Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

Sales and marketing people know that buyers make decisions based both on rational and emotional reasons. That dichotomy sometimes creates a schism in sales and marketing communication messaging.

Sales reps, who rely on face-to-face communications, tend to focus on rational arguments in a sales pitch, highlighting that their product is faster, better or cheaper. Corporate management and marketing, who strategize indirect corporate messaging, can afford to be more considered, seeking to trigger emotional responses.

The most successful companies, marketing and sales people, however, never lose sight of the need to fulfill both buyer needs.

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By Keith Trumbull

With Thanksgiving around the corner, it’s an appropriate time to think about what we’re thankful for – family, friends and health are at the top of the list for most. But when it comes to aspects of our work life, there are also reasons to give thanks.

In this column we routinely discuss how material handling equipment is a critical part of operations that help ensure the timely, accurate, cost effective movement of goods. Proper management of your material handling equipment can have an impact on the efficiency metrics of the entire business.

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Just last week, Ken Latzko, an eleven year veteran of the company, was promoted to the position of Senior Director of Sales at The CEI Group, Inc. We were not surprised to hear this good news; Ken is clearly an expert in this field and a very articulate spokesman for the company.

While CEI is focused on driving down collision repair costs in a number of ways and increasing recovered costs through subrogation, Ken says that over the past 15 years, accident prevention has emerged as one of their core competencies, reducing fleet accident rates by up to 35 percent. That’s impressive.

CEI, like many fleet management companies, is looking to grow its business by targeting vocational fleets and in this interview, Ken gives us some insight into the company’s significant strengths serving this specialized market.

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Los Angeles Times

In hindsight, it’s clear how Volkswagen, in the 2009 model year, seemed to have nailed the elusive formula for affordable, sporty diesel cars — when none of its competitors could crack the code.

At the time, U.S. regulators had been tightening pollution controls on diesels and diesel fuel for years, culminating with the demand to cut smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions 90% by 2010.

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Bloomberg Businessweek

“I like to drive cars,” says Mark Reuss, product development chief at General Motors, “so this is a little funny.”

Not funny-ha-ha, Reuss clarifies, but funny-odd. He’s sitting in the driver’s seat, with his hands on his thighs and his feet on the floor of a big Cadillac that’s driving itself around a banked oval.

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Federal Times

An audit of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service has found the agency hasn’t managed its fleet vehicle procurement effectively, missing out on $2.5 million in potential savings in 2014.

The audit was conducted by DHS’s inspector general at the request of the House subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency to see if the agency’s fleet of more than 1,100 vehicles was necessary to operations.

The 1,169 vehicles in the FPS fleet cost $10.7 million in FY 2014, with 98 percent of them are leased through an agreement with the General Services Administration.

The agency, which provides security services for federal properties, has a fleet of both law enforcement and administrative vehicles, supplying an emergency response vehicle for each law enforcement officer in FPS.

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newsnet5

Members of Cleveland City Council’s Safety Committee have asked city administrators to compile a more extensive report on the state of the city’s emergency fleet after administrator’s presented a two-page summary to councilors during a hearing on Wednesday.

The “2014 Vehicle Condition Summary” tallied up the fleet of vehicles used by the city’s fire, police, EMS personnel and scored the vehicles using either “Good,” “Fair” or “Poor.”

But, committee chair Matt Zone said administrators were told two months ago to present information also showing detailed maintenance plans, vehicle replacement plans and how the city retires vehicles, including age and mileage information.

“I wanted more, quite frankly,” Zone said.

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Jeofrey Bean, Fleet Management Weekly columnist and co-author, with Sean Van Tyne, of the best-selling book The Customer Experience Revolution, has penned a new book, Customer Experience Rules! Cleverly illustrated by master animator Steve Hickner, it brings a lighthearted spin to the subject of customer experience.

Customer experience is so central to the success of business today that everyone in the company, starting with the CEO and moving out to every employee, must embrace the concept and understand how to do it.

Some of the rules recommend using research to develop the best customer experience: “Study how your customers want to buy” (Rule 8) and “Test the out-of-box experience” (Rule 20). Others suggest tactics to engage customers: “Know social media” (Rule 50) and “Discover the influencers”(Rule 32). The rules cover customer experience specifics such as creating personas to understand your customers and developing customer journey maps.

Order your copy of Customer Experience Rules!

By Reiner Willems, Marketing Director, LeasePlan International

During a recent international fleet management event a Global Fleet Manager commented to me: “Although I am responsible for sourcing our global fleet, my job seems to be more about selling than about buying.”

Interesting notion, and probably not far from the truth for many responsible for an international fleet. But why is this the case?

A structured fleet communications plan will require some thinking and planning upfront, but will pay off during your fleet policy implementation and in achieving the change and results you are aiming for.

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AAA

Potentially unsafe mental distractions can persist for as long as 27 seconds after dialing, changing music or sending a text using voice commands, according to surprising new research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The results raise new and unexpected concerns regarding the use of phones and vehicle information systems while driving.

This research represents the third phase of the Foundation’s comprehensive investigation into cognitive distraction, which shows that new hands-free technologies can mentally distract drivers even if their eyes are on the road and their hands are on the wheel.

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