March 10, 2020

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Editor’s Analysis & Top Industry News

The Show Will Go On!

Bill Schankel, Interim CEO of NAFA Fleet Management Association, says that as of right now, NAFA has no plans to cancel or postpone I&E. The staff and the Board of Directors are closely monitoring the coronavirus and its potential impact on the meeting on a daily basis.

As a decades-long member of NAFA, the annual Institute & Expo is an event I anticipate with excitement. It’s where I learn what’s new in fleet, check out the latest products and services, interview industry leaders, see my old friends, and make new ones. So, it was especially painful for our FMW team to make the decision to not attend NAFA I&E this year. It was made with an abundance of caution because of our own unique health concerns.

Congratulations to the winners of NAFA’s 2020 Fleet Excellence Awards! We sure will miss seeing them honored on April 7th.

Keep well and drive safety,

Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief


VIDEO: Vehicle Delivery and the Power of Benchmarking

How does your vehicle delivery and storage service compare to other similar fleets? With business intelligence from PARS, you can clearly benchmark those comparisons.

VIDEO: Fleet Suppliers


 You Can Learn a Lot from Fleet Suppliers
 

In these times of rapidly evolving technologies, it’s more important than ever to be aware of the new products and services that fleet suppliers are offering.


VIDEO: Being Smart About Repairs

 After a Collision: Automating Repair Estimates
 

CEI has developed a customized link to help drivers gather photos of a vehicle after certain collisions – which results in time saved and a better-optimized estimating process.


The Fleet Spot

Vincentric Announces 2020 Best Fleet Value in America Awards

Kia, Toyota, and Volvo top the podium

The 15th annual Vincentric Best Fleet Value in America™ Awards were announced today with Kia’s five award winners spread across the Passenger Car, SUV & Crossover, and Van categories earning it more awards than any other brand. Toyota and Volvo were close behind, delivering an impressive lineup of four award-winning vehicles each.

“The 2020 Vincentric Best Fleet Value in America Awards saw a broad range of manufacturers win multiple awards,” said Vincentric President, David Wurster. “As more manufacturers provide the fleet market with additional, viable options, Vincentric’s data-driven methodologies help narrow down the expanding array of choices and provide the fleet industry with insight into which vehicles are the best value for their fleets.”

READ MORE

eDriving Appoints EHS&S Guru to Help Clients Incorporate Driver Risk Management into Wider Workplace Safety Programs

eDrivingSM, a global provider of driver risk management programs, has announced the appointment of Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S) consultancy, Snow Advisory, LLC., to help customers more effectively combine driver risk management into their broader EHS&S strategies.

“I’m delighted to welcome Teri and her team as a valuable resource to eDriving’s global customers to help them create a seamless flow between their workplace and road safety strategies. In more and more jurisdictions, the vehicle is being recognized as a place of work and that creates an enormous opportunity to link driver and workplace risk reduction programs together. This approach would lead to a less compartmentalized strategy, creating one consistent mindset and attitude to risk management in the workplace,” said Ed Dubens, Founder / CEO of eDriving.

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Continuous License Monitoring: Myth vs. Fact — Part Two

By Trent Dressen, Director of Sales, SuperVision

When it comes to business administrative duties, time is always a scarce resource.

In the fleet industry, a large portion of administrative duties revolve around driver license monitoring. Tasks such as running motor vehicle reports, CDLIS reports and filing paperwork all take time, and that time can add up fast. What if there was a program out there that could lighten this workload and streamline processes?

Myth: Continuous License Monitoring creates more complicated processes and a higher administrative burden

Fact: Continuous license monitoring saves administrative time

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Sofico Celebrates a Year of Global Success, Enters Partnership with Ergon Capital

Following another year of record growth, global automotive finance, leasing, fleet and mobility management software provider Sofico, has revealed its five-year strategy for continued success – dubbed Vision 2025.

The five year strategy aims to build a bigger, better, stronger and smarter company with the purpose of better serving fleet, finance and leasing customers who require sophisticated, future-ready systems to respond to the changes in the automotive finance and mobility space.

