‘Twas the night before Christmas
when panic set in,
And Driving Dynamics’ got a call from a friend.
Mrs. Claus phoned the team
about an elf that’s been bold,
And that’s where our story of helping Santa unfolds…

“Santa my darling,” said Mrs. Claus, with a calm grin,
“The elves were out earlier, joy riding again.
Now the sled’s beaten up and the reins a bit stuck,
So for this Christmas Eve, you must take the truck.”
“I’ve called Driving Dynamics to teach all you need to know.
They are eager and happy to prepare you for driving in snow.
Give the deer the night off but take an elf (or two)
And follow Driving Dynamics’ safety advice
so you’ll know what to do.”

Read more to learn how Driving Dynamics helped Santa!

By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

Want help in making your fleet part of the mobility revolution? Want to be sure your pooled fleet is operating at maximum utilization?

Then look no further than Ridecell, a San Francisco-based company that has been selected as a strategic partner by some of the biggest names in the industry, like Penske, 3M, BMW, Volkswagen, and Denso, the Japanese maker of automotive components.

Not one to be bashful about its prowess, the company bills itself as having “the world’s most intelligent mobility platform.” Here’s what the company’s website says about it:.

“The Ridecell platform provides the technology needed to run a standalone ride-hailing or carsharing operation—or a hybrid service that combines both. End-to-end automation covers onboarding new riders, checking IDs, dynamic pricing, driver-rider matching, ride scheduling, payment processing, demand-supply balancing, personalized settings, and even referral programs and promotions. And, of course, there’s a customizable app that’s easy for drivers and riders to love.”

To learn more, Fleet Management Weekly recently spoke with Mark Thomas, Ridecell’s vice president of marketing and strategic alliances. READ MORE

Liability for a supsended License and multiple violations

By Trent Dressen, Director of Sales, SuperVison

March 1997, a 23 year-old man was driving his Chevy 4×4 pickup truck when he was hit by a semi-truck owned by a commercial trucking company.

The semi-truck crossed the centerline and hit the pickup truck head-on. The young man suffered a ruptured left anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, which required reconstructive surgery. He sued the trucking company for negligent hiring, retention, and supervision of its driver due to the truck drivers’ record. Between 1978 and 1997, the driver had been convicted of 21 traffic violations, most of which involved speeding, a DUI, and he was driving with a suspended license at the time of the accident.

READ MORE

Fortune

By 2020, federal mandates will require that all hybrid and electric cars make a sound at low speeds for pedestrian safety.

With the number of visually impaired and blind Americans expected to double in the next 30 years, giving these quiet rides some noise is essential.

For car makers, sound is about more than just safety. Sonic branding is on the rise, with the right auditory aesthetics triggering the brain’s amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for mood, emotion, and memory. The idea is, the right audible experience can even affect our behavior, our purchases, and our perception of flavor, scent, and texture.

Read the article at Fortune.

CityLab

Road safety advocates have long complained that media outlets tend to blame pedestrians and cyclists who are hit by cars, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board offers proof that they’re right.

News stories overwhelmingly (but often subtly) shift blame onto pedestrians and cyclists, by treating crashes as isolated incidents, and by failing to include input from planners, engineers, and other road safety experts.

Sentence structure and word choice matter. “A pedestrian was hit by a car” centers the victim getting hit. Reports may describe a vehicle doing something rather than a driver (‘‘a car jumped the curb’’ versus ‘‘a driver drove over the curb’’). The use of object-based language was particularly jarring in the case of hit-and-run collisions where ‘the vehicle drove away.

Read the article at CityLab.

The Drive

As automakers push for connected vehicles that retain customer data, a recent FBI report claims the U.S. auto industry was one of the leading targets for malicious hackers in 2018, making cybersecurity more important than ever.

Hackers have repeatedly and successfully compromised the computer systems using “brute force” attacks, gaining access to unsuspecting email lists and even initiating fraudulent wire transfers.

Wireless connectivity features aren’t necessarily new to the automobile as they’ve been around in one way or another since the 1990s. But as cars now come with cellular network-based WiFi hotspots, satellite connections, and other wireless data infrastructure such as V2X communication, it also opens the door for malicious attacks.

Read the article at The Drive.

Digital Trends

As screens have replaced gauges, electric motors have supplanted engines, and computers take over for drivers, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has become the world’s go-to showcase for cutting-edge automotive technology.

Your car may not drive itself yet, but that hasn’t stopped companies from fantasizing about how you’ll use all the extra time when they can.

From TVs on the ceiling to Audi’s in-car VR, you can fully expect a whole new batch of out-there ideas this year. Workout equipment built into cars? Meditation mode? Fully stocked backseat bar? Rest assured that by the time your car can drive itself, you’ll never be bored.

Read the article at Digital Trends.

International Fleet World

According to a new report by the European Transport Safety Council, a quarter of the 25,000 EU road deaths each year are likely to be linked to alcohol.

Currently only seven out of 28 EU countries have a standard Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limit that’s effectively equivalent to zero tolerance.

Ellen Townsend, policy director of ETSC, said: “Almost 70 years since the first scientific evidence was published on the link between drink-driving and road deaths – it is impossible to accept that thousands of families are still being ripped apart every year in the EU because of it. In 2020, we want to see the EU and Member States, coming up with a vision to end drink-driving once and for all with a combination of zero-tolerance limits, a big step-up in enforcement and wider use of technology such as mandatory use of alcohol interlocks in buses, lorries and vans.”

Read the article at International Fleet World.

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.

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 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.

READ MORE