FleetManagementWeekly
May 14, 2019

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Editor's Analysis & Top Industry News


Collaboration and Teamwork: Mission-Critical

In today’s Customer Driven column, Laura Jozwiak shares well-earned insights on collaboration and teamwork: “Collaboration starts with being a good listener and being open to opposing ideas – but it doesn’t end there. Accountability and dependability also play an important role.”

Are You Data Driven?

Does your company make the most of its own rich reserve of data? Does it recognize all the veins of data deposits? Is your company mining all of that data to determine the strength of its business pulse?

In this week’s Disruptive Leadership column, John Wysseier imparts timely advice on how and why to build a data-driven culture.

Need your fleet news fix? Check in with FleetManagementWeekly.com for daily updates.

Ted Roberts
President


VIDEO: Mentor by eDrivingSM with Predictive FICO® Safe Driving Score Identifies and Coaches Risky Drivers

With a FICO score developed just for driving, Mentor from eDriving offers a powerful method to identify the risky drivers in your fleet and get them to do a better, safer job.

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VIDEO: Telematics and EVs


 Using Telematics to Figure Out Where to Go Electric
 

Geotab uses telematics from gas- and diesel-powered vehicles to help fleets determine how and where they would be best served by going electric.


VIDEO: Fleet Leadership

 How Employee Engagement Can Lead to a FLEXY Win
 

At the City of West Palm Beach, employee engagement and understanding led to changes to and improvements in the city’s loaner fleet – and that also resulted in a FLEXY Award.





The Fleet Spot



Wheels Honored With 3 Gold Stevie® Awards

Wheels News

Wheels, Inc. is thrilled to announce three gold Stevie® Award wins.

Ahsan Rahim, chief operating officer at Wheels, said. “These wins reflect our commitment to delivering dynamic fleet analytics to our clients to help them drive their businesses forward. These innovations well position Wheels to support our clients in whichever direction the future of mobility leads.”

Read more from Wheels News.

Sofico Adds WLTP Interface to Miles in Conjunction with JATO Dynamics

Sofico has added WLTP (Worldwide harmonized Light vehicle Test Procedure) look-up functionality to its Miles solution in collaboration with JATO Dynamics, the world’s largest provider of automotive data.

JATO’s highly regarded WLTP hub, which it launched as a new development in Frankfurt in May 2017, will now be available through Miles as plug-and-play functionality.

This will allow Miles users to download the new CO2 values of the latest vehicles under the new emissions testing regime.

READ MORE

Managers Must ‘Lead’, Not Just Manage, to Drive Down Risk

By Ed Dubens, CEO & Founder, eDriving

Leaders can help to put a stop to the increasing number of fatalities on the roads by “inspiring” employees driving for work purposes to change their attitudes, overwrite “at-risk” behaviors and evolve new safer habits.

For the last three years, approximately 40,000 people have died in road traffic collisions annually in the USA. Before 2016, the number of annual deaths had not reached 40,000 since 2007. We know that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of work-related deaths in the United States; and we know that some form of driver error is at the root of 94% of crashes (Source: NHTSA).

But who are the leaders that can help to reduce driver risk?

READ MORE

Study Finds Ride-Sharing Companies Biggest Contributors to Growing Traffic Congestion in San Francisco

Green Car Congress

Researchers have determined that, contrary to the concept and vision, transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft are the biggest contributor to growing traffic congestion in San Francisco.

The researchers found that between 2010 and 2016, weekday vehicle hours of delay increased by 62% compared to 22% in a counterfactual 2016 scenario.

Read the article at Green Car Congress.

Disruptive Leadership


By John Wysseier, CEO and President, The CEI Group

There’s no doubt that, as The Economist proclaimed in a recent headline: “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.”

So, here are the questions a business leader should ask about his or her own company:

• Does your company make the most of its own rich reserve of data?
• Does it recognize all the veins of data deposits?
• Is your company mining all of that data to determine the strength of its business pulse?
• Is your company acting on its data to achieve its strategic goals and to help its valued customers achieve their own goals?

If the answers are “No,” maybe it’s because your company doesn’t possess a data-driven culture. And what, exactly, is that? Here’s one definition, from Forbes magazine: “A data-driven culture [is] an operating environment that seeks to leverage data whenever and wherever possible to enhance business efficiency and effectiveness.” Let me expand on this.

READ MORE

 

Fleet Spectator


If fleet managers want to come out on top in the race to managing mobility, they’d be well advised to keep tabs on the unfolding fortunes of Uber and Lyft

By Andrew Boada, Editor at Large

As the ride-hailing leaders Uber and Lyft revealed when they went public, they’re betting their future on self-driving cars. The question, though, is: will they still be around as we know them by the time fully autonomous vehicles have actually arrived and are accepted by the riding public?

Perhaps more than any others, Uber and Lyft have become the most visible representatives of what’s referred to as the “Mobility Revolution,” which, in a few words, means changing from a world where people own and drive their own fossil-fueled vehicles to shared, electrified, connected and self-driving means of transportation.

READ MORE

 

Customer Driven


By Laura Jozwiak, Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Relations, Wheels, Inc.

In “How to be Successful in a Customer Driven World,” I shared three essential components to keep pace with the complex dynamics of today’s workforce: being adaptable, collaborative and organized.

