eDriving COVID-19 Resource Center

Around the world many people who work in health care, delivery, service, emergency response, government, and many other industries are continuing to leave their homes to ensure that essential supplies and services continue to reach those in need during this difficult time.

To help keep those who drive for work safe, eDriving has shared the following Driver Safety Tips, published as part of its dedicated COVID-19 Resource Center. Visit the Resource Center for Workplace Safety Guidance, Fleet Manager Guides and information on eDriving’s upcoming COVID-19 safety-related webinar and eLearning module.

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How one fleet company leveraged IoT for disruption — and to manage fleets in response to COVID-19

In this webinar, Ash Phayer, Telemax General Manager, will discuss how his company leveraged IoT connectivity to become one of the only companies to offer a complete end-to-end fleet solution in the Australia and New Zealand region.

He will also share the biggest connectivity challenges Telemax faced and how they overcame them. In light of COVID-19 and its impact on the fleet market, this webinar will also share some insights on how fleet companies are using IoT to manage their business through the pandemic.

Register for the webinar today!

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By Scott Conlon, Managing Director, Mercury Associates

Ask any fleet manager about fleet standardization and they will tell you that it can reduce the complexity of managing a fleet operation in many different areas.

The discussion will likely focus on improved technician proficiency, reduced on-hand parts inventories, and simplified purchasing—and having personally managed a transit bus garage, I know firsthand that these are all important benefits. What is equally important, though, is how much these benefits affect total cost of ownership (TCO), and what other efficiencies are gained. I recently had the opportunity to investigate that exact question.

Mercury Associates was recently hired to conduct a study of a large county fleet that—starting in the late 1990s—initiated a fleet standardization strategy for their light-duty vehicles. The strategy allowed the fleet division to designate a primary original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for new vehicle purchases in order to minimize the effects of a mixed fleet. The standardization strategy was authorized by the board of supervisors in successive five-year periods and was under review prior to an upcoming vote for renewal. Facing skepticism of this targeted procurement approach from newly elected board members, the fleet manager was asked to bring in a third party to document the pros and cons of continued standardization.

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CleanTechnica

California utility PG&E Corporation has a cost of ownership calculation tool for 52 electric vehicles on the market in California (plug-in hybrids as well as fully electric vehicles).

The 5 year cost of ownership comparison takes into account estimates for upfront price, electricity costs, gasoline costs, maintenance costs, and insurance costs.

One thing missing from the PG&E model is resale value. Since it’s a 5 year cost of ownership model, that doesn’t really matter if you plan to keep the car for longer – say, 10 or so years. However, resale value should be a part of any true total cost of ownership calculation

Read the article at CleanTechnica.

Green Car Reports

Nearly all vehicle types now achieve more than double the gas mileage that they achieved in 1975, when the EPA started compiling trends for vehicle emissions and fuel economy – all except pickups, that is.

Among pickups, Honda has held the highest average at 21.8 mpg. Pickups from other automakers all averaged in the 18-20 mpg range, but it’s of note that Toyota ranked the lowest at 18.2 mpg.

Ram, General Motors and Ford now have light-duty diesels with mpg ranging from 29 – 33 highway miles. Electric pickup trucks will arrive soon. But the question is how much they will cost and whether they’ll deliver enough range to satisfy owners when they tow and haul.

Read the article at Green Car Reports.

The Washington Post

With people across much of the country ordered to stay home to slow the spread of the virus, truckers are still plying the highways in an effort to ensure those loads of food, soap, toilet paper and cleaning supplies can keep moving.

As the virus has taken hold, truckers say they have had to contend with new challenges on the road: State governments that have ordered rest areas closed, meaning truckers no longer have places to eat or use the bathrooms.

Truck drivers spend much of their time alone and can sleep in their cabs. They’ve been taking small measures to protect themselves: Using their own pens to sign forms, carrying hand sanitizer and trading cans of Lysol spray among themselves.

Read the article at The Washington Post.

CNN

The coronavirus pandemic has caused an abrupt shift in consumer behavior and is upending the on-demand industry, where the biggest companies were built first and foremost around ride-hailing services rather than food deliveries.

Moving to food delivery may help some companies weather the crisis, but it could come at a cost. Uber’s meal delivery business has been a “money-losing” venture that has weighed on the stock. The margins on delivery are lower than ride-hailing/

For some companies, the trend has led to rapid expansion. Instacart, the grocery delivery startup, said this week that it plans to bring on 300,000 additional workers in North America over the next three months to help meet its surging demand.

Read the article at CNN.

By Mark Boada, Executive Editor

One of the central components of the so-called “mobility revolution” is the booming application of telematics, the wireless digital connection of automobiles. Canada-based Geotab is a world leader in the field, and in this exclusive interview with Fleet Management Weekly, Edward Kulperger, the company’s senior vice president for Europe, provides an inside look into the company, discussing its size, growth rate, fleet focus and agenda for the transition to electric vehicles.

Geotab’s message to the global fleet market right now?

A couple of things. First, that we’re the largest telematics company in the world now. We have a little over 2 million connected vehicles. We’ve been investing heavily into electric vehicles and big data for many years, and we feel that we are well-positioned as a telematics data platform to take advantage of the next wave of investment into connecting your vehicles.

We have 40 billion data points coming into our system every day, so we are one of the largest Cloud organizations on the planet. As industry leaders have said, mobility – understanding and more efficiently managing the movement of goods and vehicles – is going to be the next megatrend, and we think we’re well ahead of the curve there. We’re entirely fleet-focused, and our investment into Big Data, EV technology, and enabling fleets to go and operate electric.

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By Trent Dressen, Director of Sales, SuperVision

Employers typically pull a driver’s motor vehicle record (MVR) prior to hiring and once a year after that.

Although completing the initial and annual pulls meets the minimum obligation, there is added value in continuous monitoring for employers.

Myth: Continuous MVR Monitoring is Unnecessary —Pre-Employment & Annual MVR pulls are “good enough”

Fact: Annual MVR pulls give risky drivers grace periods of up to a year

Drivers can receive a driving violation or license status change any day of the year; a company should be paying attention to their drivers’ records every day as well. Pulling an MVR just once a year means a violation can go unnoticed for a long period of time. For instance, if a driver gets a DWI the day after the MVR is pulled, he or she has a “grace period” of 364 days before a serious and potentially costly source of liability is discovered by the employer.

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The Detroit Bureau

Sometime in the coming week, the White House is expected to announce a modest 1.5% annual increase in fuel efficiency, rather than a summary freeze in vehicle mileage, but one that still falls well short of the current mandate.

The Trump administration’s “Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule” attemps to justify a CAFE rollback in several ways, most notably by claiming that the push for better mileage would result in vehicles that are lighter and less likely to stand up to a crash.

The administration’s proposal would actually add $300 billion in higher fuel costs this decade. That figure is also a matter of debate and would depend on fuel prices. Gas is quickly falling towards a national average of under $2 a gallon and is already well below that in some areas. Fuel prices will likely recover once we get past the coronavius crisis.

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.