July 21, 2014

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Sutton_Janice Times are Changing for the Traditional Fleet Manager

We are thor­oughly enjoy­ing Ed Pierce’s new fleet mar­ket­ing col­umn ‘A Call to Action (for Fleet Providers)’ pub­lished monthly in Fleet Man­age­ment Weekly. In his July col­umn he said, “As any great sales per­son will tell you, sales is not about a great prod­uct or ser­vice, it’s about the customer’s per­cep­tion of value.”

We thought about Ed’s state­ment while we inter­viewed a num­ber of dis­tin­guished fleet pro­fes­sion­als at NAFA’s recent Board of Gov­er­nors’ meet­ing in Orlando. The indus­try is chang­ing, they say; many fleet man­agers now report direct to strate­gic sourc­ing or work closely with these folks in purchasing/bid processes, and sport new job titles. But we were struck by some­thing that we heard over and over again: the absolute value these fleet pro­fes­sion­als are real­iz­ing by hav­ing earned their CAFM accred­i­ta­tion from NAFA. Sev­eral peo­ple said that they would not even have been con­sid­ered for their cur­rent posi­tion with­out it, and oth­ers said how the CAFM sta­tus sub­stan­tially ele­vates the per­cep­tion of their very real capa­bil­i­ties to upper management.

At one time or another nearly all of us must ‘mar­ket’ our­selves and we need to have the tools to do that effec­tively. We think NAFA excels in fleet edu­ca­tion, whether it occurs at webi­nars, at local chap­ter meet­ings, the annual I&E, the Expo floor at I&E, fun­da­men­tal and advanced fleet man­age­ment sem­i­nars, and events such as this fall’s Inter­na­tional Fleet Acad­emy and the CAFM Boot­camp. Grad­u­ates tell us that it’s not easy to earn a CAFM, mak­ing it all the more valu­able in the marketplace.

And while we’re talk­ing about excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand your fleet edu­ca­tion, don’t miss out on the 2014 AFLA Con­fer­ence – Sep­tem­ber 7–10 in Las Vegas. Great edu­ca­tional ses­sions, ter­rific keynot­ers, and superb net­work­ing — so aptly named: “Improv­ing Your Odds for Fleet Success.”

Jan­ice Sut­ton
Exec­u­tive Editor


crawford-rich

VIDEO: Constantly, Consistently Monitoring Your Drivers

Mon­i­tor­ing and under­stand­ing your dri­vers’ behav­ior — look­ing for vio­la­tions and other data — has evolved from a sev­eral times a year event to some­thing fleet man­agers can do more eas­ily than ever. And it keeps evolving.

VIDEO: A 'Hidden Champion'
bauwens-wim
  25 Years in Fleet Software
 

Sofico has 25 strong years in the fleet soft­ware busi­ness — in fact that’s all they do — and they’re a bit of a ‘hid­den cham­pion’ in the industry.


Click here to watch video
VIDEO: Subaru Fleet Sales
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  Putting Fleet Orders First
 

Even when it comes to new model launches, Sub­aru puts fleet cus­tomers first — which is just one of the rea­sons they have one of the fastest order-to-delivery times in the industry.


Click here to read more



The Fleet Spot


latzko-ken CEI’s Ken Latzko to Address Driver Distractions at 2014 Fleet Safety Conference

Cus­tomized “micro-targeted” com­mu­ni­ca­tions can help reduce fleet dri­ver dis­trac­tions and pre­vent the acci­dents they cause. That’s the mes­sage to be deliv­ered by Ken Latzko of the CEI Group, Inc. (CEI) at the 2014 Fleet Safety Con­fer­ence to be held in Schaum­burg, Illi­nois on Tues­day and Wednes­day of this week.

Ken Latzko, CEI’s South­east regional sales man­ager, will make his remarks dur­ing a break­out ses­sion enti­tled “How to Help Dri­vers Deal with In-Vehicle Distractions.”

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Rich Radi ARI Set to Exhibit at the Annual Fleet Safety Conference

Com­pany will also host break­out ses­sion focus­ing on safety for voca­tional vehi­cles that oper­ate in off-road and con­struc­tion areas

ARI will exhibit at the annual Fleet Safety Con­fer­ence in Schaum­burg, Illi­nois, July 22–23. ARI’s team of safety and dri­ver ser­vices spe­cial­ists will be in atten­dance at table #17 to dis­cuss the chal­lenges that come with man­ag­ing and min­i­miz­ing dri­ver risk, as well as the lat­est indus­try trends.

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Arthur Liggio Driving Dynamics President Arthur Liggio to Present at 2014 Fleet Safety Conference

Arthur Lig­gio, Dri­ving Dynam­ics pres­i­dent will present Mov­ing Beyond the Check­list to a Strate­gic “Blue­print for Safety” at the 2014 Fleet Safety Con­fer­ence in Schaum­berg, IL at the Renais­sance Schaum­burg Con­ven­tion Cen­ter Hotel on Tues­day July 22, 2014 at 3:10 pm.

