For those of us who have managed fleet services companies, we know how important perseverance and tenacity can be to running a successful operation. And if you ask Steve Bender, past President of AFLA and Owner of Fleet Street Remarketing, it's a little like hunting the deep seas for 'Lost U-Boats of WWII', right?
That's the title of a new History Channel series he stars in, debuting next Tuesday, February 27 at 10 pm EDT and also available for streaming on the History Channel app beginning the next day.
Be sure to watch 'Lost U-Boats of WWII', and then read Steve’s take on the show, the state of fleet, and what’s going on at Fleet Street Remarketing in next week’s (February 28) issue of Fleet Management Weekly!
Anyone who's ever used a pickup truck knows that sometimes cargo rolls to the back of the bed, requiring you to climb in to retrieve it. It's an annoyance, particularly with larger, heavier items, and aftermarket cargo unloaders can help address it for some.
But Ford's just patented its own solution it'd theoretically offer straight from the showroom: a tray that slides out of the bed and can even be angled downward, called the "Adjustable Base Plate."
Ford could offer this technology on any of its commercial or passenger trucks. Contractors and customers alike would surely find plenty of uses for such a tray system. This patent is actually realistic enough to envision on a production pickup in the not-too-distant future.
New York City is undergoing somewhat of a rideshare revolution. In a span of a few months, the number of battery-electric rideshare vehicles on the city’s streets has quintupled.
Almost 10% percent of the total fleet, including the Uber and Lyft cars, is now electric. Hybrids comprise 14% of the fleet.
David Do, the commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission said, “We’re now laser-focused on supporting our EV drivers and meeting with charging providers to bring in more plugs. The charging industry is extremely interested in our new, reliable market of hardworking EV drivers, and I’m confident that we’ll soon be seeing a host of new charging options to keep us moving down the green highway.”
A new study has concluded that Vermont tops the list of states with the highest percentage of fatal car crashes in which someone tested positive for drug use.
It showed that in Vermont, 62.7% of people — specifically, 153 out of 244 — in fatal crashes tested positive for drugs. Of that number, 81 were found to be under the influence of drugs that were not specified in the report, and 26 were positive for Delta 9 and 8 of benzoylecgonine, which is contained in cocaine.
In second place in the study was Massachusetts, with 57.75% of crashes involving a positive drug test. Out of the 1,451 people involved in a fatal accident in 2021, 838 tested positive for drugs. Among the most common drugs detected in Massachusetts were cannabinoids and Delta 9.
In Europe and Asia, many cars offer adaptive driving beam headlights that can bath the road ahead in bright light but without ever blinding other drivers. ADB is a lighting technology that has been available for many years in other parts of the world but not in the United States.
The closest we can get to that today are automatic high beams. But that still means driving much - or most - of the time using only low beam headlights that don't reach very far. That can be dangerous.
ADB-enabled headlights already are sold on some luxury cars in America. Their adaptive capabilities aren't enabled here because they still don't meet US rules. It will probably be years before ADB headlights are widely available in the US.