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FleetManagementWeekly
September 14, 2021

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Editor’s Analysis & Top Industry News

Using Data to Driver Risk

Telematics data, once combined and normalized, provides great insight into risk and can help you develop “a potent action plan … that targets drivers, departments, or the organization.” You can read more here in “Using Data to Reduce Driver Risk.”

Easily Managing Remarketing

Want a quick and easy way to manage the entire remarketing process? If yes, then you should consider the benefits of remarketing in real time with Web Access says FLD’s Carol Fowler in today’s lead video. Watch it here.

Enjoy this issue, and check in at FleetManagementWeekly.com for daily updates.

Ted Roberts
President


VIDEO: WebAccess — A One-Stop Portal That Lets You Easily Manage the Entire Remarketing Process

WebAccess is a one-stop portal that allows fleet managers to easily manage the entire remarketing process.

VIDEO: European Fleets


  Before the Car Configurator: Figuring Out If You Even Need a Car
 

These European fleet experts have developed state-of-the-art software to determine the most optimal forms of mobility – be it cars or something else – for all sorts of organizations.


VIDEO: The Hidden Flaw

  The Hidden Flaw is Now Playing
 

There’s a critical flaw that’s hiding in virtually every fleet’s supply chain. Sometimes in plain sight.

WATCH “The Hidden Flaw.”


Spotlight

Work Truck Week 2022 Returns to Indianapolis With Expanded Content

America’s largest work truck event returns in person to Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 8–11, 2022, with an expanded format, new branding, and a familiar keynote speaker.

Building on the success of the 2021 virtual event, NTEA – The Association for the Work Truck Industry is adding a more robust online component and officially rebranding its annual industry gathering as Work Truck Week®.

During the 2022 event, The Work Truck Show® exhibit hall, Green Truck Summit, and a myriad of other offerings will be featured throughout the week, including NTEA Annual Meeting with keynote speaker Mike Rowe.

READ MORE

Merchants Fleet Intensifies Midwest Sales Presence, Welcomes Pete Theis to Growing Sales Team

Merchants Fleet is pleased to announce it has hired Pete Theis as Regional Sales Manager overseeing the company’s sales initiatives in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Based in Dallas, Texas Theis is a tenured sales professional having previously served in numerous executive sales roles, including Fleet Account Executive for GM, where he supported an active customer base of over 200 accounts.

“Pete is an exemplary sales professional with a demonstrated track record for building great partnerships” said Jeff Thomas, VP of Regional Sales at Merchants Fleet. “Adding Pete to our sales team is a win for our clients and to our organization, as we continue to innovate with industry-leading solutions that keep Merchants Fleet at the forefront of the fleet industry.”

READ MORE

Donlen is One of the Best and Brightest in the Nation

Donlen has once again been named one of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work for in the Nation®.

Winners in this competition demonstrate a commitment to excellence in human resource practices and employee enrichment through work-life balance, employee education, diversity, recognition and retention.

Donlen’s CEO, Tom Callahan, explains, “As we embark on the next era in fleet as a standalone fleet management company, we recognize how important it is to continue to foster a collaborative and supportive culture that empowers employees to develop and use their own skills and competencies, as they help move Donlen forward as a fun and exciting place to work.”

Otonomo Partners with LeasePlan to Impact Fleet Performance

Embedded vehicle data from Otonomo will expand LeasePlan’s connected vehicle ecosystem

Otonomo Inc., a leading provider of a pioneering vehicle data platform and marketplace, and LeasePlan USA, a global leader in fleet management and driver mobility services, have signed a strategic partnership to offer an unparalleled view and insights into fleet vehicle performance and behavior.

Starting this month, LeasePlan’s OneConnect telematics platform will leverage Otonomo’s high quality, application-ready OEM data – without any aftermarket devices. LeasePlan clients will immediately be able to manage and optimize driver behavior, fuel costs, maintenance trends and expenses across a wider range of vehicles.