Gémar Hompes, Sofico Managing Director, commented: “Building on a successful few years, with record figures in 2019, we have now laid out a strategy for sustained long-term success. “Sofico has grown from the grassroots as a privately owned company, allowing us to focus autonomously on long-term objectives.

READ MORE

Fleet Spectator


By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

The so-called “mobility revolution” has a variety of dimensions: among the most prominent are connected vehicles, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and ride-hailing as a more convenient alternative to hailing a taxi from a city sidewalk. By all accounts, the momentum for all of these continues to build.

One area that’s been faltering, at least in North America, is car-sharing. Over the last few months, a number of players in the business have scaled back their operations, leaving a handful of the biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S. and Canada, and a safe assumption is that the anticipated demand just hasn’t materialized, at least not yet.

So, it was with interest that I came across a press release last week from ANCAP Safety, the Australian affiliate of the world-wide non-profit organization that rates the safety of new cars. It was the headline that caught my eye: “Car-share offers alternative to ‘grey’ fleet vehicle use.”

READ MORE

 

NAFA I&E


NAFA Fleet Management Association announces the winners for NAFA’s 2020 Fleet Excellence Awards (FLEXYs), the top honors in the fleet and mobility industry.

They will be presented on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at the Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, during NAFA’s annual conference, the Institute & Expo (I&E).

The FLEXYs shine a spotlight on those who have impacted fleet management in both the corporate and public fleet segments during the previous year. The awards’ nomination process was open to all fleet professionals throughout the United States and Canada, regardless of NAFA Fleet Management Association membership status.

Additionally, the winners are invited to present at an I&E session outlining their best practices in fleet, where they can share ideas with other fleet professionals. The session is, “Walk with the Winners – FLEXY Award Finalists Share Their Secrets,” on April 7.

And the Winners are…

 

Maintaining EVs


TechCrunch

Compared to fossil-fueled vehicles, electric vehicles (EV) save owners on oil and brake maintenance expenses, but they also come with higher costs to replace tires and glass that can eat away at those savings.

For every EV they sell, auto dealers are expected to see a loss of some $1,300 over five years (or $260 per year) a year in oil and brake maintenance revenue – savings for EV owners — because EVs require almost no oil and their brake pads last longer.

But “EVs consume tires at a much higher rate than internal combustion vehicles. They’re heavier and create near-instant torque off the line. You don’t need to hunt for long to find a Tesla owner who’s replaced their tires after a mere 10,000 miles. One of our portfolio companies, Zohr, an on-demand tire replacement service, sees its EV customers coming back for tire replacements 30% more frequently than traditional internal combustion vehicle owners. While EVs have less of a need to visit a service shop, they’ll need tire replacement more often.

“Electric vehicles also have more demanding cooling needs. They need to be incredibly efficient when cooling the cabin, careful not to impact vehicle range. The first line of defense against these thermal losses are more efficient glass structures and materials. Coupled with the increasing trend of larger windshields and moonroofs — note Tesla’s Model X panoramic glass costs $2,300 to replace — we’re entering an era of big, beautiful and expensive visibility.”

Read the article at TechCrunch.


Fleet Trends & Issues

EVolution: 11 Keys To GM’s Electrified Future

Green Car Reports

At EV Day, General Motors showed a dozen vehicles and vehicle concepts at various stages of development, as well as a detailed look into what will differentiate its Ultium propulsion technology – especially the battery part of it.

“The crown jewel of the Ultium system is the battery cell itself,” said Adam Kwiatkowski, GM’s director of advanced vehicle design.

Working towards a cell cost of less than $100 per kwh is one of the many ways GM is planning to apply the expertise of the past plus an ambitious economies-of-scale approach to its new generation of electric vehicles.

Read the article at Green Car Reports.

Ford Confirms Plans for All-Electric Transit Van

The Detroit Bureau

Ford Motor Co. has confirmed that it will add an all-electric version of its big delivery van, the Transit, starting in the 2022 model-year.

