By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

According to Kevin Joyce, CMO and vice president of strategy services with The Pedowitz Group, there’s a significant gap between management’s expectations of Marketing accountability and its ability to quantify its performance.

While 76% of marketing organizations are accountable for, or share accountability for, P&L, only 19% of marketers have comprehensive tracking and reporting practices in place.

Given the roles of traditional marketing that is not surprising.

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In the spirit of July 4^th, write on your heart your own declaration of independence from all that is holding you back.

By Walter Bond, Hall of Fame Business Speaker & Former Big Ten & NBA Basketball Player

As you celebrate Independence Day this year, ask yourself: in your life, in your job, and in your career, are you free of self-imposed constraints? Are you merely trying to get by, unwilling to challenge the status quo that is neither as productive as it could be for your employer nor as rewarding to you? Do you have a vision of how things could be, but are afraid to break free of your comfort zone, to speak up and take action to make your vision reality?

From time to time, we all find ourselves in a rut of one kind or another. We may still be moving forward but within the bounds of a channel that keep us moving in the same direction, and that even keep us from seeing above the edges of the rut to find a new direction.

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The Detroit News

Japanese automakers warned the U.S. government Friday that tariffs would result in higher prices for domestic car-buyers and drastic changes to their manufacturing strategies as well as “rebalancing measures” by other countries hurting U.S. manufacturing and agriculture.

General Motors Co. stated that tariffs of up to 25 percent on imports of cars and auto parts could weaken the company and put jobs of U.S. autoworkers at risk.

“The average price of an imported car is $23,200,” U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said last week. “If the Department of Commerce were to recommend a 25 percent tariff on cars, it would be recommending raising the cost of an average imported car for an American family by $5,800. To put that in perspective, the median household income in the United States is just over $59,000. That means that roughly 10 percent of the median household income could be erased purely by the additional cost of a single car.”

Read the article at The Detroit News.

Fast Company

In response to the Trump Administration’s requested study, General Motors sent a letter complaining that further tariffs on imported auto parts and materials could result in higher car prices and, ultimately, a smaller GM.

As GM alludes to in its letter, the threat of more tariffs comes at a sensitive time for the company. Half of the cars on the road will be electric by 2030, estimates show.

Read the article at Fast Company.

The Washington Post

For the last three or four years the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has been studying the explosion of technology in the vehicle, and how to minimize the driving distractions that kill 3,500 people and injure 390,000 in U.S. crashes every year.

People are addicted, and even condemned by some of the people who do it – sending text messages while driving is illegal in all but three states (Montana, Arizona, Missouri) and calling someone on a handheld cellphone while driving is banned in 15 states.

“If you start to take your eyes off the road for more than two seconds you start to see the crash risk increase,” David Strayer, author of the study said. “The matter of time it takes to read a text is about 4½ seconds, so the shorter the interaction and the easier the interaction, the less it competes with driving.”

Read the article at The Washington Post.

Detroit Free Press

Almost 6,000 pedestrians died on or along U.S. roads in 2016 alone, and the SUV revolution is a leading cause – pedestrian deaths nationwide are up 46 percent since 2009.

Vehicle safety measures, which the federal government says could save hundreds of pedestrian lives every year, are available but not widely employed by some automakers — nor are they required.

“Along with automakers, cities can take action that saves pedestrians. New York City, for example, cut such deaths nearly in half in just four years. The need for steps such as lower speed limits, more midblock crosswalks and better lighting grows in urgency as automakers move strongly toward truck and SUV production.”

Read the article at Detroit Free Press.

CBS News MoneyWatch

Want to start your own Amazon delivery business? With an initial investment of as little as $10,000 you can get leased vans, insurance, gas cards and training to launch your own delivery fleet potentially earning $300,00 a year.

The catch? There’s no guarantee that you’ll make a $300,000 profit – or any profit, for that matter.

The costs of working with Amazon are so substantial that independent delivery companies are increasingly turning away Amazon’s business, says Peter Schlactus, co-founder of the Association for Delivery Drivers. The reason: Amazon requires that delivery companies hire their drivers as employees, rather than work with independent contractors.

Read the article at CBS News MoneyWatch.

CNN Money

Bill Ford, Jr. says his mission since day one has been to build a bridge between environmentalists and the business community.

Ford’s vision of reducing gridlock and limiting the impact of cars on the environment, including “smart roads” and more sustainable transportation has resulted in Ford Smart Mobility, a new division of the company aimed at designing, creating and investing in advances in connectivity, mobility, self-driving cars and other innovations.

“I was just appalled at the mentality that existed throughout the company towards the environment and, frankly, towards anything outside of Detroit,” Ford tells CNN’s Poppy Harlow in the latest episode of Boss Files. “Ford was, the entire auto industry was, a very insular culture. And it really shocked me. And I decided to see if I could help change that. And in the early years, there was a lot of frustration.”

Read the article at CNN Money.

Harvard Business Review

Research shows that when people have a good relationship with their leaders, they’re more motivated, they perform better, and they’re more likely to go the extra mile to support their team. Conversely, when people don’t get along with their leaders, they tend to retaliate against them and the organization.

Across our studies, we found that employees who rated their relationship with their leader as highly ambivalent performed worse in their jobs (as rated by their leader) than those who rated the relationship as low in ambivalence.

“Because leaders tend to think their relationships with employees are more positive than employees believe them to be, the first step is to try to understand how others view the relationship. Leaders can ask employees specifically how they feel about their relationship, whether they think there’s enough trust, and whether they feel supported and listened to.”

Read the article at Harvard Business Review.

J.D. Power

Even if consumers are going to get a lower insurance premium, they aren’t quite ready to hand over the wheel and own an automated vehicle.

Auto insurers take many factors into account when pricing a policy for an individual customer and are going to have to keep a close eye on customer attitudes toward automation and evaluate the potential to incorporate features into underwriting policies.

“According to a recent J.D. Power pulse survey, 60% of customers say there are benefits to owning an automated vehicle. While “lower insurance premiums” is a listed benefit of owning an automated vehicle, only 18% of consumers say that would play a factor in their decision to purchase one.”

Read the article at J.D. Power.