FleetManagementWeekly
February 19, 2019

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


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Enjoy the issue!

Ted Roberts
President


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: Human Drivers, Autonomous Vehicles and the “Driving Contract”

In the transition to autonomy, there’s going be a hybrid period – with both human drivers and autonomous vehicles on the road – and it will be interesting to see what happens to the so-called “driving contract.”

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VIDEO: Women in Fleet Management


 From an Ad in the Paper to a Successful Career in Fleet
 

Tips on growing in your fleet career from an industry expert – including having good mentors and a great network, being persistent, and never being afraid to ask for assistance.


VIDEO: April in Louisville

 NAFA’s I&E Registration Is Now Open!
 

NAFA’s annual Institute & Expo is the perfect opportunity to increase your networking power, I&E is the largest community of fleet professionals who attend year after year because they experience I&E’s hands-on value. Attend I&E to get real money-saving, time-saving value!





The Fleet Spot



Motus Road Warrior Podcast Shares Stories of Workdays Spent on America’s Highways

Weekly Episodes Feature Tales, Insights, and Tips from People Who Drive for Work

Motus has launched The Road Warrior Podcast, sharing the stories of road warriors, or mobile workers who drive for their jobs. VEach week the podcast will feature an interview with a new guest who shares unique stories from their time on the road. These guests will also offer insights and tips for other road warriors.

“In the beginning of 2018, an average of 272 million vehicles traveled all over the United States,” said Ben Reiland, content and SEO specialist at Motus and the host of The Road Warrior Podcast. “There are a lot of stories to be heard from people driving for work. We’re eager to share them through this podcast.”

READ MORE

2019 NETS International Conference

NETS first ever Regional Satellite Conference
April 2 & 3, 2019, San Jose, Costa Rica

Whether you are responsible for leading an international road safety program or managing a fleet of vehicles, you know that spreading safe driving messages to drivers in Latin America represents unique challenges.

What if you had an opportunity to learn and share best practices and solutions across industries with other fleet safety managers who face similar challenges?

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by, register today!

Fleet Workshops Take the Lead at NAFA’s 2019 Institute & Expo

Moderated by members of fleet who work in these specialized segments, I&E workshops are tailored to answer questions about industry standards

NAFA Fleet Management Association, the vehicle fleet industry’s largest trade association, announces a major scheduling shift for its annual conference, the redesigned and enhanced Institute & Expo (I&E), which takes place April 15-17, in Louisville, Ky.

For the 2019 Institute & Expo, NAFA has brought the popular industry-specific workshops forward to Day One, Monday, April 15.

NAFA’s slate of workshops covers a full range of topics which are suited to individual fleet segment needs. From the pharmaceutical industry, to the government segment, universities, utilities, and corporate fleets, each focuses on the challenges and specificity of varied fleet makeup.

READ MORE

Global Road Safety Advocate Appointed eDriving’s Customer Success Director, EMEA

eDriving®, a global provider of driver risk management programs, has appointed Nick List, a road safety advocate who has co-organized and co-hosted road safety events in Asia and Africa, as Customer Success Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Nick’s career spans three decades in the general insurance industry and for the last 15 years has been focused on improving fleet driver safety using behavior-based telematics.

In his new role at eDriving, Nick will use his knowledge, passion and dedication for driver safety to further support eDriving customers along the various stages of their risk reduction journeys within the EMEA region.

READ MORE

Vehicles, iPhones and Digital Personas


As the global market for smartphones has become besieged by devices of all shapes and sizes, a stressed post-pubescent iPhone talks with its older mobile device cousin, the car.

By Felipe Smolka, Executive Vice President of Transformation, LeasePlan USA

I want to start this blog with a short tale of my own UX (User Experience) superhero, the iPhone. The smart device that got everyone to do a “180″ and rethink UX in its essence. Is it time for the invincible superhero to grow up? Well, maybe, just maybe, some help from cars could be of use…

Imagine the scene as a young dad rushes into a Whole Foods store, on a sunny winter afternoon, in Georgia. In his hurry to grab this new high-end red blend and a gluten-free ham-and-swiss quiche, he has left his phone in his car – then, the two devices start to chat.

READ MORE

 

Safety & Risk


By Erik Bousquet, Behind-the-Wheel Driver Safety Instructor at Driving Dynamics

Fleet operators today face the daunting task of mitigating risk in a tough economic environment.

Recent analyses continue to show an uptick in the number of traffic crashes. What is needed to get control over these escalating costs?

Organizations that employ drivers have a responsibility to ensure those employees are equipped with the highest level of skill and knowledge when it comes to: handling their vehicles, understanding the use and limitations of vehicle safety technologies, safely carrying loads and managing external influences effectively.

