Michele Cunningham is Senior Vice President, Strategic Development, at PHH Arval. She is responsible for developing and implementing the company's "go-to-market" strategy, with responsibility for Marketing and Communications, Sales Operation and Administration, and management of the PHH Arval Global Alliance. Michele also serves as Vice Chair of the Editorial Advisory Council at NAFA Fleet Management Association.
In this interview, Michele talks about the company's recent expansion into material handling equipment and the exceptional value that brings to vehicle fleet customers who manage this equipment. We also ask for her insight into the growing role of telematics data in fleet automization.
By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor
GE Capital’s annual survey of middle-market companies — those with sales between $10 million to $1 billion — found a generally confident outlook. As a result, they plan to expand their fleets and their use of alternative-fuel vehicles. The 400+ respondents included companies with local, national, and global reach. The majority of the companies surveyed were private — only 11% were public.
Over 25% plan to increase the size of their fleet in the coming year, and more than half plan to incorporate alternative-fuel vehicles in their fleet in the same period. And the switch to AFVs is even more pronounced: in the next two years, nearly two-thirds plan on adding AFVs and within five years, over 90%.
By Bruce Horan, Director, PHH Onboard®
New research shows that 20 percent of the North American fleet market has implemented telematics. While that number may seem low for a technology that’s been in the market for over 10 years, I believe it will double to 40 percent, reaching critical mass, relatively soon. Today, customers are empowered when they see telematics as a viable tool to gain deeper insight and visibility into fleet operations and to make strategic business decisions that go well beyond GPS tracking and vehicle routing. It enables companies to enhance their fleets’ performance and value. In fact, telematics is becoming increasingly tied to logistics throughout the supply chain.
Ford's Project Mobii is an experimental new app-based service that would allow an owner to remotely monitor what's happening inside their vehicle, using five separate cameras mounted inside the passenger compartment.
Among other things, it might allow parents to keep an eye on a teenage driver. And the system could be programmed to block a thief from hotwiring the ignition and driving away -- perhaps even quietly sending an alert to the police. There's also the possibility that Ford could use the Mobii technology to better understand how motorists use its vehicles.
When it comes to fleet telematics, GPS Insight offers a dashboard that's highly configurable by the end user. It's very visual, it's easy to use, and you can make it as simple or as complex as you'd like.