By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

After 24 years in the fleet industry, Joe LaRosa is retiring this April, and FMW is delighted to talk with him about his notable career.

Over the course of his career, he directed global fleet operations for Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck Sharp and Dohme, and Ascensia Diabetes Care, and did work as a consultant with Mercury Associates.

A long-term member and officer with the NAFA Fleet Management Association, in 2017 he was awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership, one of the highest honors NAFA can bestow on an individual. In 2008, he was named Fleet Manager of the Year by the Automotive Fleet Leasing Association (AFLA).

Joe says, “I believe the greatest achievement I made in fleet management was the friendships and comradery that I made with hundreds if not thousands of persons in this industry over the past 25 years.”

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By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

In light of the two recent Boeing 737 Max disasters, I’m finding it both ironic and a bit troubling that passenger airlines’ success with automating flights is so often held up as a paradigm for the advent of self-driving vehicles.

OK, so it’s been proven over and over again that we’re all safer flying in a commercial jetliner than driving our cars. I get it. But the Boeing case shows that when big companies rush to outdo the competition, errors in the long chain of events leading to production and rollout can be overlooked not just by manufacturers’ engineers, but by regulators entrusted with our safety.

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Minimizing the effects of or removing risky drivers from a fleet is the highest value a fleet can gain from its safety program, not only because it protects lives, but goes directly to protecting a company’s bottom line.

The state of driver monitoring is divided into two broad camps: Fleets that perform MVR monitoring the “old way” and fleets that perform MVR monitoring the “new way”.

In this white paper…

• The numerous advantages of the “new way” of monitoring
• MVRs and the role of the Fleet Manager
• The average cost of a car crash [Infographic]
• Comparison of costs with and without monitoring program [infographic]

Download SuperVison’s Free White Paper

Bloomberg

More than 3,000 Ford Explorer owners have complained to Ford or federal regulators that they suspect exhaust fumes have seeped into their sport-utility vehicles’ cabins.

Many fear carbon monoxide gas may have made them ill as they experience migraine headaches, fatigue and dizziness.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating drivers’ claims in 2016, then expanded the probe a year later after saying it had “preliminary evidence” of elevated carbon monoxide levels in some driving scenarios. If NHTSA finds a safety defect, Ford would face the prospect of recalling more than 1 million vehicles, costing perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.

Read the article at Bloomberg.

Freight Waves

A Canadian truck driver with three weeks of training has been sentenced to 8 years after he caused a crash that killed 16 people traveling on a hockey team’s bus.

Investigators inspecting his paper log found he committed 70 violations of federal and provincial trucking violations in 11 days leading up the crash.

The trucker’s former employer has been charged and accused of failing to maintain driver logs, not monitoring driver safety compliance and having more than one daily log on a given day.

Read the article at Freight Waves.

By Art Liggio, President and CEO, Driving Dynamics

According to recent reports, the annual accident rate for fleets is currently around 20 percent and each result in an average cost in excess of $24,000.

These statistics shed light on an area of opportunity to improve driver safety, which starts with adopting the proper training programs.

Researchers at leading traffic safety institutes around the world acknowledge that training can play an extremely important role in developing cultural values, beliefs, sound habits, and skills. But, that’s only if the proper instructional design methods for adult learners are incorporated into the training regimen.

Why is this important? Because properly trained fleet drivers can lower their risk of crashes using advanced driving techniques.

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The Detroit Bureau

Oslo, Norway will be the world’s first city to mitigate the issue of recharging electric vehicles by installing wireless charging systems for taxi cabs.

“The future is electric, and it is already here, right now. Wireless charging is a potential game changer,” said Sture Portvik, Oslo’s electro mobility manager, in a statement. “From 2023 onward, all taxis in Oslo will be zero emission.”

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

The Washington Post

Volvo plans to install cameras in its vehicles that will monitor drivers for signs of distracted or impaired driving and take action if it appears that a driver’s behavior becomes dangerous.

Volvo’s new technology will focus on visual alertness — such as eye movements, pupil reactions and scanning behavior — as well as overall reaction times and other control-related behavior to assess the driver’s condition.

Read the article at The Washington Post.

The New York Times

Considering how swiftly people moved from physical maps to map apps, from snail mail to email, from prime time TV to watching on demand, it is it is not hard to see the steps towards not owning a car.

The shift away from private vehicles will happen faster than we think.

You start using car-sharing services, you don’t use your car as often, you realize as these services proliferate that you actually don’t need to own a car at all. The concept of actually purchasing, maintaining, insuring and garaging an automobile will be history in the next few decades.

Read the article at The New York Times.

By Dr. Jan Ferri-Reed

Former NFL star quarterback and NASCAR team owner Roger Staubach once said, “I have a lot to learn about NASCAR. But I have learned that if you have the right people in the right places doing the right things, you can be successful at whatever you do.”

That philosophy certainly applies to your employee and management teams no less than it does to a NASCAR race team.

How do your supervisors and employees measure up? Do they actually function as a team? Do they encourage and support each other when the chips are down? Do they clearly understand each other’s role and function? Most importantly, do they share the goal of succeeding together?

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