By Dave Bean, Associate Editor

A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that rear-end crash rates in Washington and Oregon dropped significantly when laws went into place banning any holding of cellphones by drivers, even when vehicles are stopped.

California, however, did not experience this same downturn.

In 2017, all three Western states expanded laws that more specifically spelled out the dos and don’ts of cellphone usage by drivers. So why didn’t California’s rear-end crash rate improve?

While Washington and Oregon explicitly placed a total ban on holding cellphones while behind-the-wheel, California’s law was more ambiguous, leaving open the possibility of drivers using their phones while stopped at a light or idling in traffic.

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For any tradesmen or small delivery fleet owner, service vans are a key component in organizing your trade business and an essential element for your day-to-day operations.

Your company’s van is a core business purchase that helps defines the kind of work you carry out, the type of customers you serve, and the sort of employees you hire.

A versatile and cost-effective addition to your trade business, service vans help you carry your tools and workers to and from job sites, serve as a mobile office and offer safe equipment storage space.

If you are thinking about purchasing a service van, here are six advantages to consider:

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FedEx Office, in collaboration with Ford Pro, is piloting ten Ford E-Transit vans across its FedEx SameDay City network as part of the goal to transition its entire pickup and delivery fleet to zero tailpipe emission vehicles by 2040 in alignment with the overall fleet electrification goal for FedEx.

The vehicles are being tested in nine markets coast-to-coast to assess performance in different road and weather conditions: Chandler, Ariz., Newark, Calif., Boca Raton, Fla., Clearwater, Fla., Plantation, Fla., Chicago, Ill., Madison Heights, Mich., Allen, Texas and Frisco, Texas.

The Ford E-Transit has a targeted range of 126 miles on a single charge, making it an ideal vehicle for local courier delivery. FedEx Office has installed charging stations dedicated to these vehicles at each van’s home location and will supplement with remote charging stations in each market as needed to meet charging needs along courier routes.

By reducing emissions and waste, replacing older technologies and vehicles, and revolutionizing facilities and packaging, FedEx Office is taking significant action to advance its environmental stewardship.

via Business Wire

August 9, 2022 – Ford is reopening ordering for the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, with a few updates including the base battery option.

It picks up 10 more miles for a total estimated range of 240 miles.

Depending on the trim level and configuration, the F-150 Lightning has increased in price between $6,000 and $8,500. The base Pro model now starts at $48,769, counting the $1,795 destination charge.

via Autoblog

August 4, 2022 – Only three of seven midsize cars tested earn good or acceptable ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s updated side crash test. The Subaru Outback is the only midsize car to earn a good rating.

Overall, this initial group of midsize cars did not perform as well as the first batches of small and midsize SUVs evaluated earlier. One reason could be their lower ride height.

“With vehicles that sit lower to the ground, the striking barrier hits higher on the door panel,” says IIHS President David Harkey. “That potentially puts sedans and wagons at a disadvantage in this evaluation but reflects what happens in a real-world crash when these vehicles are struck by a higher-riding pickup or SUV.”

via IIHS HLDI

August 8, 2022 – The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning’s 15.5-inch touchscreen is full of features and apps designed to make life both easier and more fun.

Most pickup truck owners know how much payload they can haul in their vehicle’s beds but don’t know how much their load actually weighs. The onboard scales take guesswork off the table, informing you just how much of the electric Ford’s 1,606 pounds of payload you’re eating up.

The Smart Hitch helps ensure you don’t have too much tongue weight on the truck and helps walk you through safety checks. The Towing function lets you create a profile for your trailer; it uses your trailer’s length, width, height, and brake type to calculate how much your towing will affect your range.

via MotorTrend

There’s a human cost behind all those cardboard boxes showing up at your door every day, and with record-breaking heat waves around the globe, package delivery drivers are suffering through inhumane working conditions.

UPS is unusual in the package-delivery industry; most competitors have air-conditioned delivery vehicles. Retrofitting the familiar company-owned brown trucks with A/C would be time-consuming and expensive, but it’s something UPS employees and their union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Package Division, have been requesting for years.

Currently, the company has no plans to install A/C in its delivery vehicles, and drivers have to individually submit a request to have a fan installed.

via Jalopnik

The Senate has voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act.

The main portion of the bill is the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, which is renewed starting in January 2023 and will last a decade – until the end of 2032.

The new credit makes quite a few changes, the largest of which is to remove that cap at the start of 2023. Now, all manufacturers have access to unlimited credits as long as they fulfill the other requirements of the bill.

Also, the credit can be applied upfront at the point of sale if purchased from a dealer, rather than needing to file for it on your taxes in the following April – a welcome change.

New requirements include that the cars must be assembled in North America and that materials and “critical minerals” in the battery must come from the US or a country with a free trade agreement with the US.

via Electrek

By Ed Dubens, CEO/Founder of eDriving

The driver risk management and safety industry has long encouraged messaging centered around changing driving behavior to reduce incidents and collisions in an effort to reduce the growing number of serious collision-related injuries and fatalities.

At the same time, the world at large has largely accepted road traffic collisions and fatalities as an inevitable side effect of sharing the roads and an acceptable price for the freedom driving affords.

But, what if a future with zero collision-related injuries and fatalities was within our power to create?

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By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketing Consultant

Google Analytics has been the centerpiece of website performance reporting for years.

Now, however, significant changes are underway with the launch of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which brings much more insight into website performance through AI to achieve greater visitor insight, predictive traffic capability, and more meaningful metrics than ever before.

The new Google Analytics 4 application takes a quantum leap forward in performance tracking to supplement many of the key Google Analytics features.

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