Equally important is sustaining responsible attitudes and behaviors toward safety behind-the-wheel. Consider that most fleet drivers have been driving for several, if not many, years and those years on the road represent the preponderance of their driving education. In other words, when comparing the time invested in any formal drivers’ education licensing training with their post-licensing time on the road, drivers are largely self-taught. And what have they learned?

READ MORE

 

Motor Pools Today


By Amanda Lam, INVERS Mobility Solutions

What a fleet manager does has changed over the years.

In any corporate, government, or public sector environment, a fleet manager is generally responsible for overseeing the organization’s fleet of vehicles. At the end of the day though, the responsibilities of a fleet manager are to make sure employees can get to where they need to go and transport the tools they need to get their job done.

As a result, fleet managers have begun re-shifting their focus from not just asset management, but people management as well. When you combine these two aspects, you end up with a focus on providing the right mobility options for your company’s employees.

Mobility management is what fleet managers need to adapt in their day-to-day duties. While this doesn’t require learning a completely new skillset, it does require being open to change. With mobility management, the focus is on the people, not on the vehicle.

READ MORE









Fleet Trends & Issues


California Disengagement Report Suggests Apple is Lagging Behind Competitors

Bloomberg

Apple Inc.’s autonomous test vehicles are relying on significantly more human intervention than Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo or General Motors Co.’s Cruise cars, an indication the iPhone maker may lag well behind on the technology.

Test drivers disengaged the autonomous mode on Apple’s cars once almost every mile, based on data the company disclosed in an annual report to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Waymo’s cars went about 11,017 miles between disengagements, and Cruise’s went 5,205 miles.

Read the article at Bloomberg.

NHTSA’s Serious Math Errors Made Tesla Autopilot Look Better

Ars Technica

A small research and consulting firm called Quality Control Systems has produced a devastating critique of a 2017 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report finding that Tesla’s Autopilot reduced crashes by 40 percent.

The new analysis is coming out now—almost two years after the original report—because QCS had to sue NHTSA under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the data underlying the agency’s findings. In its report, QCS highlights flaws in NHTSA’s methodology that are serious enough to completely discredit the 40 percent figure, which Tesla has cited multiple times over the last two years.

Read the article at Ars Technica.

Self-Driving Cars ‘See’ Through Fog and Dust With MIT’s New Technology

The Drive

The lidar sensors used in most autonomous cars currently testing on public roads rely on infrared wavelengths, which are more likely to be disrupted in fog and dust situations.

MIT’s experimental sensor reads radiation at sub-terahertz wavelengths, which are between microwave and infrared radiation on the electromagnetic spectrum. That means they can be detected through fog and dust. That’s exactly the kind of sensor technology autonomous cars need in order to go mainstream.

Read the article at The Drive.

Vehicle Deaths Estimated at 40,000 for Third Straight Year

National Safety Council

The U.S. has experienced three straight years of at least 40,000 roadway deaths, according to preliminary estimates by the National Safety Council. Last year’s estimated 40,000 deaths is 14% higher than four years ago.

Driver behavior is likely contributing to the numbers staying stubbornly high. The Council’s estimates do not reveal causation; however, 2017 final data show spikes in deaths among pedestrians, while distraction continues to be involved in 8% of crashes, and drowsy driving in an additional 2%.

Read the article at National Safety Council.

VW and Ford


The Detroit Bureau

Last month, Volkswagen and Ford announced a joint venture focused on light commercial vehicles and a possible partnership – including autonomous and electrified vehicles.

Their two electric vehicle programs are out of sync, “almost like snowboarding and skiing,” Jim Farley, Ford’s President of Global Markets, said during a taping of the TV show Autoline Detroit, on Monday.

The key issue is Ford’s demand that the German carmaker invest at least $500 million in its own autonomous vehicle program.

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

 

Vehicle Dependability


J.D. Power

Overall dependability for three-year-old vehicles improves 4% from last year, according to the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study.

Lexus and Toyota top the list.

The study, now in its 30th year, measures the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles during the past 12 months by original owners of three-year-old model-year vehicles.

“Vehicle dependability continues to improve, but I wouldn’t say that everything is rosy,” said Dave Sargent, Vice President of Global Automotive at J.D. Power. “Flawless dependability is a determining factor in whether customers remain loyal to a brand.

Read the article at J.D. Power.

 

Workforce Health Intelligence


The Washington Post

The use of wrist-borne health and fitness monitors such as those made by Fitbit, Garmin and Apple, are an increasingly valuable source of workforce health intelligence for employers and insurance companies.

The volume of highly sensitive health data scooped up from individual employees is exploding, raising privacy concerns and adding a new dimension to the relationship of workers and their employers. Employees are giving up more insights about themselves than they realize.

Read the article at The Washington Post.








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.



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