By Ed Pierce, Contributing Editor, Fleet Management Weekly

Leaseplan Canada’s Central Regional Director of Sales and Client Services Jennifer Chapman has been a member of the Canadian fleet management community for over 20 years. In that time, she has earned both CAFM and ASE certifications and has demonstrated the ability to manage and collaborate with teams and implement processes that deliver the best solutions for her clients.

Here, she took the time to answer questions about her background and perspective about the fleet industry.

How did you land in the fleet industry? Like most people in Fleet, I kind of fell into the industry. When I went to college, there was no “automotive fleet” class or program like there is today. But once I was in the industry, I fell in love with it.

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By Alex Horowitz

If your fleet is like most, the budget is likely to be one of your foremost priorities, since it is a crucial asset for most fleets. In fact, a healthy budget can mean the difference between keeping your trucks on the road or letting them sit in the yard.

Depending on the scope of your budget, the amount of money you have available may be the most important thing you manage on a daily basis. It’s not just about spending money; it’s about prioritizing spending, managing cash flow, and maintaining a healthy budget for your business.

Prioritizing spending is an essential part of any business, but especially so for companies in the trucking industry. With so many factors to consider when deciding how to spend your fleet budget, it’s easy to get lost in the details.

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Usually, new-arrivals are already assigned to customers. This time, our shipment of vans arrived sooner than expected, presenting the unique opportunity to secure some vans for yourself.

When flexibility and speed are a priority, or when vehicles are simply not available, Kingbee provides a work-ready van rental solution. We upfit, wrap, and deliver work ready vans to any job site and we have hundreds available right now. Ask about our upfitted Transits, E-Transits, ProMasters and ProMaster Cities!

We’re here to support your fleet, not replace it. No more worrying about finding a new vehicle, scheduling with an upfitter, figuring out signage and organizing delivery.

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As electric vehicles get to skip the pump, some states are doing what they can to recapture that lost revenue. Across the nation, at least 32 different states charge EV owners additional fees for registering their vehicles.

Some states are matching their EV registration fees to the consumer price index or another inflation-related metric. Those states are California, Mississippi, Utah, Michigan, and Indiana though others could follow their lead.

A number of states are considering a different system altogether that charges drivers based on miles traveled. They aim to more closely link transportation taxes to those who use the roads most.

via Carscoops

Sweden is building the world’s first permanent electric road that will charge EVs while they’re on the move. The country has already piloted four temporary electrified roads, but this 21 km (13-mile) stretch of road is going to be permanent.

The electrified road is being built by Swedish transport administration Trafikverket. Design and construction are expected to complete in 2025. Trafikverket is considering such options as overhead power lines (ie, how trams operate); ground-level electric rails in the road that transmit energy to the EV through a conductive pickup beneath the vehicle, or road-embedded inductive coils that transfers power to the vehicles.

via Electrek

The average vehicle age in the U.S. is now at 12.5 years, which means it’s up three months from last year and at a record high. Not only that, but this last year’s growth is also the highest year-over-year growth since 2008 and 2009 during the infamous recession.

What makes the average vehicle age going up even more interesting is that electric cars helped new car sales last year.

Car companies pushing for more affordable EVs, along with federal and state tax incentives, might help more American customers into newer vehicles, which could bring the average age of cars up over the next couple years.

via The Drive

Most small cars don’t provide good protection for rear-seat passengers, the latest crash test ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show. None of the five small cars IIHS tested earns a good rating.

“These results highlight one of the key reasons that we updated our moderate overlap front crash test,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “In all the small cars we tested, the rear dummy ‘submarined’ under the seat belt, causing the lap belt to ride up onto the abdomen and increasing the risk of internal injuries.”

via IIHS

Whether you’re the CFO, Fleet Manager or Administrator, your time is valuable and there’s usually more on your daily “to do” list than available hours in the day.

Edenred Essentials, a preferred partner of Visa, understands this, and they have simplified the process of making critical card control changes.

Edenred Essentials offers quick action buttons that require a mere click of the mouse and allow you to activate your card, add a new card, report a lost or stolen card and many other important actions.

Apply here today and they will waive the first six months of card fees.

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By Richard Mallek, Business Development Manager, FLD Remarketing

Challenges now facing the fleet industry seem so persistent that FLD Remarketing started wondering: Just how is all of this disruption affecting fleet?

And, exactly which of these challenges are causing the most problems for our industry?

From questions about gas prices and inflation, to queries about supply chains, raw materials and shortages, the poll provided a snapshot of industry sentiment during one of the most critical and unpredictable periods in fleet’s history.

While it would likely take a crystal ball to predict where the industry will be in a year, we believe the fleet poll – and the valuable insights we received – can go a long way towards helping our customers both better plan – and prepare – for what’s ahead.

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By Fleet Management Weekly Staff

While there are many safety programs on the market designed to lower driver risk, one company is approaching it in a new way: Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Nauto CEO Stefan Heck believes that the company is well-positioned to extend the driver safety envelope with a real-time, AI-enabled driver and fleet safety platform. “By analyzing billions of data points from over three billion AI-analyzed miles, our machine learning algorithms continuously improve and can predict and improve driver behavior before events happen,” he says.

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