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FleetManagementWeekly
November 16, 2021

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Editor’s Analysis & Top Industry News

Beyond Glasgow

I’m working from Alicante, Spain over the next few weeks. The recently concluded COP26 in Glasgow is the topic of the day here, and electric vehicles are top of mind for virtually every fleet. Thus, Ed Pierce’s interview with Kevin Fisher, Director of Truck Electrification Systems at Momentum Dynamics, is especially cogent this week. Don’t miss Wide-Spread High-Power Charging for Electric Vehicles Gets Closer.

Work Fleet Forum

Tod Trousdell reports on last week’s Work Fleet Forum, a conference conducted in a ‘hosted buyer’ format. Tod was highly complimentary of the format and we were keen to learn more about it. He reported, “Several [attendees] said it was an especially welcomed opportunity given pandemic restrictions that made business travel and face-to-face vendor meetings all but impossible.”

Drive Safety!

Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief


VIDEO: Delivering High-Powered Wireless Charging

Momentum Dynamics delivers high-powered wireless charging at levels that are commercially viable, especially for fleets.

VIDEO: Safe Driving


  Driver Training for Success on the Road
 

This driver training program offers direct, in-person interaction with professionals who focus on the mechanics and physics of driving — with an end result of helping to reduce crashes and liability.


VIDEO Interview with YOU Here?

  Request for Zoom Video Interviews
 

We’re ramping up FMW’s video interviews via Zoom given the times, and are looking to speak with a variety industry experts (and we know that many of you are reading!).

Please feel free to suggest yourself, or someone you know. Any and all timely industry topics will be considered, and we look forward to speaking with you!

Email Ted Roberts to learn more: [email protected].


Spotlight

Ford Pro Offers Complimentary Services to Help Commercial Customers Improve Uptime

Ford Pro Intelligence is making it easier than ever for commercial customers to benefit from telematics to help boost their businesses’ productivity – whether they’re deploying gas-powered or electric vehicles – with powerful complimentary data services.

“No matter how big or small a commercial fleet may be – and whether it’s fully electric or not – vehicle data plays an important role in improving uptime and efficiency,” said Brent West, general manager, Ford Pro Intelligence. “Both Ford Pro E-Telematics and Ford Pro Telematics Essentials provide fleet managers with key information and abilities through an intuitive interface – at no additional charge.”

READ MORE

Inspiration Launches as First Purpose-Built EV Solutions

Press Release

Inspiration, the first one-stop EV solutions company to both finance electric vehicles and build, own and operate the charging infrastructure enabling the EV transition, announced its launch.

To offer this comprehensive solution to fleet operators and other industry participants, Inspiration secured an initial $200 million in capital commitment from ArcLight Energy Partners Fund VII.

“We founded Inspiration to streamline the complex process of deploying a commercial EV fleet at scale by offering a one-stop, integrated solution for any and all vehicle, energy, project development and finance challenges that may arise in the process,” said Josh Green, Founder & CEO of Inspiration.

Read the press release.

Anderson Named UVeye’s VP for North American Sales

Press Release

Jamie Anderson has been named vice president for North American sales at UVeye, a rapidly expanding supplier of high-speed vehicle-inspection systems for the auto industry.

Prior to joining UVeye, Anderson was vice president for dealer sales at KAR Global. He previously had served as a divisional sales director at BacklotCars and a portfolio sales manager at Cox Automotive.

“The extensive automotive dealership and fleet sales experience that Jamie Anderson brings to UVeye from Cox, BacklotCars and KAR Global will help further accelerate the rapid growth we’re experiencing in North America,” said Amir Hever, UVeye’s co-founder and CEO.

Read the press release.

Hello 2022, Goodbye 2021

An End-of-Year Coffee Break Series Discussion

Join us on Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 2:00 PM CT for an AFLA discussion as we say Goodbye to 2022 and Hello to 2021.

Register now and wear your most festive holiday ensemble for this end-of-year virtual connection – this event is free to members but space is limited.

REGISTER NOW

EV Charging


By Ed Pierce, Contributing Editor

Every day some 65,000 public buses travel the streets of our nation’s cities.

Local transit authorities operating these fleets are coming under increased pressure to control operating costs and at the same time improve the environment by reducing or eliminating their buses’ emissions.

One option many of them are considering is the use of electric buses because several bus manufactures produce them.

Kevin Fisher, Director of Truck Electrification Systems at Momentum Dynamics of Malvern, PA, believes his company has one of the best systems to help them reach these goals: high-power, automatic electric charging systems for battery-electric buses.

READ MORE

 

Work Fleet Forum


By Tod Trousdell, Fleet Marketing Consultant/Partner, RobertsTrousdell Communications

Ever hear the one about what happens when you take 50 fleet managers and 50 fleet services providers and sequester them in a luxury surroundings for three days?

Well, if last week’s Work Truck Forum is any indication, several days of information-sharing, camaraderie and just plain fun!

First held in 2011, the Work Fleet Forum is the brainchild of Scott Goldman, an event specialist who got his start in the conference industry as a printing executive who dropped by a trade show to see where all the literature he was churning out ended up.

Enamored, he went on to work in the conference world for years before realizing there might be a better way of conducting trade shows.

READ MORE

 

The Next Big Thing?


Tred

Car makers are always looking to strike gold with the next major advancement in automotive technology.