READ MORE

Safety Data


FMW Editorial Staff

In order to reduce driver risk and help drivers change behavior, look at the information that’s coming in.

And, these days, the more data, the better! Motor vehicle violations and license-checking information. Past crash and collision incident information. And, especially, telematics. Combined and normalized, the aggregate data provides terrific insight into risk.

Only after data is collected and the picture fully formed, can a potent action plan be developed. that targets drivers, departments, or the organization.

A focused approach is more efficient because a company can reduce broad-based training to drivers that they may or may not need. Finally, the personalized approach is more successful in rectifying a specific driver performance or behavioral problem.

At the driver level, an action plan can address training. At the departmental or enterprise levels, issues such as culture, scheduling, or job performance metrics can be addressed.

READ MORE

 

UK EVs


By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor

The UK has just announced its plans to become the first country to require home charging units for all new homes as well as workplaces. One charge point will be required for every five spots at office parking.

These requirements are to support a ban on gasoline or diesel cars in the UK by 2030. Only about 25% of UK households have off-street parking.

It now seems settled that most if not nearly all of tomorrow’s cars will be powered by BEVs, PHEVs, or hydrogen fuel cells. Over 30 countries have banned ICE engines by 2030, with Norway and South Korea leading the way with bans beginning in 2025.

What is not clear is how those vehicles will be charged, if indeed they are BEVs, which seems likely at this point.

READ MORE

 

New Leadership at Ford Pro


“Around the world, Ford Pro knows commercial vehicle customers better than anyone, and that’s just a starting point”~ Ted Cannis

Just over a year after Ford formed Ford Pro, an effort to expand its role in the business- and government- truck markets, the company announced the appointment of a team of senior executives to guide the operation.

“We’ve put together an experienced Ford Pro leadership team that is completely focused on helping commercial and government customers increase uptime and reduce ownership costs,” said Ted Cannis, chief executive officer, Ford Pro.

“With customer productivity as our north star, this leadership team and our employees around the world are going to change how business in the commercial vehicle space is done.”

Ford Pro’s Services include its existing Ford’s IC-engine commercial vehicles as well as HEvs and EVs; hardware and software solutions for charging at home, public stations, and work and depot charging; integration of digital services to enable better fleet management and maintenance.

READ MORE


Trending

The Screen in Your Car Is Beckoning

Slate

With American traffic fatalities recently hitting a 15-year high, an infotainment arms race seems like the last thing we need right now. The car industry is poised to give us one anyway.

Researchers have demonstrated that touchscreens can reduce drivers’ visual awareness of their surroundings. They also increase the risk of errors. “Touchscreens and 65-mph bouncy highways don’t work very well together,” says Kelly Funkhouser, the head of connected and automated vehicles at Consumer Reports.

One study found that drivers selecting music with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto had slower reaction times than those who were high from smoking pot.

Read the article at Slate.

Exclusive: We Drive the 2022 Rivian R1T Off-Road Across the Trans-America Trail, Part 1

MotorTrend

MotorTrend and Rivian complete the first-ever electric off-road transcontinental adventure made possible for the first time thanks to the new 2022 Rivian R1T electric pickup and the Trans-America Trail – from the dunes of Nags Head, North Carolina, on the Atlantic coast, to the cliffs of Port Orford, Oregon, overlooking the Pacific.

The new 2022 Rivian R1T electric pickup truck is uniquely suited for this overland expedition. The first modern EV pickup to hit the market, the R1T—and Rivian as a whole—is conceived around the idea of electrifying the outdoors.

MotorTrend together with Rivian dedicated 43 days to the adventure, split into five legs. Ride along with us here as we partake in the first-ever electric off-road crossing of the Trans-America Trail.

Read the article at MotorTrend.

