6 Fleet Insights You Need to Know for 2018
By Suzanne Benzion, Director, Strategic Consulting, Element Fleet Management
Throughout 2017, Element’s Strategic Consulting team uncovered some note-worthy trends for our customers, and provided actionable insights against these trends.
The data told some pretty compelling stories around innovative ways to maximize productivity, improve driver safety and satisfaction and reduce overall fleet cost. Here’s an overview of the themes that surfaced in 2017, along with trends we’re monitoring in 2018.
What happened in 2017?
European Tires – Understanding the Basics
By Christopher Lyon, Director of Fleet Relations, NTEA
P-, Euro- and LT-metric tires
As truck manufacturers continue to bring Euro-style vans into the North American market, it is important to understand subtle differences in components that can have significant influence on operations.
As safety is an important mission within your organization, it’s your job as fleet manager to provide employees and customers with safe, compliant vehicles and equipment. This includes understanding many aspects of vehicle design and OEM specification replacement parts.
Tire replacement is one of the easiest issues to overlook. As a fleet manager, you’ve likely standardized many components within your operations as this reduces downtime and inventory overhead. Tires, however, can be misunderstood due to labeling differences between Euro-style and North American tires.
How Good is ‘Good Enough’ When Bringing Autonomous Vehicles Onto the Road?
The fatal Uber crash has many people questioning the safety and legalities surrounding autonomous vehicles - who is responsible?
Because autonomous vehicle manufacturers have proclaimed the safety benefits of self-driving vehicles, the public has very high expectations - autonomous vehicles will be superior to human drivers, despite the deaths they may cause.
"Autonomous vehicles are supposed to be safer than human drivers—this has been sold to us as their principal benefit. Given that, isn’t it only fair to hold AVs to higher standards than humans? If that were true, we might think this crash is actually worse than if it had been the result of a human driver."
Read the article at Slate.
FleetVision Strengthens Consulting Team
FleetVision, the fleet and mobility consultancy arm within TÜV SÜD Group, has strengthened its team of advisors with two experienced professionals who bring a wealth of fleet management, change management and procurement knowledge to the business.
Alain Duez joins the consultancy having spent almost 27 years in fleet and procurement director roles with leading business consultant and professional services provider Accenture.
At the same time, Wim Buzzi has also joined FleetVision as an independent consultant from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, where he was in charge of relationship and business development with rental companies, fleet owners and corporate clients in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Workplace Stress is Killing Us
According to Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, workplace stress -- the result of conditions like long hours, a lack of health insurance, little autonomy on the job, high job demands -- don't just hit productivity or damage morale. They're killing us.
Pfeffer's new book is built around a 2015 paper that said more than 120,000 deaths a year and roughly 5 to 8 percent of annual health care costs may be attributable to how U.S. companies manage their workforces.
"It's pretty clear that the human costs -- in terms of death -- and the economic costs, in terms of elevated health care spend, are quite substantial," Pfeffer said in a recent interview about his new book, "Dying for a Paycheck."
Read the article at The Washington Post.
