FleetManagementWeekly AmeriFleet
March 28, 2017

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Reconnection with Reality

Senior editor and “above average driver” Mark Boada recently took a behind the wheel fleet driver training course and has written a delightful piece about how he perceived it. We now think he is an even better driver.

If you ever get writer’s block — and I think most of us can relate — you will appreciate the solid tips Wendy Eichenbaum gives us in her column “Knock Out Writer’s Block.”

Shout Outs!

Ricardo Fonzaghi, newly appointed Chief Commercial Officer at Lease Plan USA.

Michael Stafford, in Fortune article “Your Next Company Car Could be a Tesla.”

The California Air Resources Board for not bowing to the Trump administration’s plan to roll back federal vehicle fuel standards.

And, finally, to my many fleet friends who sent their kind wishes as I recovered from a bout of ill-health. I shall thank you all in person in Tampa in just a few short weeks!

Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief


Thought Leadership

Fleet Marketing – Guiding principles for fleet providers to improve marketing and increase sales.

Fleet Asset Management – Best practices for work truck management.

Globally Speaking — Perspectives on the Multinational Fleets

Customer Driven — Engage your organization to create customer loyalty, trust and superior servic

On Fleet Driver Management Learn ways to save money on your fleet’s collision repair costs.

Safety & Risk — Impactful driver safety and risk management tools and techniques.

The Fleet CX Toolbox – Solid steps to implementing and improving fleet customer experience.

BIG Data. BIG Results. BIG Future–  Harnessing big data to achieve big results using cutting edge technology.

Talent Management – Smart guidelines to help you manage the talent in your workplace.


VIDEO: A Keen Focus on Subrogation

At The CEI Group, subrogation is a main area of focus — with 26 employees dedicated to recovery for their clients.



VIDEO: Innovative Upfitting

  Highly Customized Upfitting Makes All the Difference
 

Masterack engineers spend time in the field with clients – and that has led to some customized upfitting that has proven highly beneficial in the workplace.


VIDEO: Remarketing
  Kontos Kommentary – February 2017 Edition
 

In the latest Kontos Kommentary, Tom Kontos, Chief Economist at KAR Auction Services, provides his insight and updates regarding used vehicle market conditions. To read the entire Kontos Kommentary for February 2017, visit https://www.adesa.com/kontos-kommentary.





The Fleet Spot


ARI WatchList® Notifies Fleet Managers of Critical Events in Real Time

The new tool gives companies the power to manage exceptions faster than ever before, which saves time and money.

Any fleet manager’s job would be exponentially easier if there was a way to have eyes on each of the company’s vehicles at all times so that any service or logistical issues could be addressed immediately.

Recognizing that time is money when it comes to significant events that impact a fleet, ARI® has introduced ARI WatchList®, a new tool available via the ARI insights® portal to ARI clients currently using its Accident Management and Telematics programs.

READ MORE

Register Now For NAFA’s Next Webinar: “How to Make Big Data Practical for Your Fleet” Wednesday, April 12!

How to Make Big Data Practical for Your Fleet will be presented by Bernie Kavanagh, SVP & General Manager for North American Large Fleet, WEX Inc., Katherine Ferguson, VP, Marketing, WEX Inc., and Kurt Thearling, VP, Analytics, WEX Inc.

Big Data and analytics are changing the way fleet managers run their fleets. Rich data provided by companies through the use of analytics programs, GPS tracking solutions, and mobile applications allow fleet managers to measure how their fleet’s vehicles are performing in real time. These data points are altering the fleet industry on a massive scale.

READ MORE

LeasePlan USA Announces New Chief Commercial Officer

LeasePlan USA has appointed Ricardo Fonzaghi as new Chief Commercial Officer, overseeing the company’s sales and client relations teams.

“Ricardo has delivered savings and quality improvements to clients by analyzing and understanding the financial, competitive and process sides and consolidating this into a results-focused solution,” said Jeff Schlesinger, president and CEO for LeasePlan USA. “We look forward to continued growth and client loyalty under his leadership.”

READ MORE

3 Strategies to Help Achieve and Deliver Results

Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening my ax.”

By Laura Jozwiak, Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Relations, Wheels, Inc.

This quote helps to set the stage for three strategies that I feel are critical in order to achieve and deliver results: Preparation, effort, focus. We achieve our results when we are prepared, put forth the effort and focus on our vision. Allow me to explain…

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Fleet Spectator

By Mark Boada, Senior Editor

Like the typical American, I believe I’m an above-average driver. Which means I’m probably overconfident, at least occasionally complacent and not as good as I think I am. It also means I’m probably not much different from a lot of fleet drivers.

So, it was with mixed feelings that I headed out to Driving Dynamics’ all-day, behind-the-wheel driver training course. What, I thought, did it have to teach me? After all, I’ve been driving for nearly 50 years, and have driven hundreds of thousands of miles as a professional driver (during college and between jobs I’d been a limousine service driver), during which time I never once had an accident, not even in mid-town Manhattan during rush hour and on the treacherous Belt and Southern State parkways, with their shoulder-less, too-narrow lanes, sewer grates, potholes and crazy-fast drivers.

But then again, there was that rear-ender I caused a few years ago, fiddling with my new toy, a shiny new GPS.

READ MORE

 
Disincentivizing Driving

Wired

Would you change how you get to work for $10 a month? $50? How about $100?

As dense cities struggle with packed roads and choking smog, officials are on the hunt for ways to get people out of cars and onto their feet, bikes, or public transit. One idea? Paying them off. And Washington, DC is thinking about doing just that.

