Maintenance Data Portal from Shell Fleet Solutions Makes Things Easy
The Shell Fleet Maintenance Hub makes maintenance easier and more affordable, and now Shell’s new partnership with Spiffy adds mobile maintenance to the menu.
Make a Difference – Donate Vehicles to Your Local Ronald McDonald House
By donating vehicles to your local Ronald McDonald House you can make a real difference in the lives of people with kids in the hospital, plus your organization will get a tax deduction. It’s a win-win for everyone.
For more information visit http://www.onecarhelpsrmhc.com/ or email Ryan directly at [email protected].
Once in a Lifetime
This week, Ed Pierce and Ted Roberts are attending Work Truck Week 2021 and thoroughly enjoying the virtual show. We’ll be excited to get together, in person, hopefully at NAFA I&E in late August, but these virtual conferences have exceeded expectations.
Ed reports that the first day of the event got off to a notable start with the Ford Commercial Vehicles press conference. Today, we feature his first story from the show in which he talks to Ford’s industry-leading connectivity technology and fleet electrification. Gotta say, it's impressive.
Richard Mallek, director of business development at FLD, writes an interesting article on what the remarketing business has experienced during this pandemic. He’s an optimist – don’t miss Once in a Lifetime Conditions Mean There May Never Be a Better Time to Remarket Vehicles.
FMW thanks AFLA for giving us permission to publish Debbie Struna’s article about WIFM that appeared in February’s AFLA Fleet Insight. Most of us have been working from home for a year now; getting connected is good for the soul.
Drive Safety!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
Honda’s Now Selling the World’s First Production Car with Level 3 Self-Driving Tech
Carmakers have strived for the SAE's third tier of vehicular autonomy for years, but none had achieved it yet. Not Tesla, not Cadillac and not Audi. Yet out of the blue came Honda with an enhanced version of its Honda Sensing advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) called Honda Sensing Elite, which will become the first commercially available SAE Level 3 system in Honda's domestic-market Legend sedan.
SAE Level 3 crucially differs from Level 2 in that it's a graduation from partial automation—like in Tesla's Autopilot—to conditional automation, which means a car can read its environment and make decisions based on what it sees.
Such freedom is granted under the Honda Sensing Elite's Traffic Jam Pilot function, which gives the car control over its own brakes, steering and throttle in that eponymous scenario. This lets the car maintain following distance, speed and lane position. It does all this with zero input from the driver, who Honda says can "watch television/DVD on the navigation screen or operate the navigation system to search for a destination address."
Read the article at The Drive.
Electric Vehicles Continue Mainstreaming with Acceptance and Support
By Donald Dunphy
It’s too late in the game to deny the profound effect electric vehicles will have over transportation very soon.
With well-worn concerns regarding vehicle pricing, infrastructure, and the ever-present range anxiety being addressed, resistance is fading.
Add to that a renewed commitment to EV from the Biden administration and that includes the United States Postal Service,
Fleet Management Weekly spoke to Marc Geller, a director with the Electric Auto Association on the subject. He is a writer in the area of public and corporate policy related to electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and related source energy, and was a co-founder of the non-profit advocacy group Plug In America.
“We're now at the point where the cost of making a battery-electric vehicle shows no tremendous premium over an internal combustion vehicle, and if you're looking at the overall cost of ownership, EV and internal combustion vehicles are pretty much at parity already, given the lower cost of electricity compared to gasoline and diesel.”
