An E-Lesson in Navigating Situations of Civil Unrest
Protests. Police stops. Civil unrest. Are your fleet drivers aware of these hazards and prepared to make smart journey choices during these troubling times? Driving Dynamics has a new e-lesson to help make sure that they are.
Microsoft Power BI Technology Driving Fleet Insights for Merchants Fleet Clients
Merchants Fleet has integrated Microsoft Power BI into its leading software platform TotalView®. Merchants clients can now consolidate millions of data points into easily digestible visualizations to drive operational efficiency and fleet safety.
Users have the ability to customize dashboard content, empowering fleet professionals to manage and lower their total cost of vehicle ownership and monitor fleet safety by offering easy-to-understand insights into driver behavior, overall spend, and common fleet operational areas like inventory, fuel, and maintenance. The integration allows fleet management professionals to visualize trends and produce reports with deeper insights. Fleet professionals can now spend their time getting answers to key questions to support effective decisions.
Fleet management is often one of an organization’s largest business expenses, and the importance of data in the quest to manage vehicle operation costs has never been greater.
“In today’s business environment, it’s critical for our clients to make effective management decisions quickly in order to lower their vehicle operation costs,” said Jeanine L. Charlton, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology and Digital Officer at Merchants Fleet. “With Power BI, they can do this seamlessly. We’re excited and proud to have integrated the gold standard in analytics capabilities into TotalView.”
For more information about TotalView, visit merchantsfleet.com.
Biden Administration Promises an EV era, new World for the Auto Industry
At 12:00 p.m. ET on Jan. 20, Joe Biden was officially sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. With the newly minted administration, Biden now has the power to iron out and execute big changes for the automotive industry, transportation ecosystems and the overall US infrastructure.
The Biden administration aims to restore the full federal tax credit for electric vehicle purchases, though we'll likely see other changes to the program along the way. In addition to giving automakers like General Motors and Tesla tax credits once again -- the two exhausted theirs at the start of 2020 -- the Biden administration will also pursue direct-consumer rebates to encourage American car buyers to swap out fossil-fuel-powered cars for zero-emission vehicles.
However, Biden wants the federal government to set an example. As part of the administration's Buy American campaign, Biden plans to include new government fleet vehicle purchases in a $400 billion procurement investment for American-made goods. This should encourage US businesses to adopt electric fleet vehicles, as well, and will include a proposal to convert all 500,000 US school buses to battery power by the end of this decade.
Read the article at MSN
Electric Car Batteries with Five-Minute Charging Times Produced
Batteries capable of fully charging in five minutes have been produced in a factory for the first time, marking a significant step towards electric cars becoming as fast to charge as filling up petrol or diesel vehicles.
Electric vehicles are a vital part of action to tackle the climate crisis but running out of charge during a journey is a worry for drivers. The new lithium-ion batteries were developed by the Israeli company StoreDot and manufactured by Eve Energy in China on standard production lines.
“The number one barrier to the adoption of electric vehicles is no longer cost, it is range anxiety,” said Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot. “You’re either afraid that you’re going to get stuck on the highway or you’re going to need to sit in a charging station for two hours. But if the experience of the driver is exactly like fuelling [a petrol car], this whole anxiety goes away.”
Read the article at The Guardian.
FMW Launches Podcasts — This Week: Paul Lauria
FMW is excited to debut our first podcast in this publication. We proudly feature Paul Lauria, president and co-founder of Mercury Associates talking with Ted Roberts about the state of today’s fleet industry. Mercury offers consulting services to a wide variety of fleets, both public and private, giving Lauria a somewhat unique perspective.
If telematics is your beat, you will not want to miss Donald Dunphy's interview with Colin Sutherland on Geotab’s new GO9+ upgrade.
Finally, we wish Ron Breslow, a true gentleman who enjoyed a 40-year career with FLD, a long and happy retirement. We love the story of a young kid from Philly looking for his life’s work. He sure found it!
Stay safe, everyone!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
