Maintenance Issues Compounded by Not Servicing Vehicles During the Pandemic
A lot of people are driving less during the pandemic, and that’s leading to a lot of easily overlooked maintenance issues with their vehicles.
Amazon is Installing AI-Powered Cameras in its Delivery Vans to Monitor Driver Behavior
Amazon has long faced criticism for pushing its drivers to complete up to 200 deliveries every day, which many claim is an unreasonable demand that can result in tired workers who take risks.
Rather than reducing these intense schedules, the company has started using AI-equipped cameras to warn drivers if they’re breaking road rules or engaging in unsafe practices. The footage will also be used by Amazon for evaluation purposes.
The cameras, which operate 100 percent of the time, don’t record audio and can’t be used to watch drivers in real-time. They feature artificial intelligence that identifies 16 signals based on what's happening around the van and a driver’s actions. Anything illegal, such as failing to stop or speeding, will trigger audio responses, including “No stop detected” and “Please slow down.” Unsafe driving such as braking too hard won't bring audio alerts but will see the footage uploaded to a secure portal for Amazon to examine.
Read the article at TechSpot.
Europe: JATO Dynamics and Sofico Join Forces to Decode WLTP Data Collection
The deadline for the implementation of WLTP solutions has now passed. Yet OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and leasing companies across Europe continue to face significant challenges regarding their CO2 compliance.
Olivier Peijs, Head of European Sales Leasing at JATO Dynamics, commented: “WLTP has always been a very complex matter and it comes as no surprise that the industry has found it difficult to implement WLTP solutions. But the retrieval of real-time WLTP data from OEMs is now crucial for all automotive players. In particular, leasing service providers (LSPs) who face customers with tight budgets and strict fleet policies. Without the correct WLTP values, LSPs may suffer from unforeseen vehicle costs such as registration or road tax - with the damaging potential to make models non-compliant with their customers’ car policies.”
Magellan Joins Samsung AppStack, Offering 30 Day Free Trial of Fleet Navigation Solutions
Magellan announced they are the first navigation solution provider to join Samsung AppStack, a cloud app marketplace designed to help businesses modernize and thrive in today’s economy.
As a part of the launch, Magellan is offering AppStack customers a free 30-day trial of their award-winning navigation solutions, Magellan Fleet Navigation and Magellan DeliveryComplete™.
With Magellan’s solutions, fleet managers will have a full delivery suite at their fingertips, from the planning and optimization of stops to powerful back-office tools to help execute the best, and safest, deliveries possible.
Where Do We Go from Here?
After being engulfed in a year-long pandemic – precious lives lost and every one of us affected to an extent we could not have imagined at its outset, we see a ray of hope. Vaccines are finally making their way into arms, and it feels a lot like we can look ahead a bit less tentatively.
Where do we go from here? When we asked that question of fleet expert Steve Saltzgiver, he gave us a brilliant and thorough treatise on the steps organizations can take to optimize their fleet operations. We like this: “A wise manager understands that their most important resource is the people that perform the work.”
Now, what about the people who have been displaced? Fleet veterans who have chosen to retire or who have been sidelined involuntarily because of the virus? How do we recover? Look for some answers in Donald Dunphy’s Tackling Brain Drain: Tips from a Recent Fleet Retiree.
Mike Sheldrick and I spent some delightful weeks in Norway in 2017 and marveled at the abundance of EV charging stations. He was highly amused by GM’s cute Super Bowl ad.
Stay Safe Everyone!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
