By Brian Matuszewski, Sustainable Strategies Manager, ARI

Fleets considered “world-class” often share one characteristic in common: a firm commitment to driving smarter and cleaner.

Smarter suggesting safer, more efficient and more cost-effective; while cleaner, suggesting a reduced impact on the environment. In other words, world-class fleets and sustainable fleets are two of the same.

That being said, no two world-class fleets look alike and the reasons that make them world-class are oftentimes unique and different.

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By Jeofrey Bean

During 2007 and the particularly economic emptiness of 2008 it became very noticeable that there were a group of companies, large and small, from several industries that were better, different, more profitable and more sustainable than most others.

These Experience Makers redefined industries and changed customers’ lives for the better. They also changed the expectations of existing and future customers. Once a market has been changed to a difficult-to-duplicate customer experience, those left competing with just price, features or value-added services are usually marginalized or eliminated.

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Forbes.com

Mobile, cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) have changed the IT infrastructure landscape. These trends are equally disruptive and transformative for business processes such as CRM, logistics management and hiring. Recently, I spoke with David Hale, the CEO of Gigwalk, on how mobility is reinventing work.

Today, a massive amount of temporary positions aren’t filled because companies can’t quickly match open opportunities to available talent. This issue is particularly acute when a company needs to hire temporary talent for short intervals, such as a day or a week. In the past a company had to call prospective workers to know if someone was available at a certain time and location and to confirm the person had the right skills. This manual process is cumbersome and many jobs went unfilled because it was too difficult to find a temporary worker.

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The Detroit News

Ten major vehicle manufacturers said Friday they have agreed in principle to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on all future vehicles, but haven’t set a timeframe.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced the voluntary commitment at a ceremony at IIHS’s expanded crash test and vehicle research facility here.

But officials said automakers will likely have a significant number of years before adding the technology to all vehicles — and it’s not clear what performance requirements will be included. There’s no penalty if automakers opt to not follow through.

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AT&T and Telogis, a SaaS-based connected vehicle technology provider, have announced a collaboration to power a suite of solutions for companies with mobile workforces. Connecting vehicles of all sizes from small trucks to 18-wheelers and heavy equipment, the combination of AT&T’s global network and Telogis’ telematics, compliance, and mobile and navigation software provides full fleet solutions for businesses and manufacturers around the world.

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The New York Times

When Manish Undavia took delivery of the 2016 Audi A7 sedan — list price, about $71,000 — it came with technology rarely found in automobiles, even five years ago: collision avoidance systems, sensors to keep the car from drifting and, perhaps most baffling to Mr. Undavia, a head-up display.

“A what?” he asked the salesman.

Richard Cardenas, a salesman at Biener Audi on Long Island, turned on the car and showed Mr. Undavia how it worked. From the driver’s seat, the car’s speed — “0 mpg” — appeared about six feet beyond the dashboard, floating in space, visible only to Mr. Undavia.

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The Detroit Bureau

Ford is going wild as it prepares to launch an updated version of its midsize Ranger pickup in Europe. Make that Wildtrack, a new version of the truck making its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week.

The unveiling in Europe further bolsters hopes that the Detroit maker will finally move ahead on long-rumored plans to bring the Ranger back to the American market, filling a yawning gap left wide open when it killed off the old, U.S.-made Ranger a few years back.

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Los Angeles Times

Soon, Los Angeles will become even more sustainable with a commitment by Mayor Eric Garcetti and city departments to lease green energy vehicles.

Garcetti, speaking at a news conference Friday outside Los Angeles Police Department headquarters, announced a commitment to lease 160 pure battery EV vehicles, which he said will give L.A. the largest pure EV fleet in the nation.

Also, 128 plug-in hybrids will be leased, which Garcetti said would save taxpayers money and advance sustainability goals. Earlier this year, Garcetti released the Sustainable City pLAn, to help make the city more sustainable and deliver environmental and economic benefits.

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By Greg Neuman, Senior Manager of Quality Control, CEI

The most common damage to fleet vehicle are dings and dents, things that detract from a vehicle’s appearance but don’t affect its safety.

And while repairing them isn’t the single biggest expense a fleet manager can authorize, if you’re in a money-saving mode and appearance isn’t a priority, you can keep your repair bill down by deciding not to repair them, especially in light of how many appear in a year. But even if your fleet allows you to avoid such “cosmetic” repairs to optimize your spending management, you need to ask yourself several other questions:

Will the damage get worse?

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With over 70% of commercial vehicle drivers now carrying and using a smart device in their role, phones, tablets and potentially wearables are cementing themselves as a fundamental part of the connected fleet ecosystem.

With rapid progress being made in the development of smart device’s capabilities, and innovations such as wearables, gamification and biometrics coming on to the market, there is set to be a new wave of smart device applications in the connected fleet.

The place of these latest innovations is however, debateable.

To ignite this debate, TU-Auto quizzed experts from LexisNexis and Garmin on the current and future role of the smart device in the fleet and put their thoughts together.

CHECK OUT the Q&A here.