It appears Ford will modify the existing Transit van, finding ways to bury the battery pack and motors below the load floor to minimize any loss of cargo space, it does have other options. The project will be done entirely “in-house.”

Along with its electrified drivetrain, the final version of the electric Ford Transit will feature an array of new technologies, including advance driver assistance systems such as forward collision warning and assist, automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, and automatic lane-keeping. A 4G LTE hotspot will make it possible to integrate connectivity features appealing to fleet managers, including live vehicle tracking and remote diagnostics.

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

Ready For Delivery: Electric Package Trucks

Environmental Defense Fund

Local delivery fleets are ideal for electrification given their predictable routes and significant dwell times at the depot – important factors when planning for recharging.

The explosive growth in e-commerce, with the volume of delivery expected to double by 2026 to over 100 million packages a day, electric vehicle options are arriving not a moment too soon. Companies need to start planning now to deploy EVs as they enter the market in larger numbers over the next year or two.

While much more work is needed to build the necessary charging systems to power large fleets quickly and with clean energy, the future direction of local delivery is now very clear: it’s zero-emission.

Read the article at Environmental Defense Fund.

Fleet Sales Up Slightly in February, Continue to Track Lower Year Over Year

Cox Automotive

Year-over-year growth in fleet sales continue to track lower – February was 278,561, up slightly from 271,130 in February 2019 – even as combined rental, commercial and government purchases of new vehicles were up 2.7% in February.

FCA in February was the top performer with fleet sales increasing 46% year over year from a low base and overtaking General Motors, which led fleet sales last month. Nissan saw the largest fleet sales drop again this month at -44%, according to our analysis of the data, compared to February 2019.

Toyota and Ford had lower sales in February, decreasing slightly below 1%. February continues Q1, as expected by our team, with lower fleet sales than the prior year.

Read the article at Cox Automotive.

Safety & Connected Vehicles


Fortune

Connected vehicles – with vehicle-to-everything, or “V2X,” communication – have the potential to not only dramatically improve traffic safety, but also reduce congestion on our roads.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a plan that would allow harmful interference from adjacent Wi-Fi bands that would threaten to disable the benefits of deploying V2X’s lifesaving technology. It could impel some vehicle manufacturers that had previously committed to deploying V2X technology on the radio spectrum to pull back.

By combining smart government efforts with private innovation, connected vehicles will soon be making all of our lives safer and more convenient.

Read the article at Fortune.

 

Safety & Service Vehicles


By Ed Dubens, CEO/ Founder of eDriving

Speed, efficiency and first-time fixes are high on the list of service fleet concerns, with customer service and satisfaction of critical importance.

A proactive approach to maintenance plays a crucial role in helping service fleets ensure profitability, and sophisticated technologies are an integral component of this operation. Effective safety and risk management strategies if put together with these objectives in mind can help everything else fall into place in one focused approach!

A culture of excellence improves performance
There’s a great deal of evidence relating to the correlation between ‘culture’ and employee performance. For example, Gallup research estimates that actively disengaged workers alone cost the U.S. between $450 billion and $550 billion per year and that a culture of engagement can lead to up to 18 percent higher revenue per employee. Added to that, research reveals that absenteeism is 37 percent higher among disengaged workers (Harvard Business Review).

READ MORE

 

Simplifying the Remarketing Process


Helping fleets save time, money and resources in one easy process that takes less than a week!

By Richard Mallek, Director of Sales

One of the things that most fleet professionals know about remarketing vehicles is that the entire process has a lot of moving parts.

To begin with, you have to consign your vehicle to a remarketing partner, and then wait for it to get recovered. After that, it often meanders through a weeks or months-long process that leaves you sitting ….and waiting …. and wondering ….

“How much will my vehicle sell for?
“How will it affect the total cost of ownership?”
“And – most importantly – when will I finally get paid!”

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to quickly and easily dispose of any vehicle or piece of equipment in one totally risk-free transaction that took less than a week?

READ MORE





Fleet Management Resources

 

AFLA
The Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association. Advancing corporate fleet worldwide.

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 80 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.




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