new efficiencies and more savings.

Download the white paper here.

afla-logo AFLA Webinar: Best Practices to Build and Present the Business Case for GPS Tracking

Register now for AFLA’s next Webinar, “Best Practices to Build and Present the Business Case for GPS Tracking,” on Wednesday, August 26th. David Pope and Lance Holt, of GPS Insight, will cover what you need to know when presenting the business case for GPS tracking technology to upper management and employees to gain acceptance.

This webinar will cover:

  • Identifying your business challenges and how GPS tracking will solve them
  • Building your criteria to find the best GPS tracking partner
  • The importance of piloting a GPS tracking solution
  • Getting employee buy-in from the start

Don’t miss this webinar on Wednesday, August 26th at 12pm PT/ 2pm CT/ 3pm ET. Register now!

work-zone NAFA FLEETSolutions Magazine Says Slow Down, Move Over, It’s The Law

The traditional notion of the road work zone conjures images of orange cones, flashing lights, and signs warning the driver to take caution. Work zone protocol also extends to law enforcement and emergency vehicles, with their drivers extended into the roadway to do their job. And yet there is a persistent lack of knowledge, and sometimes outright ignorance, of these laws. In the September/October issue of FLEETSolutions, NAFA Fleet Management Association looks into Move Over laws and work zone safety.

READ MORE

The Fleet Customer Experience

Your brand value and how people experience it are moving to be one in the same. This eclipse is fueled by changing expectations and technologically savvy people using social media to quickly express to many others their opinion between what your brand or reputation means and what it actually delivers.

By Jeofrey Bean

It was just two years ago that, for the first time in 13 consecutive years, the answer to the question of which company has the most valuable global brand was not Coca-Cola. It was Apple, according to Interbrand, independent experts in measuring and tracking brand value. Apple’s brand value had increased 28% in the prior 12 months making it one of the top risers in brand value.

READ MORE

 
Autonomous Vehicles

McKinsey

Self-driving cars are not just about a hands-free driving experience. Their emergence points to an urban transformation that will change the way people navigate, access information, and interact with one another.

Automotive digitization has led to important transformations, but the networked era has only just begun to tap its ultimate potential: the driverless car. Thanks to the advent of ubiquitous computing, various forms of semiautonomous technology, such as adaptive cruise control, automatic parallel parking, and collision warnings, are already widespread.

 
How to Predict Career Success

Observer/Opinion

It has been over three years since Steve Jobs died. Since then, books have been written and movies have been made. Each has celebrated his legacy and aimed to share the secrets he used to build the largest company in the world; things like attention to detail, attracting world-class talent and holding them to high standards.

We think we understand what caused his success. We don’t. We dismiss usable principles of success by labeling them as personality quirks.

What’s often missed is the paradoxical interplay of two of his seemingly opposite qualities; maniacal focus and insatiable curiosity. These weren’t just two random strengths. They may have been his most important as they helped lead to everything else.

READ MORE







Fleet Trends & Issues


Report Shows Motorists Don’t Understand Safety Features

The Detroit Bureau

Studies consistently show that motorists want as many advanced safety technologies in use on their vehicles as possible. However, a new report shows that most folks don’t understand what many of those innovations do.

The University of Iowa Transportation and Vehicle Safety Research Division polled 2,000 drivers to see how much they really knew about nine different safety technologies in use on vehicles today.

READ MORE

The UK Will Be Trialling Roads That Wirelessly Recharge Your Electric Car While You Drive

Forbes

Pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell electric vehicles, are already playing an increasing role in the way we travel. But electric vehicles face a significant challenge: “range anxiety”, meaning that potential owners worry about the lack of sufficient power, and the inability to travel long distances.

One solution to this problem could be, of course, installing more charging stations; the UK, for instance, as part of its Road Investment strategy, is committed in the long-term to installing plug-in charging points every 20 miles on the motorway network. But Highways England and the British Government have announced on Tuesday that they’ll test a more futuristic approach as well.

READ MORE

Ford Says Most Electric Vehicle Drivers Won’t Go Back To Gas

Forbes

The vast majority of electric vehicle owners will not go back to traditional gas-powered cars, according to a survey commissioned by Ford Motor

A full 92 percent of battery electric vehicle (BEV) drivers will stay with electric when they buy another vehicle, according to the survey.  The news was first reported by Clean Technica (via Green Car Reports).   The report noted that the percentage for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) owners is even higher: 94 percent.

READ MORE

Among the States, Self-Driving Cars Have Ignited a Gold Rush

The New York Times

Whether it is fuel savings, safer commutes or freed-up time behind the wheel, motorists have many reasons to embrace self-driving cars. But another group is just as eager to see these vehicles on the road: politicians.

Lawmakers from California, Texas and Virginia are wooing the autonomous-car industry, along with the jobs and tax revenue that come with it. 

READ MORE

Drive Safely Work Week

Drive Safely Work Week 2015 toolkit launched

The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) today launched a free comprehensive online toolkit to help employers plan ahead for Drive Safely Work Week (DSWW), the October workplace campaign that seeks to improve the safety of employees, employee family members and their communities. The toolkit may be downloaded at: www.trafficsafety.org.

READ MORE

 
On Accident Management

By John Wolford, CEI associate director of network services and loss recovery

The number of days it takes to repair a vehicle depends on the extent of its damage. What fleets should find unacceptable, however, are needless delays in repairs that wind up costing hundreds of dollars extra or more in rental bills.

They may be small by comparison, but rental costs are a factor in collision repair costs that still matter, and are often bigger than they need to be. In fact, following a few simple systematic practices, some large fleets could save $10,000 a year or more on rental expenses.

READ MORE

 
Highway Danger

The Detroit Bureau

After years of decline, there’s been a sudden surge in highway fatalities in the U.S. this year, and if the current trend continues, the U.S. could see the roadway death toll rise to its highest level since 2007, according to the National Safety Council.

The financial impact has also risen sharply this year, reports the NSC, climbing by 24% during the first half of this year when deaths, injuries and property damage are factored in.

READ MORE








Fleet Management Resources
 
AmeriFleet
Offering a nationwide vehicle delivery and relocation service; serving the corporate and commercial fleet industry.
GPS Insight
GPS Insight offers GPS tracking solutions to meet your organization's unique requirements and challenges.
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.
LeasePlan
LeasePlan is the world's leading high-touch service provider for vehicle leasing and fleet management.
The CEI Group Inc.
North America's largest accident management and fleet driver safety company.
Element
Customizing global fleet management to achieve your goals.
NAFA
NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location, or fleet composition.
Verizon Networkfleet
Verizon Networkfleet offers GPS fleet management solutions to help small to medium-sized businesses, enterprises, and government agencies better manage vehicles and assets. For a demo visit www.networkfleet.com/demo.