While honing all three skills may open doors for new responsibilities and your growth within your organization, I’d like to elaborate on the impact of collaboration in a customer driven world.

Collaboration starts with being a good listener and being open to opposing ideas – but it doesn’t end there. Accountability and dependability also play an important role. When working toward a common goal, you are responsible for your piece of the puzzle.

READ MORE









Fleet Trends & Issues


AAA: 1-in-5 U.S. Drivers Want an Electric Vehicle

AAA Newsroom

A new AAA survey shows that 20 percent or 50 million Americans will likely go electric for their next vehicle purchase, up from 15 percent in 2017.

“Today, electric vehicles have mainstream appeal,” said Greg Brannon, AAA’s director of Automotive Engineering. “While concern for the environment is still a major motivator, AAA found U.S. drivers are also attracted to the lower long-term costs and advanced technology features that many of these vehicles offer.”

Read the article at AAA Newsroom.

Automakers Use Crash Scene Investigations to Make Cars Safer

The New York Times

Volvo has dispatched its own crash-scene investigators since the early 1970s.

Today, a number of manufacturers take a similar approach to glean valuable real-world information on what happens to vehicles and their occupants after a crash.

According to the NHTSA, there were 8.41 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1947. The rate had plummeted to 1.16 deaths, the latest figure available, by 2017.

Read the article at The New York Times.

VW’s Mobile EV Chargers Can Charge 4 cars at Once

MSN

Volkswagen’s new mobile chargers are engineered to hold up to 360 kilowatt-hours of charge, and they can handle up to four vehicles charging simultaneously with a maximum quick-charge draw of 100 kilowatts.

The chargers will run on depleted batteries from EVs running on the automaker’s MEB scalable electric-vehicle platform. Once those batteries can’t even hold enough charge for that job, they’ll be properly recycled, with the automaker seeking to use the reclaimed raw materials for use in new batteries.

Read the article at MSN.

New Study Finds Consumers Think Connected Devices are ‘Creepy’

SmartCitiesWorld

Two thirds of consumers (65 per cent) are concerned with the way connected devices such as smart meters and personal digital assistants collect data, a new study finds.

A similar proportion think connected devices are creepy in the way they collect data about people and their behaviors and more than half (55 per cent) do not trust their connected devices to protect their privacy.

More than half (53 per cent) also do not trust connected devices to handle their information responsibly.

Read the article at SmartCitiesWorld.

Infrastructure and EVs


Forbes

Anyone not including driverless car aspects into the proposed $2 trillion infrastructure considerations would be short-sighted in their views.

If the U.S. infrastructure made an investment in charging stations, it would accommodate the assumed growth in EV usage and simultaneously potentially benefiting the emergence of autonomous cars that are EV-based.

A driverless car does not need to be an EV, but it makes life easier since an EV is built with electrical power as a core capability that dovetails into the needs of self-driving cars.

Read the article at Forbes.

 

Work Truck Forum


By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

Light trucks are the rock stars of the U.S. auto market.

Last year, the country’s three biggest- selling vehicles were all pickup trucks– the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Ram — and all light trucks (including SUVs) accounted for a record 11.89 million units, or 69 percent of 17.21 million vehicles sold in the U.S. last year. Nearly all of them, though, were propelled by fossil fuels. But the 2020 model year may be a pivot point, with five pickups and two SUVs to be offered or revealed that run entirely on electricity.

The question, though, is will the pickup market buy them? After all, while better fuel efficiency is a selling point, zero emissions take a back seat to a pickup’s ability to haul or tow heavy loads for hundreds of miles between fueling stops. Price and projected total cost of ownership will matter, too. Will the coming e-pickups measure up? Here’s a quick summary of what we know about them (plus two e-SUVs) coming to market over the next 12 to 18 months.

READ MORE

 

Germany’s First EV Highway


Bloomberg

Germany has opened the first electric highway – a 10-kilometer (6-mile) stretch of A5 autobahn – allowing hybrid trucks to recharge while traveling on the country’s main transportation arteries.

One truck is using it now, with four more planned by 2020.

The hybrid trucks connect to overhead wires. The electricity charges up the trucks’s battery, allowing it to drive electrically for a while afterward, with a diesel motor kicking in once the battery is depleted.

The system was built by Munich-based engineering firm Siemens AG, while Volkswagen AG’s Scania trucks unit provided the vehicles.

Read the article at Bloomberg.








Fleet Management Resources
 
ACERTUS
Offering a nationwide vehicle delivery and relocation service; serving the corporate and commercial fleet industry.
eDriving
eDriving partners with its clients to engage with drivers and their managers to create a culture that supports lasting behavioral change to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations as well as a fleet’s total cost of ownership.
WEX
WEX fuel cards and fleet management solutions give you powerful tools to reduce spending — for any business, any fleet, any size.
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.
Wheels, Inc.
First in fleet for 79 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.
Driving Dynamics
Driving Dynamics was established to help corporate fleet drivers develop expert, safe driving skills using proven, advanced driving techniques.
PARS
PARS' mission is to provide you with high-quality service at competitive prices for all of your transportation needs.
Zendrive
Zendrive offers a suite of products and services that will make your fleet safer and help lower your insurance rates.



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