Tesla Obtains Patent on its Wild Idea to Use Lasers as Windshield Wipers

Electrek

Tesla has actually managed to obtain a patent on its wild idea to use lasers to clean debris off of vehicles. The automaker is literally talking about using laser beams basically as windshield wipers, and it’s exactly what Tesla shows in its patent drawings.

The patent application reads in part: “A cleaning system for a vehicle includes a beam optics assembly that emits a laser beam to irradiate a region on a glass article of the vehicle, debris detection circuitry that detects debris accumulated over the region, and control circuitry.”

Elon Musk added that Tesla is launching the initiative because “if they don’t, someone else will do it, and he can’t make sure they will do it safely.”

Read the article at Electrek.

Years of Work by IIHS-HLDI Paved Way for Safety Provisions in Infrastructure Bill

IIHS

The infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. Senate this month contains a slew of long-awaited highway safety provisions.

Many of them are based on or supported by research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute.

The bill includes requirements for crash avoidance technology, an update to the rear underride guard standard for large trucks, an update to headlight standards to allow a new type of lighting technology, and a mandate to equip vehicles with passive alcohol detection technology.

Read the article at IIHS.

VW’s Herbert Diess


CNN Business

CEO Herbert Diess wants electric cars to make up half of the Volkswagen Group’s sales in 2030, and 100% of its sales in major markets should be zero-emission by 2040. To achieve those goals, he has to dramatically shift one of the world’s largest carmakers away from the internal combustion engine.

The chip shortage has gotten worse. The back ends of the suppliers are mostly based in Malaysia, and three plants were hit hard. Diess thinks that they will overcome this situation towards the end of the month, and then they should see relief. Semiconductors will be on short supply probably for several months.

Diess see a much bigger transition for the industry when cars are becoming autonomous, because cars will be used differently, used by more people. There’s a lot of of business potential and it’s still a long way to go. Their first fleets probably will come to market in 2025, and the first private cars driving autonomously also in 2025 or 2026. But it’s now time to invest, and to prepare. And that’s what we are doing.

Read the article at CNN Business.

 

Crash-Free Culture


By Ed Dubens, Founder/ CEO of eDriving

Over the last few years advances in smartphone telematics technology not only means we can help drivers remain safe while driving for work purposes, but it also means we now have the ability and the data to respond in seconds in an emergency when it can mean the difference between life and death!

We all know about a single vehicle “event” with a driver unconscious at the side of the road and no witnesses to call for help, OR a driver delivering parcels in the run up to Christmas hijacked enroute to their delivery locations.

According to a European Transport Safety Council report: “Road safety policies typically aim to prevent collisions from occurring and to mitigate the impact of the collisions that do occur. An issue that has received less attention, is how improvements in emergency response can also help prevent deaths and reduce the severity of injuries.”

READ MORE

 

Fleet Marketing


By Ed Pierce, President of ITA Communications. Fleet.

Business leaders are hearing much more about “disruption” than ever.

Certainly, marketers must not only adapt to the concept to remain viable. But they must also promote the concept to their employers and customers.

Here are 10 trends marketers should be talking about, excerpted from the book, “Disruptive Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal” by Geoffrey Colon.

READ MORE





Fleet Management Resources

 

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

FLD
The fast, easy way to remarket without risk. Get an offer in hours, paid in a few days. Improve TCO. Save time, money and resources.

PARS
PARS’ mission is to provide you with high-quality service at competitive prices for all of your transportation needs.

Driving Dynamics
Driving Dynamics was established to help corporate fleet drivers develop expert, safe driving skills using proven, advanced driving techniques.

Fleet Street
Fleet Street has 30+ years of experience and knowledge using a spectrum of wholesale and retail channels to simplify your involvement in the remarketing process.

SuperVision
SuperVision is a fleet driver management solution for MVR & license monitoring, fleet management, fleet safety oversight and driver performance and retention.

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.

NAFA Fleet Management Association
NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location, or fleet composition.

Wheels, Inc.
First in fleet for 80 years. Wheels helps you build tomorrow’s fleet today.




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