How the Job of Amazon Delivery Has Changed With Rivian’s Electric Vans and Routing Software
Amazon was a big and early investor in Rivian. Since July, Amazon has rolled out more than 1,000 new Rivian vans.
The vans can travel up to 150 miles on a single charge, which is typically plenty of power for a full shift and allows drivers to recharge the vehicle overnight. The new vans have keyless entry. They automatically lock when the driver is 15 feet away and unlock as the driver approaches.
One driver's favorite feature is a light bar “that goes all the way around the back.” He also likes that the windshield is “absolutely massive,” the wide doors allow for easy entry and exit, and the cargo door automatically opens when the van is parked. There are two rows of shelves that fold up and down in the cargo area.
Smith System Acquires Driving Dynamics
Smith System Driver Improvement Institute, Inc., a portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, LLC, announced that it has acquired Driving Dynamics, Inc.
"Driving Dynamics brings a wealth of talent and an exciting complement of driver safety training capabilities and curricula to Smith System," commented Tony Douglas, CEO and President of Smith System.
Debbie Balestra, Vice President and General Manager of Driving Dynamics, added, "We are excited to join Smith System and to serve our current and prospective customers with an expanded set of safety training capabilities."
Poll: What Was Your 2022 Hiring Situation?
In The Fleet Poll this week, sponsored by our friends at FLD, Joe Lukacs from Sherwin Williams asks about your fleet hires last year. Specifically, how difficult was it for your fleet to find and hire qualified employees? Also, was your hiring situation in 2022 better or worse than 2021? Take the poll here.
When it comes to hot trends and burning questions, there’s plenty going on in the world of fleet — that’s why we’ve created The Fleet Poll (which gets updated every two weeks) to gauge industry sentiment around key topics dominating the fleet landscape.
Spiffy Announces 90%+ y/y Growth and Addition of Brad Schomber as New CFO
Get Spiffy, Inc. is excited to announce 90%+ year-over-year revenue growth and the addition of new CFO, Brad Schomber. After extending its Series B round to $32 million in Q1 2022, the company drove this impressive growth through strategic execution across geographies, services, and lines of business.
Scot Wingo and Karl Murphy founded Spiffy in 2014 around four mega trends: the rise of the convenience-oriented customer, the hypothesis that services will go digital, the opportunity to provide a better automotive customer experience, and Vehicle 2.0 (i.e.vehicles will change more the next 10 years than in the last 110).
Spiffy saw significant movement in all four trends in 2022, despite economic headwinds. By the end of the year, the business was delivering between 3,000 and 4,000 services a day with over 500 W2 Technicians and 300 vans nationwide.
The Steep Plunge in Used Car Prices – What it Means, and What’s Ahead
While the prices of late model used cars are down only 5% off their peak according to Edmunds, the price of older used cars, those five years or older, have fallen 15% or more from their peaks early in 2022. The leading reason for the drop in used car prices is the increased supply of new cars.
The run-up in used car prices was a major driver in the nation’s overall inflation rate, adding about a full percentage point to the overall increase in consumer prices. Now it’s a factor helping to bring down the pace of inflation, shaving more than a third of a point off the overall rate in December.
This is obviously good news for those wanting or needing to buy a used car, though it can have a negative effect on car buyers by reducing the value of vehicle they hope to trade in.
