Remarketers Forecast the 2020 Used Market
The outlook for the 2020 used market is positive, at least according to three remarketers from three fleet management companies.
Brian Garner, manager, ARI Remarketing Solutions; Jeff Krogen, assistant vice president of fleet strategy for Enterprise Fleet Management; and John Wuich, vice president strategic consulting services at Donlen provided their insight.
Garner said that he and his team expect the used market to continue to be mostly healthy in 2020, but he does predict a slight downturn compared to 2019.
Read the article at Merchants Fleet.
Inside Documents Show How Amazon Chose Speed Over Safety in Building Its Delivery Network
In just a few years, Amazon has built a delivery system that has disrupted a decades-old business dominated by FedEx and United Parcel Service.
Time after time, internal documents and interviews with company insiders show, Amazon officials have ignored or overlooked signs that the company was overloading its fast-growing delivery network while eschewing the expansive sort of training and oversight provided by a legacy carrier like UPS.
One such incident hit particularly close to home. Just as the company began to build its delivery network six years ago, a delivery van carrying Amazon packages struck a cyclist in a San Francisco suburb. The cyclist was Joy Covey, Amazon’s first chief financial officer. She was killed, leaving behind a young son.
Read the article at ProPublica.
VW’s Robots and ‘Battery Wagons’ Could Turn Every Garage Parking Space Into An EV Charging Station
Photo credit: Volkswagen
Volkswagen is working on an electric vehicle charging solution that uses autonomous robots and portable batteries that bring the charging equipment to the vehicle instead of depending on dedicated parking spaces.
The process begins with the driver starting the service using an app that communicates to the robot the position of the vehicle.
The robot hitches itself to one of the multiple available “battery wagons,” and navigates autonomously to the vehicle’s parking space. Using V2X communication, the robot can open the vehicle’s charging port, and connect the battery to the socket. The robot can return to its station while the vehicle is being charged and position batteries to other autos in the garage.
Read the article at Forbes.
Dodge Ram Beats Chevy Silverado For First Time
The pickup war escalated Friday when General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reported fourth-quarter and year-end sales and, for the first time, the Ram pickup has outsold the Chevrolet Silverado for the year — by 10.1%.
"This is really quite a shake-up and it's uncharted territory for the Ram because it's never been No. 2," just behind the best-selling Ford F-150, said Jeremy Acevedo, an analyst at Edmunds in Santa Monica, California.
Read the article at Detroit Free Press.
On-Demand Maintenance, Without the Downtime
On-demand maintenance from Wrench was born out of consumer frustration, and now many fleets are taking advantage of the convenience, and the ability to greatly minimize vehicle downtime.
