October 22, 2019

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Editor’s Analysis & Top Industry News



Thinking Globally!

Ted Roberts is excited to report that he’s visiting Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Munich this week, learning a lot about German innovations in mobility and the automotive industry. Watch for his reports and some new video clips from his trip in upcoming issues of FMW!

Save the date

“Transformation from Fleet to Mobility” is the theme of the 7th annual International Fleet Meeting to be held in Geneva, Switzerland. The one-day event will take place on March 4, 2020, in conjunction with the Geneva International Motor Show. More details will follow in the coming weeks.

FMW is a long-standing media partner for this exciting annual event. If you are involved with global fleet management, this is a terrific venue to network with your peers. Not so incidentally, the Geneva International Motor Show is stunning!

Implementing an Effective Global Fleet Safety Strategy is the topic of a Geotab-sponsored NAFA webinar tomorrow, October 23. There is still time to register!

Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief


VIDEO: Protect Your Fleet from 364 Days of Exposure

Continuous license monitoring gives you a real-time look into what’s happening with your fleet drivers. Not only does it protect you from having up to 364 days of exposure, it can also help significantly with driver relations and retention.

VIDEO: Ridecell


 How Will the Shared Mobility Space Affect Fleet?
 

Shared Mobility might seem much more a part of the B2C world right now, but it’s going to matter more to the fleet industry soon enough — and Ridecell’s shared mobility platform can help you put all of that in better perspective.


VIDEO: The Work Fleet Forum

 The Work Fleet Forum
 

Happening November 11-13, 2019 at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, The Work Fleet Forum is the meeting place for fleet leaders and fleet management solutions providers. Watch the video to learn more.


The Fleet Spot



Penske Dash Partners with Ridecell to Power New Carsharing Service

Provides the Complete Carsharing Solution with Integrated Parking and  Uses Intelligent Analytics to Optimize Fleet Operations

Ridecell Inc., a leading platform provider for shared mobility operators, today announced it has been selected by Penske Dash as the technology partner for Penske Dash carsharing. The Ridecell platform used by Penske Dash provides a complete solution for their carsharing service of Volkswagen Jetta cars, launching this week in Washington, D.C. and Arlington, Virginia.

“Penske Dash chose Ridecell to power our shared mobility services because the company’s comprehensive platform can run everything from our consumer-facing application to payment processing,” said Michael Montri, chief operating officer of Penske Dash.

READ MORE

eDriving Launches FNOL Crash Reporting Module

Optional Toolkit Part of Mentor Smartphone Driver Safety Program

eDriving has announced the launch of an in-app First Notice of Loss (FNOL) reporting feature in its award-winning driver risk management program, Mentor by eDriving.

The optional toolkit allows drivers to complete and submit to all key parties the information and photographic support required to report an “event” (Collision, Incident, Near Miss or License Violation) directly from within the Mentor app with the fleet owner’s permission.

READ MORE

Record Audience Hears Proven Approaches to Fleet Safety at NETS’ 2019 Benchmark Conference

Wellness, driver assist technology, telematics, cannabis and more

By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

A record crowd of 215 fleet professionals gathered to hear the latest on a wide range of approaches to improved fleet safety at the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety’s 2019 Strength in Numbers Annual Benchmark Conference, held on October 10 and 11 in Arlington, Virginia.

Driver wellness was the topic presented by one of the conference’s keynote speakers, Sergio Rojas, a corporate health consultant and the former executive director of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Rojas cited studies that show that:

READ MORE

Cruising with the Big Rigs — Safely Sharing the Road with Large Trucks

By Bruce Davisson, Director of Behind-the-Wheel Safety Training & Operations at Driving Dynamics

The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) revealed that there was an increase of fatalities in truck-involved crashes from 2017 to 2018.

And, another report found that more than half of passenger vehicle drivers involved in these fatal truck crashes were cited for driver-related factors—fatigue, speeding and inattention.  While truck drivers are highly skilled and licensed to operate larger trucks, there are limits to how well they can see and react to other smaller vehicles nearby.

READ MORE

Implementing a Fleet Safety Culture


By Trent Dressen, Director of Sales, SuperVision

Fleet safety is more than just a task to be completed.

The safety of your fleet should tie in directly with the culture of your organization. This creates a sense of importance beyond the obvious for all employees. The benefits of creating a robust fleet safety culture go far beyond reducing crashes. A safety culture can improve your entire organization while mitigating risk.

How to implement a safety culture
This safety culture starts with you. Leading by example is a powerful practice and without practicing fleet safety culture best practices yourself, your employees may not follow suit. A common challenge we hear from safety managers is creating a sense of commitment to safety throughout their organization. In other words, they need to create a true culture around the notion of safety.

READ MORE

 

Taxing Miles Traveled?


CBO Report: A 7.5 cents per mile traveled tax on commercial trucks would cover their share of the U.S. Highway Trust Fund shortage

By Patrick O’Connor, NAFA U.S. Legislative Counsel

Imposing a 7.5-cent tax for every mile a commercial truck travels would generate enough new revenue to replace the Highway Trust Fund taxes that truck owners now pay and also cover the industry’s share of the fund’s current shortfall, a Congressional Budget Office report found last week.

With the current surface transportation authorization set to expire at the end of September 2020, lawmakers are debating how to pay for funding gaps in the Highway Trust Fund.

READ MORE

 

Renewable Diesel


In Oakland, a circular economy is making it possible

By Dayne Delahoussaye, Head of North American Public Affairs, Neste

Sometimes making a positive impact requires a fresh perspective, which was just what the city of Oakland, California, wanted in its push to create a cleaner environment for its citizens and a better future for generations to come.

