By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

In the August ‘Call to Action’ column, I featured the first part of an article by Anna Kucirkova of Connex Direct Marketing entitled “Four Key Steps Toward Successful Marketing Communication.” Here is the second step:

What type of ad platform is your demographic most likely to respond to? Where do they spend most of their time? Facebook? Instagram? Snapchat? Standard television? Print ads? Wherever your audience spends their time most is where you also need to be. (Ed. Note: Like all industries, the fleet industry demographic is changing!)

Here are some specifics to consider when trying to determine where your audience spends their time:

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There’s no doubt in my mind that shared mobility is in the fleet industry’s future

By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

It’s a fact that headlines often have a greater effect on public attitudes than the details of the story itself. It’s bad enough when the headline makes people think things are better than they actually are, but it can be detrimental to the common good when it casts a negative light on a positive trend.

It’s because of the latter that I have concerns over the recent press release from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which was about one of the new trends in the world of transportation: ride-hailing, which is a sub-trend in the broader development of the sharing economy. Here’s the headline and the first paragraph of the AAA Foundation release:

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Detroit Free Press

Perhaps car ownership, its costs and maintenance, isn’t for you, but you need some personal transportation.

Now a subscription car service, Mobiliti, is available in Detroit. The monthly fee, which stats at $599, includes insurance, maintenance and roadside assistance. It gives a customer access to new and luxury vehicle options. There is no cost to join and customers can opt out after one 30-day subscription period.

“There’s a section of our demographic that sees mobility as a lifestyle choice and wants to be unburdened from a (car) payment,” said Chance Richie, CEO of Mobiliti in Rochester Hills.

“This really appeals to someone who is here on a temporary assignment where it doesn’t make sense for them to buy a car,” said Richie. “It gives them access to an amazing vehicle for a short period of time and optimal flexibility.”

Read the article at Detroit Free Press.

CBS News MoneyWatch

As Trump struck an agreement with Mexico on a revised NAFTA earlier this week, he gave Canada until Friday to make concessions that would allow it to join the pact.

Tariffs on autos from Canada—where about 10 percent of cars sold in the U.S. are made, along with auto parts—would disrupt the U.S. auto industry, analysts said. If tariffs are imposed, they foresee price hikes of twenty-five percent and product disruption.

Read the article at CBS News MoneyWatch.

Volkswagen

The Volkswagen brand is to launch an extensive all-electric car sharing offering in selected major cities under its “We Share” sub-brand.

The first fleet of vehicles will be rolled out in the German capital Berlin, and will comprise 1,500 e-Golf when the service begins operating in the second quarter of 2019, with an additional 500 e-up! following later.

Jürgen Stackmann, Volkswagen Brand Board Member for Sales, commented: “We want to motivate young, urban users to engage with e-mobility.”

Read the article at Volkswagen

Axios

A year since Axios first examined the data, there are now 55 companies with self-driving car testing permits in California and 54 new accidents, based on filings of incident reports in the state.

But one thing has remained constant: Humans continue to be the cause of most accidents.

Unless self-driving cars magically replace all conventional cars in the country overnight, robots will have to drive alongside humans. What’s more, they’ll have to drive alongside pedestrians, cyclists and other humans with whom they share the road. And at the moment, self-driving car tech doesn’t seem to be advanced enough to handle all these humans.

Read the article at Axios.

The Detroit Bureau

There’s no doubt that Tesla has fierce competition. Jaguar recently launched its I-Pace battery-electric vehicle.

Next week, Mercedes-Benz will introduce, the electric EQ C crossover. Porsche will launch its first all-electric model, the Taycan. Even Aston Martin will enter the fray with an all-electric SUV due out in 2020.

New long-range EV entries are popping up at an ever-increasing pace over the next few years to the point that, by some estimates, there could be as many as 100 alternatives in U.S. showrooms by very early in the decade.

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

MSN

The time it takes to refuel electric cars has been a huge disadvantage when compared to gas-powered vehicles.

General Motors has begun a new partnership with Delta Americas to develop a new technology which will enable its vehicles to rapidly recharge their batteries and provide up to 180 miles of range in just 10 minutes.

The new technology is able to provide a staggering 96.5 percent grid-to-vehicle efficiency, a three percent increase than current technology, partly thanks to the use of solid-state transformers. Delta Americas, expects to have the final prototype of its Extreme Fast Charger (XFC) ready by 2020, and GM expects to have its fleet of 20 vehicles ready only three years later, by 2023.

Read the article at MSN.

USA Today

A president who prides himself on reducing bureaucracy has, in some ways, increased bureaucracy for companies that may just decide to go elsewhere.

Although it may be too early to predict the full impact of Trump’s tentative trade agreement with Mexico, there’s one thing you can count on: New car prices will probably rise.

“The new agreement will push production costs higher on Mexican products — parts and vehicles — which, eventually, will be paid by American consumers,” said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Autotrader, the car-shopping website owned by Cox Automotive.

Read the article at USA Today.

Harvard Business Review

The average person is distracted or interrupted every 40 seconds when working in front of their computer. In other words, we can’t work for even a single minute before we focus on something else.

Sure, sometimes it’s easy to get back on track. But when our attention is completely derailed, research shows, it can take more than 20 minutes to refocus.

So how can you gain back control?

Here are 4 strategies: Create a distraction-free ritual; Set three daily intentions; Work on hard stuff, and do more of it; Set an artificial project deadline.

Read the article at Harvard Business Review.