COVID-19 Response: Sixt Deploys Idle Vehicles to Support Safe Movement of Key Workers
By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor
With nearly 300,000 vehicles in its worldwide fleet, Sixt is one of the largest car rental companies in the world. Presently, thousands of those are idle because of COVID-19.
As part of a program to contribute to efforts to remediate the crisis, Sixt is providing rental cars, at cost, to support the safe movement of key workers to and from the workplace in the U.S. and Europe.
We recently spoke with Stuart Donnelly, Sixt’s Global Sales Director, about the company’s program:
Wholesale Prices See Historic Fall in First Half of April
Declines in Manheim Market Report (MMR) prices accelerated over the last four weeks, with the first two weeks of April seeing a decline of 4.8% in the Three-Year-Old Index.
Wholesale used vehicle prices (on a mix-, mileage-, and seasonally adjusted basis) decreased 11.8% comparing the first 15 days of April to the month of March.
The path forward depends on the status of the pandemic and the economic response, neither of which is certain. While the decline in wholesale used vehicle prices so far in April is historic, retail prices are holding steady. When the Manheim Index fell 10.5% over two months in the fall of 2008, the horizon looked bleak. Yet vehicle values fully recovered after just seven more months.
Read the article at Cox Automotive.
4 Signs That Now May Be a Good Time to Start a Motor Pool
By Ed Smith, President and CEO, Agile Fleet
Are you thinking about starting a car sharing initiative within your fleet organization?
There are lots of good reasons to share vehicles: reduced costs, improved service, unburdening staff, unstaffed dispatching. You probably already know that your organization can save tens of thousands – even hundreds of thousands of dollars -- by sharing vehicles, reducing underused vehicles, and automating fleet management processes.
But if you've put it off, here are some signs you may want to do it sooner than later.
Wrench Brings Contactless Maintenance & Repair to Fleets
The mobile maintenance and repair company brings its contactless service consumers love to fleets.
What: Wrench, the mobile vehicle maintenance and repair solution that brings dealer-quality service directly to consumers across the U.S., announced it is offering its full contactless services to fleets to keep them clean and return them to the roads faster during these trying times.
“Many fleets are categorized as an essential service during the COVID-19 pandemic delivering vital items across the nation to people in need, and we’re honored to support their efforts to ensure they maximize uptime and continue operating,” said Ed Petersen, CEO of Wrench.
How to Protect Your Fleet from Telematics Liability
By Mark Boada, Executive Editor
More and more fleets are turning to telematics for the host of benefits they provide, from reducing fuel costs to improving driver productivity and safety.
But telematics also has a potential downside: greater vulnerability to accident liability when the data proves a fleet driver is at fault.
It says here, however, that the benefits of using telematics generally far outweigh the risks. But the question remains: is there any way for fleets to protect themselves in these cases? Well, it turns out there is.
That’s the point that emerged from a recent NAFA webinar on the topic, “The Use of Telematics Data in Motor Vehicle Accident Litigation.” The presenters were Clifford Mendelsohn and Ryan Winkler, two attorneys from the Cleveland law firm of Tucker Ellis, LLP with extensive experience defending fleets in accident lawsuits.
