Edmunds experts have compiled a list of the three major industry trends they believe will influence the roads in 2024.
Jessica Caldwell, head of analytics at Edmunds, notes, “While the upcoming year holds the promise of further increased inventory and enticing deals that consumers have eagerly awaited, 2023’s high-interest rates are expected to linger, provoking conflicting market dynamics.”
Welcome to our final Fleet Management Weekly newsletter of 2023. Our editors have chosen some of their favorite articles of the year and we will post those on FleetManagementWeekly.com over the next few weeks. Our first newsletter of the New Year will be published on January 3, 2024.
We love Steve Bender’s 20 Holiday Wishes for Fleet in 2024. It’s a delightful, fun read! And we were excited to hear about Ted Roberts’ visit to Ranger Design’s beautiful new facility in South Carolina.
We wish you, your family, and friends a wonderful, safe holiday season. We treasure this quote from American essayist and editor Hamilton Wright Mabie: “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!”
Happy Holidays!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
Shetland Islands Council’s (SIC) road management team were recognized for stepping up a gear at a national awards ceremony last week.
SIC picked up the award for their high level of training and qualifications among staff, the quick turnaround of vehicle servicing, and the excellent record of fleet vehicles passing Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency tests.
The fleet management team maintain and service over 380 vehicles operated by the Council. Fleet team leader Raymond Murchison collected the award on behalf of the council and his team at the Village Hotel in Blackpool.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the Detroit automaker still plans on moving to all electric vehicle sales by 2035 even as it has recently delayed some EV production.
"Our plan is to only be selling EVs, light-duty EVs at that time but of course we're going to be responsive to where the customer is at but we have a plan to do that," Barra told reporters after an appearance at the Washington Economic Club.
GM in October said it was abandoning a goal of building 400,000 EVs from 2022 through mid-2024 as it delays production of electric pickup trucks at its plant in Michigan's Orion Township by a year.
U.S. auto safety regulators said they have begun the process that will eventually force carmakers to adopt new technology to prevent intoxicated drivers from starting vehicles.
In 2021, Congress directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to mandate a passive technology to try to avert more than 10,000 road deaths annually. The law requires a new technology safety standard by November 2024 if the technology is ready.
"We are trying to see can we get it done, does the technology exist in a way that is going to work every time," Acting NHTSA Administrator Ann Carlson said, adding that public acceptance of the technology would depend on its accuracy.