FleetManagementWeekly
January 8, 2019

Follow us

Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Cornerstones of Fleet

The NAFA Foundation is inviting members of the fleet community to consider donating to its Cornerstones of Fleet Campaign. Full disclosure: I am a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. I am so excited about the work the Foundation is doing to advance the fleet profession.

Ed Dubens, CEO & Founder of eDriving, opens Making ‘Safety’ Part of Your DNA in 2019 with this provocative question: “What would you do if a customer phoned you from their cell phone when driving?”

The FMW team wishes our readers a very happy 2019. We like this a lot: “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief


Thought Leadership

Customer Driven — Engage your organization to create customer loyalty, trust, and superior service

Disruptive Leadership — Master the principles of disruptive leadership

Fleet Asset Management – Best practices for work truck management

Fleet Marketing – Guiding principles for fleet providers to improve marketing and increase sales

Fleet Spectator A 360 view of the fleet industry

Globally Speaking — Perspectives on the multinational fleet

In the Public Interest — Successfully managing the government fleet

Managing the Reimbursed Fleet — Expert strategies to manage mobile employees

On Fleet Driver Management Solutions to improve your fleet’s accident rate and cut costs on collision repairs

Safety & Risk — Impactful driver safety and risk management tools and techniques

Talent Management — Smart guidelines to help you manage the talent in your workplace

 


VIDEO: Secure Cardless Transactions for Fuel Purchases

WEX is moving toward the future by testing secure, cardless fuel purchase transactions via their mobile app.



<br>

VIDEO: Women in Fleet Management


 WIFM’s Mentorship Program Gives Back to Women in the Fleet Industry
 

This fleet expert is very proud of the mentorship program that Women in Fleet Management has rolled out, in no small part because it offers her a great chance to give back to the industry.


VIDEO: Understanding Fleet Clients

 Understanding a Client’s Needs Reduces Net Spend by 40%
 

By simply getting in tight with a client and understanding their needs, you can drive real savings – like this example where Enterprise Fleet Management reduced a medical client’s net spend by 40% in a year.





The Fleet Spot



Gain New Industry Benefits with NAFA Foundation’s ‘Cornerstones of Fleet’ Campaign

Can the NAFA Foundation count on you to be a “cornerstone” of the fleet industry?

Please consider donating to the NAFA Foundation’s premiere Cornerstones of Fleet Campaign, which will help grow the Foundation’s mission to strategically advance the fleet profession – through beneficial industry research, education, partnerships, and scholarships.

Plus, donors to the Cornerstone of Fleets campaign can get exclusive benefits (details found here), such as unique social events, input on and presentations about Foundation research, and more!

READ MORE

Wheels Appoints Guillaume Bourst Global Product Director

Wheels, Inc.and ALD Automotive are pleased to announce the appointment of Guillaume Bourst as Global Product Director at Wheels.

Previously a business development manager for international key accounts at ALD Automotive, Guillaume will be responsible for further enhancing the innovative solutions offered by Wheels to its global clients.

“Guillaume brings a fresh perspective to the services we build and how we address the common challenges that the fleet industry is facing globally,” said Dan Frank president and CEO.

READ MORE

NAFA Webinar: A New Approach to Preventative Maintenance and Compliance

Webinar Sponsored by ARI

When: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 — 12:00 PM — 1:00 PM EST

Instructor: Charlie Guthro, VP Strategic Services North America at ARI

Effective preventative maintenance is a cornerstone to an overall fleet strategy, but managing compliance has long been the weak link. Now there is a new way to manage PM compliance, control costs, while minimizing failures and unexpected repairs.

READ MORE for Learning Objectives Registration.

The All-New Police Interceptor Utility Will Change the Way Officers Work

The Detroit News

Police departments have moved to SUVs as their mainstay police vehicles given their rugged on-and-off-road abilities and five-door utility. The addition of Explorer’s first-ever hybrid, the 2020 Police Interceptor now adds fuel economy to its benefits

“We never do a police car on our own, because we get so many benefits from Ford’s production program,” says Interceptor vehicle engineer Allen Magolen, who works in the company’s police vehicle department. Ford currently provides about 65 percent of police vehicles in the US.

Read the article at The Detroit News.

Fleet Spectator


By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

One of the biggest safety challenges for pooled fleets is monitoring and assessing their drivers’ behavior, both over the long-term and in real time. Now, there’s an ingenious safety device that can accomplish that, and much more.

Introducing Raven by Klashwerks, a double-facing, streaming dashcam and telematics device that uses facial recognition to identify the driver piloting the vehicle. Originally launched in 2017 as a consumer-only device to enable parents to keep tabs on teen drivers, the fleet-enhanced version is being rolled out this week in Las Vegas at the CES 2019 show.

READ MORE

 

Crash-Free Culture


By Ed Dubens, CEO & Founder, eDriving

What would you do if a customer phoned you from their cell phone when driving?

One of my clients shared a story recently about a customer calling their “Customer Success Team” while driving. The representative taking the call politely said, “I’m sorry, it is against our company policy to talk to callers who are driving. Please call back when you’re not driving.” What made this story especially interesting for me was that this Customer Success representative was in a non-driving role and not specifically part of the client’s road safety program or subject to their cell phone risk management policies.

As a benchmark on my client’s progress towards creating a “crash-free” culture, this is a great real-world example of a safety culture that is becoming part of the organizational DNA. Following the customer’s complaint, the representative received full backing from their leadership and was recognized in internal communications solidifying the response as company policy going forward!

