By Ed Pierce, Fleet Management Weekly’s Brand Acceleration

As more interest in adding EVs to fleets surges, fleet professionals are running into roadblocks on electrification. There are obstacles that have prevented some fleets from taking the plunge to electrify.

The transition to electric vehicles can be intimidating and complex for fleets who have invested time and money into optimizing an ICE fleet, notes Josh Green, founder and CEO of Inspiration Mobility.

Inspiration brings EV leasing, EV-first fleet management, and charging under one roof to accelerate and de-risk the transition to EVs.

Because Inspiration centers its services around electric vehicles, they’re able to help fleets transition to electric as quickly as possible.

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

While this year’s NTEA Work Truck Week hit an all-time attendance record of 15,790 attendees and 536 exhibitors, let’s just say the 2024 version of Work Truck Week was a little less ‘electric.’

Seemingly gone are the days when the mere mention of electrification sent many fleets – pressured by corporate ESG initiatives and government edicts – blindly into EV adoption before anyone knew how to successfully implement them.

“EVs are going to be an important part of the story…there’s no denying what a game changer they are,” said David Hayward, Global Fleet Director for ABM. “It’s just that I think it’s going to take a while for EVs to develop fully and that’s going to require a lot of different options to help fleets meet sustainability goals along the way.

For its part, Work Truck Show organizers were thrilled not only with the record attendance, but the fact that attendees came from all 50 states and 29 different countries.

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By Janice Sutton, Editor-in-Chief, Fleet Management Weekly

I am deeply saddened to announce that Fleet Management Weekly Senior Editor Michael G. Sheldrick passed away suddenly on Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Foster City, California.

Mike was my life partner for more than 18 years and an invaluable contributor to FMW’s success. He was an all-around great guy and possessed one of the keenest intellects of anyone I have ever known.

“Mike was a sought-after speaker at industry conferences and trade shows. He was a solid writer and visionary. In 1990, he authored ‘Driving While Automated’ for Scientific American, written many years before autonomous car systems were produced,” said Kevin Dennehy, editor of Location Business News and a longtime friend and colleague.

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The University of Michigan recently conducted an experiment using in-car GPS data to try and alleviate the issue of long traffic signal stops. The 18-month study is claimed to be the world’s first large-scale, cloud-based traffic signal retiming system.

It used GPS data from General Motors cars traversing Birmingham, Michigan. Researches say by using this limited data, they were able to reduce the number of stops by 20-30 percent at signalized intersections. U-M states the study “represents a major opportunity for communities to recalibrate their signal patterns at reduced costs.”

via MotorBiscuit

The cost of owning and operating a car has skyrocketed in the aftermath of the pandemic. The latest pinch for drivers is the cost of auto insurance, which is up 20.6% year over year as of February — the biggest jump in the cost of car insurance in government data going back to 1985.

Car insurance accounts for 2.5% of the basket of goods and services the government measures when calculating the overall rate of inflation and is among categories counted towards the “core” inflation measure that the Federal Reserve keeps a close eye on. Core inflation rose 0.4% over the prior month in February and 3.8% over the prior year.

via Autoblog

Volvo is rolling out a new safety feature that can warn of a crash or breakdown ahead, which could be crucial on winding roads or when there’s poor visibility. Called Accident Ahead Alert, the system relies on cloud technology and anonymously shared real-time data gathered by various national traffic management centers.

In compatible Volvo models, the driver will receive a warning about a vehicle ahead while the gap is still hundreds of feet. Compatible Volvo cars can already warn each other of slippery road conditions and other hazards, and the automaker is looking to integrate more traffic information provided by traffic management centers as the information is made available.

via Motor Authority

VinFast’s founder has announced a new arm called V-Green to build EV chargers, focused on bolstering global access while prioritizing sessions for VinFast drivers, accelerating the Vietnamese automaker’s expansion into new markets.

In addition to taking over the operations and management of VinFast’s current charging network overseas, V-Green will invest 10 trillion VND (~$404 million) over the next two years to upgrade and expand it. Those chargers will be installed and made available exclusively to VinFast drivers in Vietnam.

via Electrek

By Bryan Christiansen, CEO and founder of Limble

For today’s trucking businesses, staying on the road means balancing all the responsibilities of managing a diverse fleet of vehicles, complying with new safety standards, and mitigating business disruptions from unforeseen breakdowns.

For fleet managers to mitigate the impact of all types of downtime, they must overhaul their reactive strategy and instead embrace a proactive and preventative approach to fleet maintenance.

Predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance are two different approaches to managing equipment and assets more proactively.

Preventive and predictive maintenance processes are most useful when managed within a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) that proactively tracks and automates equipment maintenance schedules.

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Stellantis is launching MyTasks, an industry first tool for fleet managers that enables real-time communication, task assignment and status updates with drivers in the field via the vehicle’s built-in infotainment unit.

MyTasks enables fleet managers or dispatchers to assign tasks or change schedules of individual drivers via an online portal. Vehicle drivers then get an instant notification of assignments via a pop-up message in the vehicle’s infotainment screen.

“A breakthrough tool like MyTasks is the result of when we put our customers’ needs above all else,” Stellantis Chief Software Officer Yves Bonnefont said.

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By Jim Perkins, Director of Shell Fleet Solutions, USA

Fleet operators are drinking data from a firehose. From location and route metrics to data around refueling and recharging, the typical operator has thousands of inputs pouring in each day from their collective vehicles. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

The prospect of analyzing all this data, or even just part of it, threatens to overload an already high administrative burden.

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