By Ed Smith, President, Agile Fleet

If you are reading this you probably already know that your organization can save tens of thousands – even hundreds of thousands of dollars — by sharing vehicles, reducing unneeded vehicles, and automating fleet management processes.

You know that by automating things like vehicle reservations, dispatching, and billing and reporting, your organization can experience incredible time savings (for fleet managers) and convenience (for users of the fleet.) We’ve seen our customers do all these and more.

And in a COVID-19 environment, it’s even more crucial to reduce costs. Budgets are getting cut everywhere. The single most effective way to reduce fleet costs is to reduce unneeded vehicles and share them efficiently. Sharing vehicles allows organizations to revise budgets to eliminate monthly fixed costs for unused vehicles sitting in a parking lot. You can also eliminate replacement costs for unused vehicles, and reduce costs for things such as maintenance, insurance, depreciation, parking, and staff time to manage them, and more.

But if you are just starting to plan your vehicle sharing program, how do you effectively communicate your plan to others? If you are faced with the task of ‘selling” the idea to upper management and other stakeholders, here’s some help from our experts to get the job done–successfully.

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For decades, hybrid computer/car enthusiasts have declared that the car is nothing but a computer on wheels, and predicted the imminent arrival of futuristic features and functions. Autonomous driving perhaps the most exciting of all.

By Kenneth Sheldrick, FMW

The idea of catching up on paperwork, relaxing, taking a nap, or watching a movie during the daily commute does have a good deal of allure to many.

Now, the advent of 5G has breathed new life into these dreams. Moreover, in addition to all these futuristic possibilities, some observers believe that the car itself will change dramatically. According to Axios, Some have predicted that the car will no longer depreciate when driven off the dealer’s lot, but will gain value thanks to cloud-based software enhancements, for instance.

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One of the topics that frequently arises in our conversations with fleet professionals is succession planning as a generation of fleet leaders look ahead to retirement.

We plan to write an article about the best practices for averting “brain drain” within the fleet industry. If you have some thoughts on this topic, we would like to hear from you. We have just two questions:

Q #1: Are you a fleet professional who intends to leave the industry in the next five years?

Q #2 Would you be willing to speak, confidentially, with an FMW writer on the subject of succession planning and experience retention?

If you answered “yes” to the second question, please contact Janice Sutton to arrange a date and time to talk.

We realize this may be sensitive information so no names or affiliations will be disclosed in the published article.

J.D. Power

New preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that as Americans traveled fewer miles due to the pandemic, fatality rates increased.

Overall, during the first nine months of 2020, deaths rose 4.6% despite a 14.5% drop in vehicle miles traveled. During the third quarter of 2020, after states lifted coronavirus lockdowns, the death rate rose 13.1% compared to the same period in 2019.

Drivers may believe that lax law enforcement allows for riskier driving behavior. Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, told the Associated Press: “A big factor here is the lack of enforcement. We are hearing from many states that traffic stops have declined during COVID-19. Drivers feel like they can speed and get away with it,” he said.

Read the article at J.D. Power.

Car and Driver

GM unveiled a new business venture, BrightDrop. The company’s plan is to create an ecosystem of electric products to be used as delivery vehicles and “last mile” delivery solutions for commercial customers.

The new company will produce multiple vehicles, starting with the EP1, an electric pallet that looks like an oversize library cart with doors. GM envisions the vehicle will help deliver packages from a vehicle to a customer. The electric box on wheels rolls at up to 3 mph while being directed by a courier and can carry up to 200 pounds.

According to GM trials conducted with partner FedEx Express, the EP1 can help deliver 25 percent more packages a day than a delivery driver alone. According to the two companies, couriers said the EP1 was easy to maneuver and reduces strain.

Read the article at Car and Driver.

USA Today

Gone are the days of playing-card-sized screens causing drivers and passengers to squint their eyes at low-resolution text and poorly designed graphics.

German automaker Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz revealed a new 56-inch screen nearly spanning the width of an entire car earlier this month, becoming the latest brand to bet on larger-than-ever digital displays.

“There are already some studies that indicate significant driver distraction can be a result of in-dashboard screens,” Jason K. Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said in an email. “The question is, by making them bigger, wider and more integrated with the vehicle, does this make an existing problem worse?”

Read the article at USA Today.

Jalopnik

The idea of using your phone or smartwatch as a car key has been kicking around for a while, and some of the more expensive vehicles are already outfitted to let you do it. Up until recently, the necessary software wasn’t even prebuilt into devices, meaning you’d need a third-party app to lock and unlock your car.

That’s all changing though. At Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference last summer, it introduced a new Car Keys protocol that embedded the feature into iOS’ Wallet app, the same place your credit cards are stored. However, to date the company has partnered only with BMW to roll it out.

Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S21 range of smartphones, and, like Apple, it’s also baking digital key hardware and software right into its phones. Unlike Apple, the Korean tech giant has announced collaborations with Ford, Genesis and Audi, as well as BMW, to bring the feature to more makes and models “in the near future.”

Read the article at Jalopnik.

International Fleet World

Training fleet drivers at vehicle handover could ensure that advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are used correctly, making them a road safety benefit and not a potential hazard.

Awareness and understanding of these systems is generally low among drivers – and most do not receive any training. Instead, drivers turn to the user manual and apply a ‘trial-and-error’ method. And IAM RoadSmart says this could have potentially worrying consequences for all road users.

“Lease companies and fleet managers should also ensure that the new features on the cars they give to staff are fully understood,” said Neil Greig, director of policy & research. “Driver training companies can provide a more comprehensive back up but it is important that drivers know about assistance system from the moment they start their first journey and that is best done at handover.”

Read the article at International Fleet World.

Autoblog

By now, we all know the basic coronavirus rules. Wear a mask, limit your exposure to other people and when you can’t, keep your distance, and … keep wearing your mask. But what we haven’t known is whether we should keep the car windows up or down.

A new study from Brown University seeks to answer that question. Using complex computational fluid dynamic simulations, Varghese Mathai, Asimanshu Das, Jeffrey Bailey and Kenneth Breuer studied how the aerosols that we breath (some of which do escape even properly worn masks) move about a car’s cabin and how those flows change with various windows up and down.

The details of the study are worth noting. The team of researchers found that opening the windows opposite of each occupant can create a flow that drastically reduces the collection of aerosols in a car’s cabin. They also found that opening the windows even halfway can be very helpful but that just cracking them a bit doesn’t generate enough airflow.

Read the article at Autoblog.

MotorTrend

Another milestone in the tumultuous history of the company originally known as just Chrysler: On Saturday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group will merge to create Stellantis, the fourth-largest automaker in the world by volume. 

It is the oldest, truly heritage, brands, that are most vulnerable: Chrysler and Dodge. Then there are the Italian brands: Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Maserati that have failed to meet lofty expectations in North America.

There will be repercussions. Stellantis will start life with seven FCA brands and another four from PSA. That seems unmanageable. Every merger creates duplication and results in the death of products, brands, positions, plants, and plans. PSA Group CEO Carlos Tavares, who becomes CEO of Stellantis, has a history of turning brands and companies around with tough cost targets and the discipline to axe where necessary.

Read the article at MotorTrend.