READ MORE

 

Fleet Marketing


The real value of customer-centric sales and marketing comes from establishing more meaningful and profitable relationships with your customers

By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer

More often than not, sales budgets are built the old-fashioned way: by either incremental percentages or a number agreed upon with the sales team. Or, at most, it is the aggregate of a company’s product lines and the territories it covers.

While the second approach is probably more accurate than the first, neither is as realistic as a customer-centric sales budget. In both of the traditional cases, the sales team often struggles with the planning part. It’s just too hard to understand what has to be done to achieve the numbers — especially if there are new team members.

The strength of a customer-centric sales budget and plan comes from a foundation based on three solid components:

READ MORE









Fleet Trends & Issues


Volkswagen Testing New Portable EV Charging Stations

The Detroit Bureau

Volkswagen has been saying for months now that it plans to introduce a wave of battery-electric vehicles in the U.S. and around the world — as many as 50 vehicles by 2030.

One of the questions being asked is where are all of the EV drivers going to recharge when the home charging station isn’t available?

Plenty of companies are stepping up to build charging stations across America; however, Volkswagen isn’t just creating a problem with no solution with this tsunami of EVs is plans to introduce, it’s developed a mobile charging station.

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

Dropping Fuel Prices May Equate to More Potholes and Pollution

Detroit Free Press

A lot of people are happy about lower gas prices – below $2 a gallon for unleaded regular in Michigan – but more than a few people also fret over what cheap gas means for our roads and our climate.

Inexpensive fuel means more driving and thus more stress on our already-battered roads.

And cheaper fuel translates into more pollution as motorists take to the roads. Innovative solutions need to be looked at seriously.

Read the article at Detroit Free Press.

Food Delivery Program to Launch Using GM’s Autonomous Vehicles

The Drive

In San Francisco, General Motors’ Cruise Automation is partnering with DoorDash on a food delivery service using Cruise’s existing fleet of Chevrolet Bolt EV test cars.

Runners will load deliveries into cars, and customers will be notified when a car is approaching their address in order to pick up their food.

Figuring out how to hand off deliveries to customers is one of the many little issues companies looking to deploy self-driving cars have to think about.

Read the article at The Drive.

Norway on the Road to Eliminate Zero-Emission Vehicles by 2025

Bloomberg

Norway, a country of 5.3 million, has long been a world leader in sales of electric vehicles. Last year, almost one-third of all new cars sold were electric.

“As more models reach the market this year, we should see an even larger share of zero-emission vehicles in the sales numbers,” Solberg Thorsen director of the Norwegian Road Federation said.

Norway aims to eliminate all emissions from new cars by 2025, and offers generous subsidies for buyers who opt to go electric.

Read the article at Bloomberg.

Going Through Change


Harvard Business Review

Changes at work can be emotionally intense, sparking confusion, fear, anxiety, frustration, and helplessness.

Experts have even said that the experience of going through change at work can mimic that of people who are suffering from grief over the loss of a loved one.

Next time your organization introduces a big change, there are four emotional intelligence strategies to help you embrace the change rather than brace for it.

Read the article at Harvard Business Review.

 

Falling Far


Fortune

In 1999, Carlos Ghosn was the Renault executive vice president who was handed the mission of finding a way to fuse two automakers – nearly bankrupt Nissan and chronically underperforming Renault—into one healthy enterprise.

The Renault Nissan Alliance has proven itself to be a vibrant, stable, competitive, and pro table global mobility business.

Ghosn was arrested on Nov. 19, 2018 and indicted on charges of underreporting his income from Nissan to Japanese authorities. Within a week of Ghosn’s arrest, the boards of Nissan and Mitsubishi voted to strip him of his chairmanship.

Read the article at Fortune.

 

Beauty and Autonomy


Forbes

Toyota wants to improve the aesthetics of autonomous vehicles in conjunction with the technology.

Toyota Research Institute is crafting the fourth-generation “TRI-P4” prototype – a modified Lexus LS 500h hybrid vehicle with thermal imaging, high-definition cameras, multiple forms of lidar sensors and radar housed in a sleek rooftop unit resembling a police car from the future.

Ryan Eustice, TRI’s senior vice president of automated driving, said, “I think this has to be one of the world’s most beautiful automated driving platforms.”

Read the article at Forbes.








Fleet Management Resources
 
AFLA – Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association
Providing the advanced forum for corporate fleet professionals to network with industry leaders.
The CEI Group Inc.
CEI is North America’s largest provider of fully integrated fleet accident management, driver safety and risk management services.
NAFA Fleet Management Association
NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location, or fleet composition.
ACERTUS
Offering a nationwide vehicle delivery and relocation service; serving the corporate and commercial fleet industry.
Donlen
Since 1965, Donlen has been the fleet management industry’s leading provider of comprehensive, integrated financing and asset management solutions — and that spirit of innovation continues today.
PARS
PARS' mission is to provide you with high-quality service at competitive prices for all of your transportation needs.
ARI
Driven fleet professionals. Driving results.
Driving Dynamics
Driving Dynamics was established to help corporate fleet drivers develop expert, safe driving skills using proven, advanced driving techniques.
Wheels, Inc.
First in fleet for 79 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.



Index to FleetManagementWeekly.com 
Fleet Management Weekly Newsletter Archive
Access to back issues of the FMW newsletter.
Fleet Telematics
How telematics is rapidly changing the fleet management landscape.
Subscribe
Fleet Videos
Video clips of industry leaders speaking on a variety of engaging hot topics in fleet.
Fleet Safety
News and practices to help you bring your drivers home safely, every day.
Contact Us
Fleet Trends & Issues
A wide scope of topical news for today’s fleet professionals.
Fleet Sustainability
Focusing on the challenges and solutions inherent to building and managing today’s sustainable fleets.
Media Kit