Oakland had already become the first major U.S. city to convert its entire municipal fleet—including emergency vehicles, garbage trucks, street sweepers, and off-road construction equipment—to renewable diesel. The product they chose, Neste MY Renewable DieselTM, is a low-carbon, direct-replacement fuel produced from 100 percent renewable and sustainable raw materials.

“Switching from fossil diesel to renewable diesel automatically converts even the city’s oldest and dirtiest polluting vehicles into alternative-fuel vehicles—overnight and with no additional costs,” said Jason Mitchell, Oakland’s director of public works.

READ MORE


Fleet Trends & Issues



New Bill Would Require All New Vehicles to Have Alcohol Detectors

The Washington Post

Nearly 11,000 people were killed as a result of drunken driving in 2017, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says. On average, that works out to a death about every 48 minutes.

Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) have introduced a bill, backed by backed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, that would require automakers to build cars and trucks with passive detection systems that prevent the vehicle from operating if the driver is impaired.

Researchers and engineers have been working to develop newer technology that would obtain instantaneous and precise readings of every driver’s blood alcohol level when the driver attempts to start the vehicle.

Read the article at The Washington Post.

Werner $40 Million Judgment Centers on Entry-Level Driver Training

Land Line

A New Mexico jury awarded a family more than $40 million in a lawsuit involving a Werner Enterprises driver.

The jury found Werner, one of its drivers and the driver’s instructor all negligent in a fatal crash. The driver was on his eighth day of driving since graduating from Werner’s Roadmaster Drivers School when the crash occurred.

According to the complaint, investigations into other student drivers shows that it is not uncommon for instructors to be sleeping while students are driving. The lawsuit also claims that drivers can become trainers as early as three months after receiving their CDL.

Read the article at Land Line.

Ford Launching Largest EV Charging Network in the US

CNN

Working with EV charging companies Greenlots and Electrify America, Ford has created what it calls the FordPass Charging Network, the largest North American network of electric vehicle chargers of any automaker, including Tesla.

Next year, Ford will begin selling its first electric vehicle – a crossover SUV with styling based on the Ford Mustang. The FordPass network will include more than 12,000 charging stations with a total of 35,000 plugs in the US and some parts of Canada.

Unlike Tesla’s charging network, chargers in the FordPass network will work with most other electric cars. Users will be directed to one of the network’s chargers using an app or in the vehicle’s central touch screen. Only Ford drivers will be able to use the FordPass app.

Read the article at CNN.

SUVs No Longer Pose Outsize Risk to Car Occupants, But Pickup Compatibility Lags

IIHS

New research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that today’s SUVs aren’t a major threat to occupants of smaller vehicles.

Pickups still represent an outsize danger when they crash with cars. In 2013-16, pickups were 2½ times as likely to be involved in a crash that was fatal for a car or minivan driver than other cars and minivans were.

Higher curb weight doesn’t seem to play as big a role in protecting SUV and pickup occupants as it once did. Reducing the weight of the heaviest vehicles for better fuel economy — for example, by switching from steel to aluminum — can improve safety for other road users without sacrificing occupant protection.

Read the article at IIHS.

SUVs and Emissions


IEA

Today, almost half of all cars sold in the United States and one-third of the cars sold in Europe are SUVs, doubling the share over the last decade with over 200 million SUVs around the world.

SUVs are harder to electrify and growth in their rising demand may slow down the development of clean and efficient car fleets.

If consumers’ appetite for SUVs continues to grow at a similar pace seen in the last decade, SUVs would add nearly 2 million barrels a day in global oil demand by 2040, offsetting the savings from nearly 150 million electric cars.

Read the article at IEA.

 

A Gas Station on Wheels


Booster Fuels Expands Coast-to-Coast: Winning New Customers, Awards and Closing a $56 Million Round of Funding

By James Solada, Marketing Director, Booster Fuels

When it comes to managing your fleet, efficiency is critical.

Fuel efficiency has long been viewed as a way to manage cost, but Booster customers have found it to be one of the most effective ways to unlock non-productive time and gain back employee efficiencies.

Booster Fuels is a gas station on wheels. Booster improves operational efficiency for hundreds of business partners by bringing fuel and routine maintenance services directly to 35,000 vehicles every week. From business shuttles and ambulance services to landscaping and delivery providers, Booster works with fleets in every industry. Learn about how Booster has improved Serpico Landscaping’s operations.

“What started as an idea of eliminating the gas station errand has turned into so much more,” noted Frank Mycroft, founder and CEO.

READ MORE

 

Volvo Reducing Carbon Footprint


Forbes

Volvo is using the launch of its new XC40 Recharge EV to commit to a 40% reduction in its carbon footprint, from factory operations to the on-road performance of its cars and SUVs.

The corporate sustainability target is to be met by 2025 and that, longer-term, Volvo’s operations will be 100% carbon neutral by 2040.

Hitting these targets requires increased use of renewable electricity at its auto-assembly plants in Europe, China and the U.S. and greater reuse of recycled materials, from steel, aluminum and plastics to cobalt from spent consumer market lithium-ion batteries.

Read the article at Forbes.





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.

SuperVision
SuperVision is a fleet driver management solution for MVR & license monitoring, fleet management, fleet safety oversight and driver performance and retention.

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.

WEX
WEX fuel cards and fleet management solutions give you powerful tools to reduce spending — for any business, any fleet, any size.

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.

Wheels, Inc.
First in fleet for 79 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.




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