A bill before the city council would compel employers who provide free parking to offer transit benefits (like a pre-tax bus pass) or a cash payment to workers who find another way to the office. The goal here isn’t to stamp out cars, but to let the non-drivers “cash out” the value of “free” parking.

READ MORE

 
The Fleet CX Toolkit

By Wendy Eichenbaum

We’ve all been there. The deadline for your document is looming. You start a new blank document in MS Word, type a few sentences, but don’t know what to write next. After staring at that white screen for a while, you walk away, hoping something will come to you later.

This is an all too familiar scenario for many people. We sit down and expect to start writing. Why is that? In school, we were taught to research a topic, and then write an essay that met a certain format. But when it came time to put pen to paper, we froze up trying to make sense out of our disparate pieces of research.

Writer’s block is not your inability to compose a sentence. Instead, it’s a sign that you have not given yourself the time to consider, analyze, and organize your research. If we give ourselves the time to brainstorm and organize, then writing the sentences will feel like a natural progression.

READ MORE









Fleet Trends & Issues


What You Can Do About Climate Change

The New York Times

What can you — just one concerned person — do about global warming?

It may feel like a more urgent problem these days, with proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and each year warmer than the previous one.

You could drive a few miles fewer a year. Reduce your speed. Turn down your thermostat in winter. Replace your incandescent light bulbs with LEDs. Reduce your meat consumption. Any one of those actions would help.

READ MORE

Unlike Trump, California Affirms Car Emissions Standard

USA Today

Just weeks after President Trump signaled he’s ready to roll back tough federal vehicle fuel standards, California’s clean-air authority on Friday affirmed that it won’t budge on its own tough standards.

The California Air Resources Board on Friday reaffirmed its own set of regulatory standards for the automotive industry, setting it and 12 other mostly East and West Coast states that are likely to follow its lead on a different path than the rest of the nation.

The 16-member board of California regulators voted unanimously to reaffirm its existing standards for model years 2022 to 2025 for zero emission vehicle sales and greenhouse gas emissions in California despite pleas from the industry for changes.

READ MORE

New Legislation Attacks Cyber Security

The Detroit Bureau

Republicans controlling Congress and the White House have called for a broad reduction in federal regulations, however, two Democratic senators from New England, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), have introduced bills bolstering cyber security of motor vehicles and aircraft.

“Whether in their cars on the road or in aircraft in the sky, Americans should be protected from cyber attack and violations of their privacy,” said Markey in a joint press release announcing the legislation this week.

“If hackers access the critical systems of a car or plane, disaster could ensue and our public safety could be compromised.”

READ MORE

LeasePlan and Uber Enter Into a Pan-European Partnership

LeasePlan and Uber will expand their current cooperation in Portugal, France and the Netherlands to a pan-European level.

The companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding stating that LeasePlan will make available a full operational leasing solution to Uber partner-drivers across Europe.

LeasePlan’s Uber proposition consists of a broad package of services, from repairs and maintenance to insurance ─ enabling Uber drivers to focus on their core business.

READ MORE

Tesla for Fleets

Fortune

Tesla has launched a new webpage to promote corporate fleet sales in North America, the latest effort by the automaker to diversify its revenue stream.

The new webpage, which markets the Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle as the “perfect company car,” follows a similar sales effort that started last year in Europe and the hiring of Michael Stafford in August to head up a corporate fleet program. Hat tip to Teslarati for first noting the new corporate sales page.

Tesla’s corporate sales webpage includes basic information on the cost and savings of owning an electric vehicle, testimonials, and links to scheduling a test drive. The company says it will even make an onsite visit “for all of your colleagues to experience a Tesla.”

READ MORE

 
Safety & Risk

“One-hundred deaths every day should outrage us. Why are we O.K. with this? Complacency is killing us.”

By Art Liggio, President, Driving Dynamics

According to a recent report by the National Safety Council, for the first time in 10 years there were more than 40,000 traffic fatalities in the United States. This 2016 statistic represents a 6 percent increase over 2015 and sadly, 2015’s increase in fatalities was 7.2 percent above 2014. Another sobering fact related to 2015 is that the increase that year was the largest percentage increase in nearly 50 years.

Many articles seem to suggest that a contributing factor to this upward trend is that Americans are driving more than in previous years. On the surface this seems logical, however, when you look at further analyses compiled by NHTSA, which includes the equalizing measurement of fatality crashes per million miles, the story does not get any better.

READ MORE

 
Autonomous Driving

The Washington Post

Uber’s self-driving fleet is back on the road after a car accident Friday night prompted the company to temporarily suspend them.

The ride-hailing company said Monday that its vehicles would hit the streets of San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Tempe, Ariz., by the end of the day and resume picking up paying riders in the latter two cities. A spokeswoman said Uber felt confident in returning the vehicles to the road after one of its self-driving Volvo XC90s was struck and overturned in Tempe on Friday evening.

READ MORE








Fleet Management Resources
 
AFLA – Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association
Providing the advanced forum for corporate fleet professionals to network with industry leaders.
The CEI Group Inc.
CEI is North America’s largest provider of fully integrated fleet accident management, driver safety and risk management services.
NAFA Fleet Management Association
NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location, or fleet composition.
AmeriFleet
Offering a nationwide vehicle delivery and relocation service; serving the corporate and commercial fleet industry.
Donlen
Since 1965, Donlen has been the fleet management industry’s leading provider of comprehensive, integrated financing and asset management solutions — and that spirit of innovation continues today.
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.
Driving Dynamics
Driving Dynamics was established to help corporate fleet drivers develop expert, safe driving skills using proven, advanced driving techniques.
Wheels, Inc.
First in fleet for 76 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.



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