By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

In my last three ‘Call to Action’ columns, I began a series of tips from an article by Anna Kucirkova of Connex Direct Marketing entitled “Four Key Steps Toward Successful Marketing Communication.”

It is a great read with plenty of ideas for fleet industry firms interested in better marketing. Here is the last installment of her story.

When it comes to developing and then deploying an effective marketing plan, there are some highly useful tools available that will make everything work more smoothly.

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By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

There’s more talk across America these days that the federal and state fuel taxes that are used to keep our highways and bridges in shape be replaced by another, more reliable source of funding: a Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) tax, also referred to as a mileage-based user fee.

The subject came up at the last meeting of NAFA’s government affairs committee, of which I’m a member, the agenda question being whether the organization should take a position on it. (We haven’t, at least not yet.) It was also the subject of an article in the September issue of NAFA’s Fleet Solutions magazine.

I, for one, like the idea of replacing the current federal and state fuel tax scheme with a mileage-based user fee, and believe it’s inevitable. But while it could solve one big program, it would it would also play havoc with fleets’ plans to transition to an electric fleet. Without a steep reduction in the cost of batteries, a steep rise in the price of gasoline, or a government mandate regardless of cost, a VMT could well slow down that transition.

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The Drive

Here’s a cheeky look at the 10 best and worst in automobile technology this year, from Alex Roy, a championship rally race driver-turned automotive gadfly and iconoclast for Meredith, Inc.’s automotive portal, The Drive.

“We love Top 10 lists, but it’s the 10 Worst lists that really get our hearts pumping. A lot of automotive ‘journalists’ pull their punches so as not to endanger those sweet, sweet junkets. I don’t have that problem. I was blacklisted years ago by just about everyone.

“Am I too honest? Maybe. Too unpredictable? Probably. But I say you can’t trust someone who hasn’t said something negative about someone. If everything was great, cars wouldn’t need warranties. If software-based tech functioned as promised, I wouldn’t have a column.

Read the article at The Drive.

MSN

Parents have all kinds of choices when it comes to their teen’s first car. To help make that decision a little easier, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has a few suggestions.

“Bigger vehicles provide greater protection,” said Jessica Cicchino, IIHS vice president for research, in a statement. “If you’re riding in one of the smallest vehicles on the road, you’ll be at a disadvantage in a crash with almost any other vehicle around you.”

Read the article at MSN.

The New York Times

Comfort is deeply personal for consumers and a good seat helps improve safety, makes us better drivers and can even increase a car’s fuel efficiency.

A typical driver will spend nearly 38,000 hours behind the wheel in a lifetime, covering some 800,000 miles.

While the budget for seating can be second only to the engine, the automakers do not manufacture the seats. They employ designers, chemists, ergonomic specialists, metallurgists, artisans, plus biomedical and software engineers to provide solutions for the automakers.

Read the article at The New York Times.

The Detroit Bureau

Hyundai and sibling Kia’s future vehicles will be built using electrified drivetrains will start coming with solar roof or hood panels capable of helping charge their batteries. The technology is expected to extend range, reduce emissions.

“In the future, various types of electricity-generating technologies, including the solar charging system, will be connected to vehicles,” said Jeong-Gil Park, executive vice president of engineering design at Hyundai Motor Group. “This will enable them to develop from a passive device that consumes energy to a solution that actively generates energy. The paradigm of the vehicle owner will shift from that of a consumer to an energy prosumer.”

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

Forbes

A Vancouver-based daily trip planning app with choose-your-current-priority function, can create routes made up of different transportation modes with three possible ideals – save time, take an optimized recommendation, or save money – and then compare those routes’ CO2 costs to driving your own car.

“If you give somebody half the commute time, it’s likely they’re going to drop the car,” David Oliver, Founder and CEO of Cowlines creator Greenlines Technology said in a phone interview. He believes viewing alternatives will also encourage people to be a bit more eco-friendly.

Read the article at Forbes.

The Detroit News

Ford and Volkswagen have been investigating a partnership on autonomous vehicles as part of talks that began earlier this year.

“These companies can form some partnerships on this stuff and spread out the costs of some of this development,” said Sam Abuelsamid, analyst with Navigant Research, a company that tracks autonomous vehicle development. “The costs of this technology are enormous. If they can develop one system that they both utilize, they can spread that cost over more vehicles.”

Read the article at The Detroit News.

Bloomberg

The biggest barrier to buying cleaner cars is still the high price. Households most likely to buy a battery-powered electric car have an income of $300,000 a year or more.

The cost of full adoption is astronomical.

An estimated $6 trillion is theoretically needed to build the infrastructure that electric cars need such as charging stations and power networks. Add to that the amount companies spend on making the cars and batteries, and the number could be even higher.

Read the article at Bloomberg.

Fortune

The best answer to “What do you think is your greatest weakness?” is a candid one, where you briefly describe something you’ve struggled with, and then tell how you’ve approached getting better at it.

“The biggest mistake I see job candidates make is, they do exhaustive research on the prospective employer and the industry, and almost no real, honest thinking about their own strengths and weaknesses,” Tom Gimbel, CEO of Chicago-based recruiters LaSalle Network says. “It’s fine to know a lot about the company, but obviously the interviewer already knows a lot more about that than you do. He or she wants to know who you are.

Read the article at Fortune.