By Gary Mott, President, FLD Remarketing
By all accounts, 2023 was a disruptive year for fleet. From continued challenges brought on by the pandemic, to supply chain issues and lingering shortages, it seemed at times that fleet just couldn’t get a break.
While it appears vehicle availability picked up towards the end of 2023, the UAW strike, and the need to retrofit plants to produce electric vehicles, has thrown a return to pre-pandemic production levels into question.
And further, given that fuel costs are a full 40% of most fleet budgets, even the slightest increase can have a crippling effect on the industry.
By Kapil Arora, Chief Sales Officer, CerebrumX
For many years, the vehicle fleet industry and auto dealerships have constantly adjusted inventory expectations due to shifting supply chain constraints and lot management challenges.
These constraints have impacted vehicle acquisition, parts sourcing and transport of new vehicles.
Fleet allocations will only continue to grow, and it is important for fleets and auto retailers to identify new solutions via advanced connected vehicle data to maintain profits and customer expectations.
By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Editorial & Marketing Consultant
FMW Brand Acceleration helps fleet product and service providers continuously build their brands’ value story and generate sales leads, without the hassle of finding and paying a premium for a generalized branding, marketing, or PR firm.
FMW Brand Acceleration supplements editorial coverage with a full array of fleet-focused marketing activities that begin with consulting, branding, marketing, and lead generation strategies.
German-based rental car company Sixt has announced that it’s phasing out Tesla electric rental cars from its fleets because of reduced resale costs.
Sixt isn’t the first rental car company to push back on EVs. A few months ago, Hertz announced that its EV rentals were a money loser, with many of the benefits extolled by EV advocates never materializing.
The cars broke down more often than expected and were more expensive to repair than the comparable ICE car. The resultant price cuts and surge in sales have hurt resale value, Hertz said that residuals of EVs as a whole have dropped by about a third. For a rental company that will periodically replace its fleet, that’s not great news.
People used to think of r*ntals as a last resort. But fleets today are realizing how r*nting with Kingbee compliments their current strategy by providing vans immediately on short-term, flexible contracts.
Listen to these fleet managers discuss how r*nting added efficiency to their fleets. In 3-4 weeks, you could have brand new vans wrapped in your company’s branding, upfitted with shelves and ladder racks, and shipped to your location. It’s time to get comfortable with r*nting.