Currently, autonomy is thought to be the next big thing. In fact, just about every auto maker is pumping unfathomable sums of money into the development of self-driving cars.

However, one often over-looked contender for the car industry’s next major tech development is augmented reality, or AR. While AR doesn’t quite have the potential to introduce a paradigm shift in the way that self-driving tech does, it’s a technology that could easily become widespread within the next five years.

Unfortunately, full autonomy (i.e., no need for a steering wheel) is still too novel to be introduced on a large scale in that time frame. AR, however, is right around the corner; let’s talk about why that’s so exciting!

READ MORE


Trending

7 Ways Biden’s Infrastructure Bill Could Change Your Future Car

Car and Driver

In addition to fixing bridges and roads, the 1039-page infrastructure bill addresses safety issues for future vehicles.

Automakers may be asked to make future car hoods and bumpers more protective, to incorporate DUI-preventing technology, and to make active-safety tech and features such as rear-seat alerts and rollaway protection into standard features.

Other markets, including Europe, are getting to drive cars equipped with adaptive driving beam headlights.

Read the article at Car and Driver.

Ford And Purdue Made A Cable That Could Charge An EV in 5 Minutes

Jalopnik

One of the biggest challenges in getting truly widespread adoption of EVs is charging time. Not everyone can charge at home and even 20 minutes is too long if we’re expecting everyone to be driving EVs in the future.

Purdue University, with the help of Ford, has invented what it thinks is part of the solution with a cable capable of charging an EV in only 5 minutes.

EV chargers with higher charging speeds do deploy liquid-cooled cables to combat the heat, but Purdue says they remove only so much heat. The university’s solution? Switch from liquid cooling to liquid phase-change cooling.

Read the article at Jalopnik.

Coming Soon: The Car Rental Return Process Goes Autonomous

MotorTrend

Using technology developed by Ford and Bosch, your next rental car may very well be able to drive itself—only without you in the car. You’ll drive up, surrender the keys to an attendant and go on your way.

The attendant will check the car in, scan the exterior for damage, the interior for forgotten items, return the key fob to the car, and then dispatch it via a mobile app. This app orders the garage infrastructure to communicate with the car, start it, and drive it to the interior cleaning station. When finished, the cleaning crew will use its app to send the car to the exterior wash rack.

Here, the automation stands to improve quality, as most rental places utilize a rack design through which the car must slowly drive to get clean. An attendant in a rush can short-change this step. From there, the car is dispatched to a parking area to await its next rental.

Read the article MotorTrend.

Uber and EVgo Expand Partnership: Discounts Incoming

InsideEVs

EVgo announced this month an expansion to its EV charging program for rideshare drivers on Uber’s platform (which has its roots in 2019). The fast charging network intends to increase its utilization through attracting more high-volume ridshare drivers through discounts and benefits.

The number of rideshare vehicles on the road is estimated at nearly one million, which is a noticeable pool of potential customers, especially since the electrification of the rideshare business progresses. Uber, which intends to become a fully zero-emission platform by 2030 in the U.S., adds its own incentives to convince drivers to use electric vehicles.

Uber is expected to get up to 50,000 Tesla cars from Hertz at discounted rates of $334 per week, including insurance and maintenance. EVgo says that it has prepared nearly 600 integrated Tesla connectors at EVgo stations across the U.S. for Tesla drivers.

Read the article at InsideEVs.

Climate Change


Electrek

COP26, the 26th meeting of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change’s Conference of Parties has ended with the successful negotiation of the Glasgow Climate Pact, which updates the landmark Paris Agreement with new climate goals.

The new Pact moves forward timelines for updating national goals for carbon reduction and for the first time explicitly calls for a “phase-down” of coal globally. pre-industrial levels.

Coal is responsible for around 40% of global CO2 emissions, making its elimination a top priority. Oil and gas, despite being responsible for the vast majority of non-coal CO2 emissions, were not mentioned in the Pact – though a number of countries and subnational entities formed the “Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance,” with a view towards keeping their reserves in the ground.

Read the article at Electrek.

 

Mergers & Acquisitions


By Ed Pierce, Contributing Editor

Because of the depth and breadth of the fleet industry products and services, we have seen that there’s a good chance that a supplier may be acquired or merge with another supplier.

At first, the potential disruptions are top of mind concerns. Pricing, service levels, billing and other systems, strategic partnerships are all critical in contributing to the smooth operation of the fleet.

Often overlooked after a merger or acquisition is the opportunity for a customer of an acquired or merged supplier to improve even a satisfactory relationship.

READ MORE

 

Drowsy Driving


GHSA

A CDC study estimated that if someone gets behind the wheel of a car having not slept in 18 hours, it’s similar to having a blood alcohol level of 0.05%. Being awake for 24 hours makes the response time more like someone driving with a BAC of 0.10%, or above the legal limit.

Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates around 1,500 people are killed every year as a result of drowsy driving. However, traffic experts say those statistics are misleading. Among the other categories where roadside deaths occur are “lane departure crashes,” “single vehicle run-off-the-road crashes,” and “impaired driver crashes,” all of which could have been done by someone who fell asleep at the wheel.

“It’s a huge problem, underreported, and we have to do more to educate people in the public about the importance of sleep,” Pam Shadel Fischer, spokesperson for the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) said.

Read the article at GHSA.





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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