By Fleet Management Weekly Staff

Fuel cards have long been accepted by fleets to manage fuel costs across an array of drivers and vehicles. However, fuel cards have changed dramatically over the years. Traditional fuel cards came with certain limitations that stymied control.

According to Rush Akin, RoadFlex Chief Revenue Officer, modern fuel cards like RoadFlex address many of those problems, ensuring the utmost control over expenses.

With modern fuel management platforms like RoadFlex, fleets can manage fleet costs in one platform while preventing fuel card misuse and fuel theft.

“Our proactive Fuel Risk Management Platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to extract valuable insights from a fleet’s fuel expense data,” explains Akin. “By spotting anomalies in fuel expenditures, our platform allows fleets to catch fuel card misuse as it happens.”

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By Tod Trousdell, Marketing Consultant

This week we highlight Karyna Zarate of Inframark, a water solutions company with over 3,000 employees and a fleet of 1500 light duty trucks. An industry veteran who’s worn many hats, Karyna’s opinion is most valuable.

What about the fleet industry keeps you up at night?
Protecting our employees is our top priority. There are just so many factors that contribute to the degree of risk when our employees drive, and while I am proud of our safety solution, I am constantly asking if we are doing enough.

Looking at the industry today, what excites you most about fleet?
What excites me the most about fleet is that it fosters a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. No matter what challenges we face, fleet embraces the opportunities to develop the necessary skills to overcome them. 

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By Fleet Management Weekly Staff

EV Realty is tackling the EV infrastructure problem head-on by focusing not just on individual fleets but also on the bigger picture of electrification. The company develops, deploys, and owns EV charging hubs capable of simultaneously powering multiple commercial fleet operations.

These Powered Properties™ are multi-fleet, multi-use charging hubs capable of servicing many local fleets simultaneously. EV Realty handles every aspect of building, managing, and maintaining these hubs.

“The challenge for many fleets is a lack of background in energy development,” says Jim Ludovico, Chief Customer Officer of EV Realty. “They don’t have resources aimed at dealing with utilities, dealing with local planning boards, nor experience with charging infrastructure. We resolve those challenges for the fleets that are in operational proximity to our hubs.”

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Designing for walkability is not just about roads. The design of vehicles — everything from their size and shape to their software — has a profound effect on the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users.

Street design changes that reduce speeds of left-turning vehicles at intersections (through left-turn traffic calming treatments) or right-turning vehicles (through a decreased corner radius) can similarly reduce the severity of turning crashes. Strategies such as removing parking near intersections, a practice known as “daylighting”, and leading pedestrian intervals, which allow pedestrians to enter crosswalks at intersections before vehicles are given a green light, can enhance pedestrian visibility for drivers of all vehicle types.

via IIHS

The best plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) for 2024 offer an acceptable amount of all-electric driving range. Some of these plug-in hybrids could perhaps cover your work commute without burning gasoline. However, that gas engine is there when needed, so a cross-country drive could be accomplished without charging up.

For this list of “affordable” plug-in hybrids, we decided on a price of no more than $50,000. This price cap excludes some PHEVs that offer substantially more all-electric range, but those vehicles can cost upwards of $100,000 in some cases and are not considered mainstream. Which affordable, mainstream 2024 PHEVs can get you the most electric miles on a fully charged battery?

via InsideEVs

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to reconsider the rule issued in April requiring nearly all new cars and trucks by 2029 to have advanced automatic emergency braking systems.

The requirement adopted in April that all cars and trucks would be able to stop and avoid striking vehicles in front of them at up to 62 miles per hour is “practically impossible with available technology.”

The group said NHTSA’s stringent requirements at higher driving speeds will result in vehicles “automatically applying the brakes far in advance of what a typical driver and others on the road would expect” resulting in rear-end collisions.

via Reuters

Britain’s Xcite Car Leasing recently analyzed fuel costs compiled by GlobalPetrolPrices which showed that drivers in the U.S. pay the least in fuel costs worldwide.

Xcite is a British firm and was most interested in comparing the United Kingdom to the U.S. and the rest of Europe. It’s a good reminder that the United States, which among other things is the world’s biggest petroleum producer, is better off than many/most places, if not all. The United States joins Turkey and Bulgaria as the three countries in the survey with the cheapest global fuel prices.

via Autoblog

Over the past 25 years, more than 970 children have died of heatstroke, because they were left or became trapped in a hot car. It’s important for everyone to understand these tragedies can happen to anyone – but are always preventable.

Always lock your car when you aren’t using it. Even if you don’t have a child of your own, a child in your neighborhood could get into your unlocked vehicle.

If you see a child alone in a locked car, act immediately and call 911. A child in distress due to heat should be removed from the vehicle as quickly as possible and rapidly cooled.

-via NHTSA

By Fleet Management Weekly Staff

Predictive Coaching uses telematics data to identify the risky driving behaviors unique to each driver and assigns short, interactive training lessons to address the issue quickly and efficiently.

The program looks for risky driving behavior such as speeding, harsh braking, or harsh cornering, then assigns a relevant training lesson on a laptop or mobile device.

It’s a quick, automated, and cost-effective way to address the problem of risky driver behavior. We interviewed Mauricio Berber, President of Predictive Coach, to learn more about how the program works and what kind of fleets could most benefit from the software.

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By Fleet Management Weekly Staff

We spoke with Mir Baqar, Senior Director in the Ridecell Product Management group, to learn more about the company’s product and how it benefits fleets.

Whereas most fleet technology companies offer a one-size-fits-all product, Ridecell works with its clients to tailor its product to their needs.

Ridecell’s Fleet Transformation Cloud integrates data and churns usable insights, digital vehicle control, and an automated workflow.

“Our client-centric focus gives us a long-term relationship with our customers and a deeper and broader understanding of the [fleet] industry. We can see how it’s evolving and what the needs and trends are, so we’re ready to help our customers better fight their challenges.”

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