The ses­sion will focus on cre­at­ing a shift in think­ing from approach­ing safety pol­icy imple­men­ta­tion as an admin­is­tra­tive task to uti­liz­ing mar­ket­ing tac­tics and strate­gies to build a viable safety cul­ture that gains employee buy-in and engage­ment by lever­ag­ing ongo­ing, enter­tain­ing and thought-provoking com­mu­ni­ca­tions and activities.

CAFM_logo_sm (1) NAFA Offers CAFM Boot Camp In Philadelphia, PA

Through­out the fleet man­age­ment pro­fes­sion, NAFA’s CAFM pro­gram is rec­og­nized as the indus­try stan­dard. The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sym­bol­izes that the fleet man­ager is an expert in his or her field, the way a CPA is rec­og­nized in the account­ing field.

To earn the sta­tus of Cer­ti­fied Auto­mo­tive Fleet Man­ager (CAFM), fleet pro­fes­sion­als must demon­strate their exper­tise by pass­ing a series of com­pre­hen­sive exam­i­na­tions that cover eight dis­ci­plines of auto­mo­tive fleet man­age­ment. It’s not an easy cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to earn, but NAFA’s CAFM Boot Camp can help.

This fall, NAFA will be hold­ing the CAFM Boot Camp Octo­ber 17–19, 2014 at the Loews Philadel­phia Hotel, in Philadel­phia, PA. 

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Fleet Telematics Solutions  

We are pay­ing a lot of atten­tion to vehi­cle telem­at­ics, and we’re not alone. In a recent arti­cle in Fleet Man­age­ment Weekly, Bruce Horan, direc­tor of PHH Onboard®, pre­dicted that fleet imple­men­ta­tion of telem­at­ics was poised to dou­ble from 20 to 40 per­cent, reach­ing a crit­i­cal mass, very soon.

In this inter­view with Rob Donat, founder and CEO of GPS Insight, we hear about fleets that have pock­eted sub­stan­tial returns on invest­ment soon after imple­men­ta­tion. One com­pany Rob cites achieved a 1,000% ROI the first year. And, by the way, reduced speed vio­la­tions by 98 percent.

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Global Fleet Management  

NAFA’s 2014 Inter­na­tional Fleet Acad­emy is the pre­mier global fleet con­fer­ence for a good rea­son. Fleet pro­fes­sion­als who attend the IFA learn from the best and most knowl­edge­able indi­vid­u­als on the sub­ject of global fleet man­age­ment. Atten­dees can share infor­ma­tion with col­leagues in an inti­mate set­ting arranged by NAFA, the most trusted name in fleet.

From dis­cus­sions regard­ing cloud-based loca­tion intel­li­gence soft­ware plat­forms, to fleet cen­tral­iza­tion ver­sus region­al­ized struc­ture, stan­dard­iza­tion of goods and ser­vices, staffing, how to iden­tify and visit the right regional peo­ple, and more, IFA pro­vides unpar­al­leled edu­ca­tion for fleet pro­fes­sion­als with inter­na­tional oversight.

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Fleet Logistics  

Pro­gram is a Direct Result of Cus­tomer Feed­back, Desire to Pro­vide World Class Experience

Fleet logis­tics provider Amer­i­Fleet announced that it would under­take a company-wide train­ing ini­tia­tive that will touch all of the Alpharetta, Ga-based provider’s 350-plus employ­ees located in over a dozen regional and satel­lite offices through­out North America.

A direct response to cus­tomer feed­back gleaned dur­ing AmeriFleet’s “Voice of the Cus­tomer” activ­i­ties con­ducted dur­ing the last year, the train­ing efforts will be designed to help Amer­i­Fleet staffers lever­age the company’s con­sid­er­able assets to pro­vide an improved, world-class expe­ri­ence to its cus­tomers located in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico.

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Fleet Trends & Issues


successGPS Tracking Solutions Provide Helpful Training Resources

It’s impor­tant to choose a GPS fleet track­ing solu­tion that pro­vides help for users after sale. Advanced solu­tions, like GPS Insight, are easy to use, pro­vide tech­ni­cal sup­port, and encour­age all users to par­tic­i­pate in ongo­ing train­ing to learn GPS fleet track­ing best prac­tices. Set your team up for suc­cess by choos­ing a solu­tion that pro­vides these help­ful resources.

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hompes-gemarSofico Acquires Car Systems in France

Belgium-based Sofico, a pri­vately owned provider of global fleet, leas­ing and mobil­ity soft­ware, has acquired the French IT solu­tions com­pany, Car Sys­tems. Founded in 1985 and based in Avi­gnon, France, Car Sys­tems pro­vides fleet soft­ware solu­tions and host­ing for short and long term car, van and truck rental operators.

