It’s up to every business leader to determine his or her company’s ultimate fate: is it a disruptor itself or is it destined to become one more casualty?

By John Wysseier, CEO and President, The CEI Group, Inc.

In the world of business, disruption is more than a buzzword, it’s a fact of life for most companies.

According to Accenture, a global consulting company, 71 percent of the 10,000 companies around the globe it analyzed last year for its second Disruptability Index were in the throes or on the brink of significant disruption brought on by technological innovations, new competitors, new regulations, and by social, cultural or demographic shifts. So, it’s likely that yours is one of them.

What’s more, Accenture found that none are entirely free of some level of current or potential disruption.

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“When there’s a hurricane, fleets need to know that their vehicles are capable of operating for hundreds of miles over several days to evacuate endangered areas and to help victims of the storm”

By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

By now, most fleet managers are familiar with many of the potential benefits of telematics. Among the most well-known are real-time reports on where their vehicles are, how many miles they’ve logged, engine trouble monitoring, and assessing driver behavior for improved fleet safety.

But how many know that telematics can also help fleets be prepared for hurricanes and other weather emergencies? That came to this writer’s attention last week when Geotab reached out about a blog on its website with the headline, “Florida prepares for Hurricane Dorian: real time data insights.”

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ProPublica

Amazon has built a huge logistics operation to get more goods to customers’ homes in less and less time by creating a network of contractors and avoiding the costs of taking on permanent employees.

More than 60 accidents have occurred since June 2015 involving Amazon delivery contractors that resulted in serious injuries, including 10 deaths. Amazon argues that it bears no legal responsibility.

“Logistics experience not required,” says an ad on an Amazon website, enticing aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own delivery contracting businesses with Amazon’s help. But the notion that anyone can do this kind of work belies the fact that being a delivery driver is among the deadlier jobs in America, according to data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Read the article at ProPublica.

Car and Driver

Ford’s all-electric F-150 may be the first pickup on the market in 2021, possibly debuting before Bollinger, Rivian or Tesla.

The electric F-150 will follow the Mach E, a Mustang-inspired electric crossover that is going to be introduced in 2020.

Perhaps the EV version of the biggest-selling vehicle on the market will help educate consumers. Ford says its studies show 42 percent of Americans think electric vehicles need gasoline to run.

Read the article at Car and Driver.

Money Crashers

Ride sharing and car sharing claim to provide all the benefits of car ownership at a lower cost than traditional rental car or taxi services.

The balance between cost and convenience is a key consideration.

Ridesharing services charge by the mile and minute and can be significantly more expensive than transit. Car sharing services let you drive a car whenever you need to and generally don’t charge per mile. It may be a cheaper commuting option if you can avoid traffic or take passengers

Car ownership costs vary by location, fuel costs, frequency of use, driving record, make and model, and other factors. Even if car sharing is marginally cheaper in your area, you might determine that the freedom of car ownership is paramount.

Read the article at Money Crashers.

CalMatters

Beginning in 2023, California transportation network companies will be required to reduce their cumulative climate pollution.

These companies, like Uber and Lyft, are allowed to treat their drivers as independent contractors passing on all the externalized costs to their drivers—for fuel, idle time while waiting on fares, and vehicle maintenance.

The new law would ensure that companies assume their responsibility to provide core employment protections to drivers and assume their lawful responsibility to pay for employee equipment – zero emissions cars.

Read the article at CalMatters.

Union of Concerned Scientists

Using known fuel-saving strategies, manufacturers can make existing vehicle models that comply with emissions standards for 2025 while saving consumers money and dramatically reducing fuel consumption.

Lightweight materials can serve a dual purpose, offering both enhanced stiffness for handling and safety while also reducing the amount of power needed to move the vehicle.

As an example, VW has already developed the 1.5L “evo” engine and 48V mild-hybrid system deployed now in Europe could drastically reduce fuel used by the next generation Jetta.

Read the article at Union of Concerned Scientists.

The New York Times

The president is trying to sabotage an enormous climate achievement that much of the car industry supports.

California has stricter vehicle pollution standards than the federal ones, which other states may opt into. Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen voluntarily agreed to comply with California’s rules. Trump’s administration is going to extraordinary lengths to roll back gas and fuel efficiency standards, suggesting that it may amount to an illegal conspiracy.

It’s a senseless exercise of apparent presidential pique. Worse, it threatens to undo what would be the country’s most important climate achievement, the doubling of vehicle fuel efficiency to about 55 miles per gallon by 2025.

Read the opinion piece at The New York Times.

The Drive

It turns out that of all vehicles, it’s commercial van sales that hold the strongest correlation to the health of the overall economy.

American businesses actually purchase far more work vans than anything else. There’s an overlapping use case across a variety of industries for a big old van than a pickup truck.

The core businesses buying these tough vans are themselves good early indicators—things like construction, trades, and shipping.

Read the article at The Drive.

Forbes

In 2018, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) had a market share of close to 2% in Europe. Investment bank Morgan Stanley predicts the global market share of BEVs will only reach close to 10% by 2025 and just over 20% by 2030.

If that turns out to be true, manufacturers like VW and all its main competitors will be financially embarrassed, if not ruined, because their expensive plans assume a sales rate of more than twice that.

“Electric cars pose some challenging environmental questions. Extraction of minerals and the question of disposal of batteries at the end of life, and the resources required are enormous. Mining of cobalt for batteries poses big problems, with the ups and downs of demand being met by poor people in dangerous forms of mining. There is an increasing awareness of these issues,” Cardiff Business School’s Professor Peter Wells said.

Read the article at Forbes.