By Trent Dressen, Director of Sales, SuperVision

Failing to continuously monitor a driver’s motor vehicle record (MVR) is risky and could end up costing a company millions of dollars.

For the company unknowingly employing a suspended driver, ignorance of a violation may prove to be very costly.

The below case study provides a good example of a company learning this lesson the hard way. This fleet’s driving policy required employees to self-report suspensions of their driver’s licenses.

When its unlicensed driver caused an accident with serious injuries, the jury punished both the driver and his employer − even though the company argued that the driver did not self-report that his license was suspended.

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By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor

The fleet sector is being saturated with apps…but not all of them provide an effective way to engage with drivers.

That’s according to Chevin Fleet Solutions –a leading global provider of fleet management software –whose Global Marketing Director, Will Wycks, has warned that the fleet industry needs to consider the effectiveness of mobile apps if they are looking to enhance business functions.

“A large proportion of apps are extraordinarily limited in terms of scope, with some that are little more than skins acting as a means to contact suppliers and other third parties,” Wycks says.

“For fleets that want to develop driver contact strategies that cover anything from managing driver timetables to fulfilling duty of care responsibilities, the majority of apps on today’s marketplace don’t delve deep enough or fulfill a specific task to a high enough standard.

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Ten more practices also found very effective

By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

Taking steps to combat driver fatigue has the greatest effect on reducing fleet crash rates, according to a recently published study of 70 U.S. fleets conducted by the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS).

Calculations of the raw results by Fleet Management Weekly showed that fatigue risk management practices were associated with crash rates that were as much as 77% lower than fleets that didn’t rely on them.

The study, which appears in the December issue of Safety Science, also found at least ten more practices associated with crash rates that were more than 20% lower, by at least one measure, than those of fleets that didn’t follow them.

One surprising finding was that fleets that employ in-vehicle driver monitoring systems but only review the data after serious crashes have a higher average crash rate than both fleets that don’t have them at all and those that review the data after every crash.

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Car and Driver

American startup company Rivian is planning to throw its electric truck, the 2021 Rivian R1T, into the ring as early as 2020.

The Bollinger B2 is the wildest and most expensive of the upcoming electric trucks: priced at $125,000, with geared axle hubs, hydropneumatic suspension, and the ability to carry 16-foot lumber with the tailgate closed.

Lordstown Motors is now accepting $1000 deposits to reserve its electric pickup truck, the 2021 Lordstown Endurance. The truck is initially intended for fleet use, but the company is accepting deposits for private use as well.

Read the article at Car and Driver.

Forbes

The winners of the Residual Value Awards are forecast to retain the highest percentage of their original MSRP over a three-year period with the Audi E-Ton topping the electric segment.

When it comes to residual values for individual vehicle types the most problematic to predict have been the battery-electric vehicles. Not only have they been sold in very low volume, but the vast majority of those sales were in some ways government-subsidized.

“I think as we start to see those federal tax incentives start to pull out of the market, as we’ve seen automakers rightsize their production, as we see more EV utility vehicles be introduced with the utility body style that consumers are looking for, we should see continued growth in EV,” said Eric Lyman, chief industry analyst at ALG

Read the article at Forbes.

Detroit Free Press

Members of a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday questioned whether the Trump administration is doing enough to protect the public from self-driving cars under development in dozens of states.

A day after a federal investigatory board made recommendations in the aftermath of a pedestrian being killed by a self-driving test vehicle in March 2018, several senators raised concerns that federal agencies still don’t require safety assessments from companies testing self-driving vehicles and haven’t put in place specific standards for the development of autonomous vehicles.

“What’s wrong with having minimum safety standards now?” asked Sen. Marie Cantwell, D-Washington, as she questioned officials with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which oversees federal standards on vehicles. “We’ve had people testify they don’t want to see them (self-driving cars) in their cul-de-sac because they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Read the article at Detroit Free Press.

NTEA

Vehicles purchased and operated in a commercial setting are more significant to successful business operations than most people would anticipate.

These commercial vehicles are typically critical for accomplishing the company’s mission and effectively serving their customers.

Choosing the partner that builds your commercial vehicles is a critical decision for your company and should take into consideration factors that extend beyond price. Cost, operational efficiency and uptime are all important factors to evaluate when selecting the proper commercial vehicle for your business.

Read of the article by Bob Raybuck, Director of Technical Services, NTEA

Ford

Los Angeles Times

The new Mustang Mach-E, Ford’s freshly unveiled all-electric compact sport utility vehicle now on view at the Los Angeles Auto Show, marks a risky move by Ford into all-electric drivetrains, including a battery version of the F-150 pickup truck.

It also helps explain why Ford joined with three other automakers to side with California against the Trump administration on a key question: Who gets to set motor vehicle emissions regulations?

Ford is counting on electrified vehicles to back up its commitment to California’s ambitious vehicle emissions goals. Ford would have to bring its fleetwide average fuel economy goals to about 50 miles per gallon by 2026, even as it exits the business of selling high-MPG small cars. Ford plans to boost sales of full-electric vehicles to a third of overall sales by 2030, up from zero today.

Read the article at Los Angeles Times.

First in a Series on the Benefits and How to Select, Implement and Optimize

By Randy Read, President, EnVue Telematics

There are many good telematics products in the marketplace today. The basic platforms of most of these products have more similarities than they do differentiators. The “secret sauce,” if you will, is in how we use telematics to produce and optimize value — value that is quantifiable and sustainable.

My focus will not be to promote any particular product but to share my experiences and best practices; ideas I have gathered from working with companies of all different sizes in all types of business verticals and with products from a number of different providers.

The purpose of my article today, and the subsequent ones to follow are to share some of the proven strategies for how to create sustainable, maximum value for your organization with the use of telematics and complementary technology products, and how to enhance the values your existing technologies can deliver.

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By: Art Liggio, CEO and President of Driving Dynamics

For those of us who have reverted from Daylight-Saving Time to Standard Time, be careful! Unaccustomed to the early onset of darkness, drivers struggle as their internal clocks are trying to adjust, and even once that happens, there are still additional challenges.

While it’s hard to believe that gaining an hour can put someone at risk, multiple traffic safety studies conclude that there is an increase in the average number of collisions following the end of Daylight-Saving Time. In particular, according to the National Road Safety Foundation, higher crash rates occur in the late afternoon due to the reduced visibility from an earlier sunset and drowsiness.

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