By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor
Hans Damen, the veteran international fleet consultant, and FleetVision partner, has formed a new partnership, Fleet & Driver Care, with Eelco Van de Wiel, president of Fleet Insurance, a Netherlands-based consultancy.
Fleet & Driver Care has recently introduced Insurance Plus, a program that allows large multinationals to identify cost savings in their insurance programs and reinvest these savings into driver behavior programs, which, they say, will yield substantial savings. As of now, Insurance Plus is available only in Europe, but Damen says that the company is looking at the option of expanding to the U.S. “At the moment, we are close to an agreement with a large European multinational."
The blistering pace of recent car sales has been one of the U.S. economy’s more bullish indicators. There’s new evidence that the auto industry is even hotter than many thought.
The car world tends to focus on units sold, which is to say the total number of vehicles rolling out of dealerships during any given period. This year, Americans are on pace to buy about 16.4 million vehicles, a 6 percent increase from 2013 and the most purchased in the nation since 2006.
Here’s the development no one is mentioning: Americans are spending a whole lot more money per car.
Voters on Tuesday across the country rejected speed cameras, higher gas taxes and funds for new light rail as automakers prepare for a new Republican controlled Congress.
Automakers are bracing for auto safety legislation next year in the wake of a series of high-profile recalls linked to defective General Motors cars and Takata airbags — and a reform bill could be attached to a highway re-authorization bill next spring.
In the wake of a fatal accident that nearly claimed the life of comedian Tracy Morgan earlier this year, tired truckers received considerably scrutiny from Congress and safety advocates. On Monday, AAA released a new study that served as a reminder that it's not just tired truckers that pose a threat on U.S. roads. It's the rest of us too.
Drowsy driving is involved in more than 21 percent of all fatal accidents, according to the organization's Foundation for Traffic Safety, which says that, to this point, the number of traffic deaths pinned on tired drivers has been significantly underreported.
READ MORE to learn about the study.
PepsiCo has kept 55,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by reducing fuel consumption in its transportation fleet by 24 percent since 2010, and is looking to further reduce fuel consumption for its trucks and vehicles, according to Green Century Capital Management, which has been in discussions with Pepsi about its climate change efforts.
In addition, Green Century says Pepsi has outlined several new initiatives to reduce the carbon intensity of its trucking fleet, which involve working with suppliers to seek lower carbon fuel alternatives.
READ MORE about about the plan.