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

In today’s rapidly evolving world of business, disruption is both a universal opportunity and threat.  That’s why companies that want to survive and thrive need to practice disruptive marketing.

But what, you may ask, is disruptive marketing and how does it differ from traditional marketing? To answer, we first have to agree on what marketing is in general: the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines marketing simply as “the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market.”

If there’s one overriding characteristic that distinguishes disruptive marketing from traditional marketing, it’s the extent to which disruptive marketing takes advantage of digital information technology and the Internet, to which I will add another: disruptive marketing is driven by customer needs and desires.

READ MORE for a description detailing the differing characteristics between traditional marketing and disruptive marketing.

By Anthony Sasso, Head of TD Bank Equipment Finance

2019 was a year of disruption and change for fleets, which will set the tone for 2020.

According to FTR Associates’ latest Trucking Update, the Trucking Conditions Index (TCI) spent most of the year in the negatives. This will set the tone for 2020, although the TCI is projected to be closer to neutral in 2020. FTR’s loadings outlook for 2020 is weakening but still shows growth, with a forecasted growth of .6% down from .9% previously.

There are two catalysts driving change in the industry. The first is e-commerce, which was the source of industry disruption in 2019. The second one has loomed on the horizon for a while now: we continue to see signs of a slowing economy. Even as growth slows, there is still plenty of room for fleet managers to maneuver so long as they prepare now for a possible downturn.

Next year promises to bring both challenge and opportunity for fleet managers.

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By Kurt Thearling, Vice President, Analytics, WEX

Analyzing data is built into our brains.

The cavemen analyzed data to understand animal migration and hunting patterns to help them survive. Sailors analyzed data to make charting improvements on their ocean voyages. Astronauts use data to connect to places mankind had only dreamed of going.

In a sense, we’re still exploring and learning new things about how data can be collected and used. We often bring together new data, creating endless combinations and layers to answer a plethora of questions. By combining data in new ways, we may even answer questions that we didn’t know we had.

But, let’s start at the beginning. For a fuel payments company like WEX, that means right at the pump.

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Denverite

Mayor Michael Hancock announced at the annual Sustainable Denver Summit that the city will start replacing some of its old, fossil-fueled government vehicles with electric ones as they go out of commission.

By starting the transition now, city officials are working to develop the infrastructure necessary to support as many electric vehicles as possible in the future. Getting a charger installed in a city building takes about a year, so with this new policy, agencies will have time to prepare.

“The goal is to go 100 percent electric eventually,” Mike Salisbury, who is in charge of the EV program said. “So we are trying to get on that path and do what we can to get infrastructure everywhere.”
The new commitment could result in as many as 850 city vehicles going electric by 2029.

Read the article at Denverite.

Forbes

While the ultimate goal of self-driving vehicles is one in which humans are solely passengers, the reality of the situation is that we’re moving from a world where people have complete control of their vehicle to ones where they have none at all.

The Society of Automotive Engineers classifies autonomous vehicle technology capabilities into six levels ranging from Level 0 – no autonomous features, to Level 5 – vehicles can safely drive anywhere and at any speed in any condition.

The problem is when we’re operating in the middle ground — vehicles having some of the control, and humans still needed for some control. The main issue is that it’s psychologically very difficult to not pay attention to something until you absolutely need to pay attention to avoid a fatal outcome.

Read the article at Forbes.

CNN

Terrifying rumors initially propelled by Facebook’s algorithms have sparked fears that men driving white vans are kidnapping women all across the United States for sex trafficking and to sell their body parts.

While there is no evidence to suggest this is happening, much less on a national, coordinated scale, a series of viral Facebook posts created a domino effect that led to the mayor of a major American city issuing a warning based on the unsubstantiated claims.

“Don’t park near a white van,” Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young said in a TV interview on Monday. “Make sure you keep your cellphone in case somebody tries to abduct you.” The mayor said he had not been told of the apparent threat by Baltimore Police but said it was “all over Facebook.

Read more at CNN.

The Detroit News

General Motors is lobbying for an extension of a federal tax credit that provides up to $7,500 to buyers of electric vehicles, but GM has angered some Democrats by siding with the Trump administration in a fight with California over fuel-economy regulations.

Automakers are pushing Congress to raise a lifetime ceiling of 200,000 electric vehicles per manufacturer that qualify for the tax break. The electric-vehicle tax credit has been a point of contention since it was established in 2008. GM nd Tesla both hit that ceiling in 2018.

GM argues its decision to intervene in a lawsuit filed by California over the mileage rules was an effort to ensure there would be one national standard for fuel economy that all automakers could follow.

Read the article at The Detroit News.

Bloomberg

Chris Ballinger, former finance chief at Toyota’s innovation hub, launched a non-profit that aims to turn cars into rolling wallets able to autonomously make and receive payments in a virtual currency.

Drivers would earn small sums for sharing data on everything from traffic congestion to weather and be debited for infrastructure use and contribution to pollution.

“Everyone is excited by the promise of technology and waiting for the first killer app, for what will be to digital currencies what email is to the internet,” Ballinger says. “That is, where does it get used in a way that consumers find it adds value compared to existing payment systems, and we think mobility and machine-to-machine payments are likely to be one such area because we have big issues with funding public infrastructure and charging for congestion and carbon.”

Read the article at Bloomberg.

As long as crashes happen, juries will want to know what a company has done to prevent them.

By Paul Atchley, PhD, eDriving’s Brain Scientist Advisor

In May 2019, a jury awarded a plaintiff $15 million in a case in which a truck driver, talking on his cell phone, failed to stop for stationary traffic, critically injuring a driver who had stopped. As an expert on the case who was asked to testify on the company’s lack of an effective cell phone policy, I can say that one reason the jury was compelled to find in favor of the stopped driver was that the delivery company was taking no significant actions to prevent the crash, other than telling drivers in their welcome packet to not use their phones.

I wrote “…there appears to be no evidence that (the delivery company) took adequate steps necessary to prevent (their driver’s) behavior despite knowledge of the risks of phone use of any kind by its drivers and clear evidence available to fleet safety professionals that fleets with strict cell phone policies have fewer crashes.”

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By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

I’ve attended and tuned into several presentations about fleets and marijuana recently, and the overall impression I was left with was that U.S. fleets have been thrown into a confusing mess and dilemma when it comes to handling the issue with their drivers.

The big questions that the conversations have raised are: is it legal for fleet drivers to use marijuana in states where it’s been legalized and can fleets legally test their drivers for marijuana use without violating their privacy?

But on further review, it looks, at least to me, a lot less confusing, if not pretty simple. Still, that’s with the proviso that fleets need to be careful about their fleet driver policies and practices, and so should double-check with their legal and HR departments on some details.

But before clarifying the issues, first, let’s look at reasons why fleet professionals may be confused. I count six:

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