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Merchants Fleet announced that Jason Jones has joined their technology team as Director of Analytics and Data Management. He will be responsible for expanding Merchants Fleet’s analytical and data management capabilities through building business partnerships, executing data management best practices, and developing innovative technology solutions. “As our company continues to offer more data-rich technologies to help our clients manage and optimize their vehicles, we must continue to invest in our data capabilities,” said Jeanine L. Charlton, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology & Digital Officer at Merchants Fleet. READ MORE
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Press Release Driving Dynamics Inc. announced its entry-level commercial driver’s license (CDL-A) course offered through educational institutions has been added to the curriculum at the Anderson campus of Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. Through CTS Driving Academy, the academic training arm of Driving Dynamics’ commercial driver training business—Center for Transportation Safety (CTS), students are provided comprehensive classroom lessons and behind-the-wheel training taught by certified instructors who have more than 10 years of commercial transportation safe driving experience. Since 2014, the CTS Driving Academy has maintained a 100 percent passing and job placement rate. Read more of the Press Release.
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Editor’s Note: This article was first published in FMW in April, 2018, but the message could not be more timely By Jason S. Hicks, CAFM It’s a Sunday afternoon and the snow starts falling. Then the wind starts howling, and then the power goes out. It’s a blizzard that’s going to paralyze your region for days. As fleet managers, we know that someday we may be required to operate and manage our fleet during a blizzard, hurricane, earthquake or any of a number of different kinds of disasters. And while you may well have developed a plan to keep your fleet running, it’s important to ask yourself: just how well-prepared are you? Have you fully thought through all that could go wrong to disrupt your fleet and how you would address each kind of challenge so you can help your government organization deliver the emergency services your citizenry will depend upon? READ MORE
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Reprogramming your vehicles’ engines may be the fastest and cheapest — and Derive can do it for you By Mark Boada, Executive Editor Getting better fuel efficiency is one of the fleet industry’s major goals, for two reasons: reducing its single greatest category of expense and cutting back on its carbon footprint. There are many ways of achieving those objectives, but one of the simplest is to acquire higher-MPG vehicles as fleets retire their equipment. After all, OEMs are under a federal mandate to improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicles they sell, and every year they offer increasingly fuel-efficient powertrains of all kinds. But there are two drawbacks to this approach: it’s expensive and slow. READ MORE
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Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer In the span of my own career in marketing – from copywriter to vice president of marketing and branding, the changes in marketing have, not coincidentally, been as sweeping as those in information technology. Just as businesses have revamped processes and services to realize the benefits of more powerful data processing, analysis, and sharing, marketing departments have shifted from traditional forms of advertising and promotion to digital marketing. However, traditional marketing still has its place, and an integrated marketing plan still is the best way to deliver the best possible return on a marketing investment, especially in a B2B field such as fleet. Digital marketing is any form of marketing that utilizes the internet, comprising the use of content in a website, native advertising, linked content, search engine optimization, emails, banner ads, and social media to connect with prospects and customers. READ MORE |
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“Go slow and then slow down” By Mark Boada, Executive Editor North American fleets that have adopted telematics know both the benefits and challenges of putting them into place. While the technology has been proven to help increase fuel economy, design more efficient delivery routes and improve fleet safety and driver behavior, it can be difficult for senior management to approve the expense to implement it and to get driver buy-in. Those challenges multiply, though, when managers of multinational fleet managers try to create a uniform telematics program across all the countries where the company operates vehicles. First, there’s the matter of getting commitment and funding from each country subsidiary. But most vexing, though, can be the wide variations in local laws, infrastructure, available in-vehicle technology and driving culture. One of the pioneers in taking on those challenges is PepsiCo, the beverage and snack food giant that operates more than 70,000 sedans, trucks, tractors, and other transportation assets in some 200 countries on six continents. Bob Zimmer, PepsiCo’s senior manager of supply chain fleet technology, is the company’s project point man, and he explained how the company’s going about making it happen in a NAFA webinar last month READ MORE |
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Telematics That Boost Safety
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Q&A with Ed Dubens, CEO/Founder of eDriving In advance of eDriving’s release of Mentor TSP (Telematics Service Provider), CEO and Founder Ed Dubens explains how eDriving’s latest solution provides fleet managers/operators with the option of adding Mentor’s risk management suite to their existing telematics solutions to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations, and total cost of fleet ownership. What safety data is typically collected by telematics devices?
Hard-wired and OBDII telematics solutions can collect a wide range of fleet efficiency and productivity information that is incredibly useful and profitable for Fleet Operators. However, the safety metrics are typically limited to an understanding of the harsh acceleration, braking, cornering and speeding information associated with the “vehicle”. Such data may or may not be able to be linked to a specific driver at any point in time. Does this kind of data address ALL the fleet operators’ safety and risk management concerns and create opportunities for improvement? READ MORE |
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