The acqui­si­tion fits well with Sofico’s growth strat­egy and broad­ens Sofico’s mar­ket cov­er­age to include short term car, van and truck rental. At the moment, Sofico con­sists of seven autonomous regional units, backed by a series of process-specific sup­port units. The Car Sys­tems oper­a­tions will be inte­grated into this struc­ture as a new unit with its focus on France and south­ern Europe.

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Rainer Laber, CEOFleet Logistics Expands into Turkey

Fleet Logis­tics, Europe’s largest inde­pen­dent fleet man­age­ment provider, has con­tin­ued its expan­sion across main­land Europe and the Near East with the open­ing of new fleet man­age­ment oper­a­tions in Turkey to ser­vice new and exist­ing fleet customers.

“The open­ing of our first oper­a­tions in Turkey puts more pieces in the Fleet Logis­tics’ jig­saw of main­land Europe and the Near East. In Turkey, we see another exam­ple of us work­ing with the exist­ing TÜV SÜD net­work and infra­struc­ture in the coun­try so that we are com­pletely inte­grated within the oper­a­tions of the par­ent com­pany,” said Fleet Logis­tics Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Rainer Laber.

READ MORE about the expansion.

telogisTelogis Launches Compliance, Navigation and Fleet Management for Volvo Trucks

Volvo cus­tomers are now able to access Tel­o­gis’ built-in com­pli­ance, telem­at­ics and nav­i­ga­tion ser­vices via smart­phones and tablets by lever­ag­ing Volvo’s inte­grated con­nected vehi­cle hard­ware, stan­dard on new Volvo-powered Volvo trucks.

In com­mer­cial trucking’s evolv­ing leg­isla­tive and reg­u­la­tory land­scape, Tel­o­gis’ offer­ings for Volvo Trucks help dri­vers and back office teams man­age FMCSA com­pli­ance and keep dri­vers safer by deliv­er­ing elec­tronic log tools and rout­ing infor­ma­tion that is specif­i­cally designed com­mer­cial drivers.

READ MORE about the offerings

Teen Driver Safety  

Many teenagers are dri­ving vehi­cles that don’t offer good crash pro­tec­tion and lack impor­tant safety tech­nol­ogy, new research by the Insur­ance Insti­tute for High­way Safety shows.

“A teenager’s first car is more than just a finan­cial deci­sion,” says IIHS Pres­i­dent Adrian Lund.

In a national phone sur­vey con­ducted for IIHS of par­ents of teen dri­vers, 83 per­cent of those who bought a vehi­cle for their teenagers said they bought it used.

To help guide par­ents toward safer choices, IIHS has com­piled its first-ever list of rec­om­mended used vehi­cles for teens.

READ MORE  about the recommendations.

 
A Future Look: Vehicle Technology  

Google will soon begin rolling out the first of 100 self-driving micro­cars, most of which will have some famil­iar fea­tures miss­ing, namely such tra­di­tional neces­si­ties as a steer­ing wheel, brake and gas pedal.

And while the Google vehi­cles will just be pro­to­types designed to test the tech firm’s autonomous dri­ving tech­nol­ogy, a sur­vey of indus­try experts antic­i­pates that the basic design could soon become the norm, rather than the exception.

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A Future Look: Autonomous Vehicles  

Bet­ting on huge demand from motorists in the world’s increas­ingly crowded mega-cities, Nis­san CEO Car­los Ghosn has laid out an aggres­sive timetable for bring­ing the maker’s autonomous vehi­cles to market.

Even before the first of those self-driving cars goes on sale in 2020, said Ghosn, Nis­san will launch new tech­nolo­gies, such as auto­mated lane con­trols and high­way traf­fic man­age­ment sys­tems that will begin to sup­ple­ment the dri­ver behind the wheel.

Nis­san is aim­ing to take the lead in the devel­op­ment of autonomous tech­nolo­gies but is likely to face a bat­tle as other automak­ers enter the field – as well as tech giant Google which will begin launch­ing field tests this year of a new pro­to­type self-driving vehi­cle it has developed.

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Fleet Management Resources 
AmeriFleet
Offering a nationwide vehicle delivery and relocation service; serving the corporate and commercial fleet industry.
LeasePlan
LeasePlan is the world's leading high-touch service provider for vehicle leasing and fleet management.
PHH
Customizing global fleet management to achieve your goals.
ARI
Driven fleet professionals. Driving results.
NAFA
NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location, or fleet composition.
The CEI Group Inc.
North America's largest accident management and fleet driver safety company.
GPS Insight
GPS Insight offers GPS tracking solutions to meet your organization's unique requirements and challenges.
PARS
PARS' mission is to provide you with high-quality service at competitive prices for all of your transportation needs.