Understand the Nature of Your Relationships at Work
Research shows that when people have a good relationship with their leaders, they’re more motivated, they perform better, and they’re more likely to go the extra mile to support their team. Conversely, when people don’t get along with their leaders, they tend to retaliate against them and the organization.
Across our studies, we found that employees who rated their relationship with their leader as highly ambivalent performed worse in their jobs (as rated by their leader) than those who rated the relationship as low in ambivalence.
"Because leaders tend to think their relationships with employees are more positive than employees believe them to be, the first step is to try to understand how others view the relationship. Leaders can ask employees specifically how they feel about their relationship, whether they think there’s enough trust, and whether they feel supported and listened to."
Read the article at Harvard Business Review.
Are Lower Insurance Rates Enough to Encourage Automated Vehicle Ownership?
Even if consumers are going to get a lower insurance premium, they aren’t quite ready to hand over the wheel and own an automated vehicle.
Auto insurers take many factors into account when pricing a policy for an individual customer and are going to have to keep a close eye on customer attitudes toward automation and evaluate the potential to incorporate features into underwriting policies.
"According to a recent J.D. Power pulse survey, 60% of customers say there are benefits to owning an automated vehicle. While “lower insurance premiums” is a listed benefit of owning an automated vehicle, only 18% of consumers say that would play a factor in their decision to purchase one."
Read the article at J.D. Power.
The Ins and Outs of Launching Your Own Amazon Fleet
Want to start your own Amazon delivery business? With an initial investment of as little as $10,000 you can get leased vans, insurance, gas cards and training to launch your own delivery fleet potentially earning $300,00 a year.
The catch? There's no guarantee that you'll make a $300,000 profit – or any profit, for that matter.
The costs of working with Amazon are so substantial that independent delivery companies are increasingly turning away Amazon's business, says Peter Schlactus, co-founder of the Association for Delivery Drivers. The reason: Amazon requires that delivery companies hire their drivers as employees, rather than work with independent contractors.
Read the article at CBS News MoneyWatch.
App Users Provide Live Traffic Status
Waze’s incident reporting feature looks to be coming to Google Maps, as some users have spotted on their Android apps. The feature shows road work, the time an accident was reported, and whether a user is confident a slowdown is still active.
Waze is specifically designed for drivers, while Google Maps is used for walking, public transit, and biking directions in addition to searches for local business information and recommendations.
"Last month, Google’s in-house start-up incubator Area 120, made a Waze-like competitor for the New York City subway system that similarly lets users report delays and accidents. Since the app was launched, a fair amount of people started to actively report incidents, indicating that people might be willing to flag traffic problems on any app and not just Waze."
Read the article at The Verge.
Not All Rear-View Cameras Are Completely Safe, A Fleet Manager Finds
Gary Lentsch, CAFM, fleet manager for the Eugene Water & Electricity Board, discovered a problem when he tried to meet the new federal regulation that requires vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or less to be equipped with rear-view cameras.
What he found was that many of the devices on the market don’t meet the regulation's requirements for full rearward visibility.
