Diversity with a Passion
John Wysseier has covered a wide range of topics in his Disruptive Leadership columns. This month, he talks to the distinct advantage of a diverse workforce.
Wysseier states, “So, for a company to compete now and in the future, it’s imperative that it has within it the ability to perceive the world from as many points of view and experiences as possible.”
Delivering exceptional customer service is a skill; with Laura Jozwiak it’s also a passion. She shares an integral key to success in Customer Service Starts with You.
Would you like to join the NAFA leadership team? There will be one seat on the Board of Directors open for election in the 2020 term. Here’s how easy it is to be considered.
Have you registered for the 2019 AFLA Conference? It is networking nirvana!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
A Call to Action — Inbound Marketing Ideas, Part One
By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer
Last month, we began our discussion of inbound marketing by addressing the three-phased start to developing an effective program – Discovery, Brainstorming Phase, and Planning Phases.
Conor Bond, marketing blogger for Wordstream, succinctly defines the value of an effective inbound marketing effort for any B2B business: “It allows you to build trust with high-quality leads who demonstrate an active interest in your product or service, particularly important if your business has a relatively long sales cycle.”
In the fleet industry, prospects generally require time to assess myriad needs, research different offerings, and weigh the pros and cons of each alternative. For suppliers then, building brand awareness and trust over that long buyer decision process is mandatory.
Merchants Fleet Expands Fleet Consulting Group
Merchants Fleet has expanded its fleet consulting group by hiring three senior fleet consultants: Chad Edmonson, Lawrence Liu, and Eric Miller.
The hires bring a combined fifty years of experience from the fleet and financial industries and are based across the country.
The expansion is the latest success in the company’s FleetIQ initiative, which is dedicated to recruiting and retaining the best talent in the fleet industry. To date, the initiative has attracted over 50 professionals to the Merchants team.
A 50-Cent ‘Kill Switch’ Curbs Security Risk Of Hackable Cars
Los Angeles-based Consumer Watchdog released a study warning that the danger of fleet-wide hacks of connected vehicles is increasing, and recommends that automakers should install a 50-cent electronic "kill switch".
Infotainment systems are connected to both the Internet and a vehicle’s CAN bus, a decades-old technology that links the engine, brakes and other key components.
‘White hat’ hackers have shown that Tesla and Jeep vehicles can be manipulated. The “kill switch” would give drivers the option to cut the connection between the internet and safety-critical features (like the brakes and the engine).
Read the article at Forbes.
Study: Carsharing Showing ‘Powerful’ Global Growth
Carsharing has shown “powerful momentum” over the last three years, expanding into another 1,000 cities worldwide, an increase of some 47 percent, according to a new report by movmi, a Canadian mobility consulting company.
The study found that as of 2019 there are 236 carsharing service operators worldwide, in 3,128 cities spread out over 59 countries. The United States ranks first with 33 different operators, followed by Italy with 27 and Russia with 21. Canada, with 20, and Germany with 21 rounded out the top five countries measured by the number of operators. The world’s top five cities, the report found, were Moscow, Berlin, Los Angeles, London and San Francisco.
The study looked at all three types of carsharing models: station-based, in which drivers pick up and return vehicles at the same location; free-floating, by which vehicles may be picked up and left off anywhere in a defined area; and peer-to-peer, through which private individuals rent out their own vehicles.
