New Law Bans Recalled Vehicles from Rental Fleets
Years in the making and once the point of contentious debate and delay, the Safe Rental Car Act took effect today.
The new law, passed late last year, bans rental companies with fleets exceeding 35 vehicles from using vehicles that are subject to recall until they’re fixed.The ban is now in effect since has Congress has codified the prohibition in federal law.
“When a family picks up a rental car on vacation, they should be able to expect it is free of any known safety defect,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement.
Amazing Teams Make All the Difference at Wheels
Wheels’ new Vice President of Client Relations strongly believes in what his company has to offer - and that was a key reason he moved from Sales into his new position.
A Steely Focus on CX
In his column this month, fleet marketing expert Ed Pierce turns to the subject of customer experience. He says, “Increasingly, firms succeed by concentrating more efforts on providing value beyond the sale, with the aim of turning a client into a promoter — an advocate who is willing to refer people to and provide references for your business.”
This brought to mind a disagreeable experience we had at London Heathrow several weeks ago and on the long flight back to California talked about how nicely and perfunctorily the airline representatives could have handled a perfectly routine transaction. Instead, it was a trying exchange and we walked away from the desk set to loathe the in-flight experience -- the very CX that was undoubtedly carefully crafted by the airline -- before we even stepped foot on the plane. A steely focus on CX is critical.
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
The Best Tech to Prevent Distracted Driving
While everyone knows they shouldn’t use a smartphone behind the wheel, one in every four crashes still involves someone texting, snapping, sharing, or chatting on a mobile device. So how do we save ourselves … from ourselves? I’ve tested more than a dozen apps and gadgets that promise a fix.
DriveMode Wins Top Spot
Every major cellular provider offers something to help with distracted driving. I found AT&T’s free DriveMode app for Android and iPhone works the best, and after nearly six months of testing, is the only one that I still use every single day.
Michigan Bills Expand Use of Driverless Cars Beyond Testing
The U.S. auto industry's home state of Michigan is preparing for the advent of self-driving cars by pushing legislation to allow for public sales and operation — a significant expansion beyond an existing state law that sanctions such vehicles for testing only.
While widespread use of driverless cars may be years away, lawmakers and transportation leaders say the technology is progressing so rapidly that Michigan must stay ahead of the curve or risk losing automotive research and development to other states.
Under a newly introduced package of bipartisan bills that would update 2013 laws to allow for the operation of autonomous cars on public roads without anyone at the wheel, tight "platoons" of smart commercial trucks could travel in unison at coordinated speeds.
