NHTSA Promises Changes in Wake of GM Failures
More than a year after federal regulators said they would review their procedures amid a widening General Motors ignition switch recall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration admitted to past mistakes and pledged new action.
NHTSA will increase investigations, make more contact with plaintiffs' lawyers and question assumptionsmade by its own personnel and automakers.
The changes come after internal reports that acknowledge that NHTSA's regulators did not demand more information from GM even after it asked about air bag non-deployments and got incomplete answers or legal justifications as to why GM would not or did not have to respond.
Clean Fuel Vehicle Tour Highlights Local Fleets in Georgia
Gas prices may not be in the stratosphere at the moment, but Georgia cities and private fleets are still switching to clean fuels. The Alternative Fuel Vehicle Roadshow is set to open June 15th in Gainesville with an 8-city tour led by Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols.
The series brings together a vehicle showcase and discussion panels on the practical impact of converting fleets to clean, alternative fuels like propane, E85-ethanol, natural gas, electric (EV) and compressed natural gas (CNG). Questions on financing, safety, maintenance and fuel considerations of clean vehicle conversions will be answered by government fleet managers and private sector fleets, along with vehicle manufacturers and utilities who will highlight their success transitioning fleets, based on need and use.
Florida Eco-Dairy Selects Ryder for Natural Gas Fleet Vehicles
Ryder System, Inc. has signed a natural gas vehicle (NGV) lease contract with M&B Products, a state-of-the-art eco-friendly dairy farm in Florida. M&B has signed a full service lease agreement with Ryder for three compressed natural gas (CNG) heavy duty vehicles.
The new CNG trucks will be maintained by Ryder at its Tampa, Fla. service facility, which is already engineered to meet the unique maintenance compliance requirements for natural gas.
CEI to Show Government Fleets How to Lower Repair Costs, Slash Downtime and Increase Loss Recoveries
Government fleets can make major reductions in their collision repair costs and vehicle down time by outsourcing their collision repair activities.
That’s the message that the CEI Group, Inc. (CEI), a fleet driver management company that saves fleets millions of dollars a year by managing and preventing vehicle incidents, will bring to fleet managers and administrators next week at the 2015 Government Fleet Exposition and Conference, being held in Denver, Colorado June 8-10.
Lofty Goals
We always look forward to interviewing Wayne Smolda, founder and CEO of The CEI Group, Inc., and had the opportunity to sit down with him in Orlando and talk about his views on the current state of the industry, as well as how CEI is positioning itself in the fleet market to reach its aggressive objective of doubling in size in five years. Supporting this aim, Wayne says, “We believe our job is to help clients have safer fleets, protect their drivers and drive down the cost of both the fleet budget as well as the insurance budget.”
CEI has been making some very smart strategic decisions that give us every reason to believe that the company can reach their lofty goals. Read our interview with him to hear more from this respected industry leader.
Enjoy this issue. And make sure you check in with FleetManagementWeekly.com for daily updates.
Janice Sutton
Executive Editor
