By Dan Belknap, Head of Product Management, Wheels

Fleet operations feel the weight of today’s macroeconomic environment. Even if you’ve managed through turbulent conditions before, the scale and speed of current shifts make proactive planning more essential than ever.

Traditional budgeting approaches assumed a level of stability that has become less dependable. Annual forecasts that once served as reliable roadmaps can now become outdated within months.

Today’s tools provide insights that evolve with changing conditions that provide more dynamic, data-driven fleet management information. Through Wheels’ FleetView, our fleet management platform, you can access tools designed to support smarter planning.

With these insights in hand, Wheels can help you navigate today’s cost pressures with the most flexible and creative funding structures in the industry.

READ MORE

Contributed by Susan Hipp, Executive Director NETS and Lynda Morrissey, Operations Manager NETS

The 2025 NETS Strength IN Numbers® Fleet Safety Benchmark Conference brought together some of the most influential voices in transportation safety, leadership, and culture.

Held October 7-9, the event united corporate and government fleet professionals, safety managers, insurers, and technology innovators to share strategies that drive measurable results, and to reaffirm a shared mission: saving lives on and off the road.

NETS’ Strength IN Numbers® Benchmark Report remains a cornerstone of the conference. The program gathers data from socially responsible companies that share crash, injury, and fatality metrics to help identify best practices.

Across three days of insights and innovation, one truth resonated: safety culture must be lived, not laminated. The NETS community continues to model what it means to go beyond compliance, creating workplaces where drivers are empowered.

READ MORE

By Ed Pierce, Fleet Management Weekly Editor, Former ARI (Holman) VP of Marketing

Predictive analytics is the next big step beyond traditional telematics. It can help fleets cut costs, improve uptime, and boost productivity. But getting there takes some planning, especially if you work with multiple telematics or maintenance vendors.

Fleet managers today have no shortage of data. Every vehicle, driver, and trip generates information — from telematics and GPS to fuel cards, maintenance records, and driver behavior reports.

The key is turning that data into foresight — knowing what will happen next so you can plan smarter and spend less.

Predictive analytics doesn’t have to be complex or expensive. Start small, pick the proper use case, and work closely with your vendors.

READ MORE

Artificial intelligence is becoming harder to avoid, and it’s now steering its way into cars, whether you asked for it or not.

Last month, Ford CEO Jim Farley said AI assistants are “very important” and every customer should have one in their car. He went on to suggest their version would transcend the typical voice assistant and be something you can talk to like a companion.

Ford’s not alone in this effort as a number of companies have been rolling out AI-powered assistants. Perhaps the best known example is Amazon’s Alexa+, which is billed as their “smartest, most proactive AI assistant yet.”

via CarScoops

Data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) shows a 23% decrease in vehicle thefts in the United States for the first half of 2025. NICB reports that this could make it the second year in a row there’s been a drop in car thefts.

The bad news? If you own a car that’s on this list of America’s most stolen cars, you’re still on car thieves’ most wanted list.

Some of America’s most popular cars make the unfortunate cut year after year, for obvious reasons. Others from brands like Hyundai and Kia, which had key security vulnerabilities exposed a few years ago, still need owners to stay extra vigilant.

via Autoblog

Automakers building cars in Canada and Mexico are feeling the heat from new US trade rules. The pressure isn’t just political; it’s also financial.

Fresh data suggests that many of those vehicles contain less US-made material than required to qualify for available tariff breaks, and it’s landing them with huge bills.

Passenger cars imported from Canada and Mexico were hit with an average tariff rate of 19 percent in July, according to figures from the US International Trade Commission. That hints that automakers are struggling to prove that enough of their cars are actually made with American parts. It could be that there isn’t sufficient US content in the cars to achieve greater tariff reductions.

via CarScoops

Following a lawsuit brought against the California Air Resources Board (CARB) by major heavy truck manufacturers over California’s emissions requirements, CARB has struck back with fresh lawsuit of its own alleging that the manufacturers violated the terms of the 2023 Clean Truck Partnership agreement to sell cleaner vehicles.

Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo Group North America sued the California Air Resources Board in federal court this past August.

The main point of the lawsuit was that, because the incoming Trump Administration rolled back EPA policies that had previously given individual states the right to set their own environmental and emissions laws, the truck makers shouldn’t have to honor the deals signed with individual states.

via Electrek

By National Grid

With the first phase of fleet electrification complete, you may be asking yourself “I’ve chosen a site and contacted my utility – now what?” Well after planning, you’ll need to build out the necessary charging and vehicle capabilities.

Across the country, many utilities have infrastructure programs in place to support the infrastructure necessary for EV fleets. These programs are commonly called “Make-Ready” and can often cover up to 100% of grid-side and customer-side project costs.

National Grid currently offers funding up to 100% of infrastructure costs associated with installing EV charging stations as well as tiered EV charger rebates for eligible customers. To learn more about the next phase of the process, continue reading.

READ MORE

By Ed Pierce, Editor, Fleet Management Weekly

In just a few years, tariffs have shifted from being a political talking point to a real and practical concern for fleet professionals. They now impact everything from vehicle buying and leasing to maintenance, driver safety, and remarketing.

What’s changed is how often these added costs appear in your purchasing decisions. Fleet managers who focused on delivery schedules or warranty coverage need to consider: What happens if this supplier’s products are hit with new trade duties?

The main theme is planning. The more your team can forecast costs under different trade scenarios, the more resilient your operation becomes when prices or policies shift suddenly.

READ MORE

By Todd Heemsoth, Division President of Automotive, Sasser Inc.

When I joined Union Leasing in 2017, I didn’t set out to just run another fleet management company. I joined a team that believed in doing things differently, in building a business that lasts.

That belief runs deep here because we’re part of Sasser Inc., a business that’s been around for nearly a century. That long-term mindset is what makes us unique from others in the fleet industry today.

At Union, people genuinely like working together. We’ve built a workplace that encourages collaboration, celebrates milestones, and includes everyone. We’ve been certified as a Great Place to Work and ranked sixth on Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Chicago.

READ MORE