A high-level B2B Sales-Support Marketing Audit can help rebuild your program to achieve growth while ensuring a much higher degree of resource efficiency – dollars and human

Ed Pierce, ITA Communications. Fleet.

October 2020

The pandemic has forced almost every business to slash budgets and trim staff in order to deal with the abrupt business disruption. While the knee jerk reaction provides a quick fix to improve the short-term financial picture, it also guarantees long-term slowdown of future growth.

That’s why many companies are returning to strategic planning. They are updating their SWOT analyses. They are identifying new strategic competencies based on re-aligned internal and market conditions. As a result, they are establishing revised goals or re-confirming old ones. Finally, they are adjusting departmental actions to support those goals.

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By Teri Snow, CSP, CEO of Snow Advisory, LLC and eDriving’s EHS&S “Guru”

After evaluating a number of Best in Class EHS&S programs and Driver Safety Programs, it is quite revealing to find that many organizations are managing their Driver Safety programs quite independently from their EHS&S programs and vice versa.

In fact, for a variety of reasons, many Driver Safety Programs are managed by a completely different part of an organization; one which is often focused on claim costs, procuring assets, and maintaining vehicles. All of which are important considerations, but these groups are not necessarily knowledgeable in all aspects of EHS&S best practice and systems.

These separate organizational workstreams can unknowingly create a number of gaps in risk reduction initiatives and organizational effectiveness.

Let’s take a closer look at how such programs might be managed.

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This year’s danger season may be exacerbated by the unique events of 2020, but recognizing it and preparing can empower drivers to make good choices in bad situations

By Donald Dunphy, Contributor

October 2020

Even in ordinary years, animal-to-vehicle collisions are a major problem for drivers both in fleet and otherwise. According to State Farm Insurance, the odds of a driver hitting a deer or other animals are 1 in 116. The company estimates that U.S. motorists made more than 1.9 million animal collision claims from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019.

In 2018, the New York City Police Department recorded 103 deer-vehicle collisions around Staten Island — a five percent increase from the previous 98 collisions just a year before — and a 232 percent increase from 31 collisions in 2015.

Need we be reminded that 2020 has not been an ordinary year.

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Car and Driver

Preliminary data from the government’s traffic-safety division shows a disturbing trend toward driving without seatbelts, and other more dangerous behavior.

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, alcohol, cannabis and opioid use increased. When broken down by sex, males were more likely to have positive results in any of these three categories than females. Also, positive rates were higher on weekends than weekdays.

It’s no surprise that the amount of vehicles on the roads dropped this spring because of numerous stay-at-home orders throughout the country. The coronavirus decreased the number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), but also brought about more deaths per 100 million VMT. In the second quarter, that number rose to 1.4, well up from 1.1 in the first quarter.

Read the article at Car and Driver.

Forbes

As vehicles have moved from being primarily mechanical systems, perhaps it is time to ask, where should a manufacturer’s responsibility extend over the lifetime of the vehicle when it comes to evolving software systems? Where can independent repair play a supportive role?

Should consumers be free to authorize an independent repair facility to augment, update or otherwise change a vehicle’s software without safety and cybersecurity oversight embodied in manufacturer processes? If so, where do the bounds of liability to the original equipment manufacturer or independent repair shop fall?

On the 2020 Massachusetts ballot, Question 1 is a referendum on how traditional independent automotive repair shops and aftermarket part suppliers are going to function as part of tomorrow’s automotive ecosystem. The ballot initiative aims to enact a law that opens connectivity to any vehicle-specific data “for the purposes of maintaining, diagnosing and repairing the motor vehicle.” The law would require that “access shall include the ability to send commands to in-vehicle components if needed for purposes of maintenance, diagnostics and repair.”

Read the article at Forbes.

Inside EVs

While it is true EV sales are down 15% year-to-date, according to the most recent analysis from the Valuation Services group at J.D. Power, the category actually outperformed internal combustion engine sales, which suffered a 23% decline so far this year. 

This positive eight-percent difference points to a few key trends that are lifting the prospects of EVs over the mid-to-long-term horizons.

Taken together, the emergence of high-quality EV offerings from a variety of new players is combining with maturing infrastructure, rising consumer confidence and compelling tax incentives to lay the foundation for a very interesting 2021.

Read the article at Inside EVs.

AutoBlog

Amazon wants to make it safer and easier to use your phone while you’re in the car with the introduction of Auto Mode for the Alexa App turning your phone into a “driver-friendly” display with large touch targets and easy-to-read visuals.

Auto Mode keeps things simple with four screens: Home, Navigation, Communicate and Play. The home screen includes shortcuts to pause or play your media source, navigate to home or work and make a call.

The Navigation screen lets you create shortcuts for favorite locations, or if you ask Alexa to find someplace new, Auto Mode will display a simplified results list with only the most relevant info. The Communicate screen will make it easier to place calls or send an announcement to Alexa devices, and the Play screen will give you simple controls over your music or podcasts.

Read the article at AutoBlog.

McKinsey & Company

In 2030, if you think about an omnichannel car-buying experience, it would likely mean starting on the website and exploring products but not necessarily asking, “do I want brand A or brand B?” It will be more like, “what is the feature set that I want?” So it might start with “what is your personality?”

There will be real customization in the dealership. So, for example, “do I still need this car seven days a week? Or do I need a bigger car on the weekend? Or do I need a bigger car in the winter when I want to go skiing?” And so it might be the purchase of the car, plus a package to have access to a different vehicle in the summer, the convertible for fall weekends, and in the winter the SUV to go in the mountains.

When we talk about price, it will be less and less the price for the entire vehicle. But it will be the price for maybe a month of usage of this car or for a certain mileage. There will be different packages—also in line with the shift to shared mobility, subscription services, and so on. There will be different ways of quoting a price, but it will be a fixed price.

Read the article at McKinsey & Company.

FLD upgrades popular WebAccess solution to help fleet professionals take control of the remarketing process

By Richard Mallek, Director of Business Development

September 2020

Imagine a time when business is being challenged like never before. A time when people are clamoring for innovative new ways to work from anywhere, any time and on any device. And, a time when just about everyone is trying to leverage the internet to find new ways to do more with less.

Sound like the current business landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Perhaps – but in this case, I’m talking about 1997. It’s not long after the dawn of the internet, a time of rapid change and unprecedented challenges. And, much like today’s post-pandemic world, a time when businesses – even those in the fleet world – could see that digital solutions were the wave of the future.

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The Drive

The impending ban on internal combustion vehicles by 2035, as announced by California Governor Gavin Newsom, simply couldn’t have been placed better to paint Ford as a proponent for a greener world. Ford was quick to say this: We’re ready.

Ford has been working with the California Air Resources Board for months in order to come up with a framework to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In August, Ford signed on as the only automaker who was willing to commit to the requirements of the framework for light-duty vehicles from Model Year 2021 through 2026. Ford Vice President Bob Holycross said, “We will not concede the future to anybody.”

Read the article at The Drive.