Market Trends

When selling out-of-service fleet vehicles to employees, companies need to ensure fleet policy is uniformly applied — without exception — and that all buyers are treated uniformly and consistently. If you are involved in individual price negotiations, it is prudent to document the sales process. Auditors want to ensure that policy is being enforced uniformly and consistently throughout the organization. Here's what you need to do to ensure you sail through an internal audit with flying colors. READ MORE

Tags: Resale, Fleet Policy, Internal Audit

Many fleet vehicles require specialized synthetic motor oil, special coolant fluids, filters, OEM-manufactured spare parts, and strict adherence to manufacturer-recommended maintenance schedules to guarantee new-vehicle warranty coverage. The OEMs have become more stringent in requiring adherence to their maintenance service recommendations for a vehicle to remain eligible for new-vehicle warranty coverage. READ MORE

Tags: Policy Compliance, Post-Warranty Recovery

If you asked fleet managers what the industry average is for personal use of company vehicles, most would say it is approximately 15-18 percent. But, is it? Most of us will agree that some drivers fudge their personal-use mileage, but no one knows by how much. There is a growing suspicion that personal-use mileage is far greater — perhaps substantially greater — than what the industry accepts as conventional wisdom. READ MORE

Tags: Telematics, Personal Use, Remarketing, Mileage, Resale, Company-Provided Vehicles

The best way to motivate employees to embrace sustainability initiatives is to link them to either the company’s bottom line or to the driver’s own personal benefits. The danger to corporate green edicts that don’t make this connection is that they sometimes backfire into driver disinterest. READ MORE

Tags: Sustainability, green fleet initiatives

All OEMs have been proactive in providing order-to-delivery (OTD) status updates on fleet vehicles in transit. In addition, fleet management companies have launched a multitude of enhancements to their abilities to track OTD for ordered fleet units. However, there is still much more that can be done. READ MORE

Tags: Order to Delivery

The FMCSA has proposed eliminating the requirement that pre- and post-trip driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs) be filed with the FMCSA when no defects are identified. There are concerns voiced by some fleet managers about the unintended consequences of this proposal, especially from a safety and operational perspective. READ MORE

Tags: FMCSA, DVIR, eDVIR

The larger the vehicle, the greater the emissions. The more vehicles there are in a fleet, the greater the cumulative emissions. In every fleet operation, you will find employees driving larger-than-needed vehicles to fulfill the fleet application. READ MORE

Tags: Fleet Creep, green fleet initiatives

The “Industrial Internet,” a term coined by GE, refers to the integration of a variety of complex pieces of machinery, such as vehicle fleets, with networked sensors and software. Other companies, such as Cisco, similarly believe this convergence of machine connectivity remotely generating actionable data via the Internet will change the way we work, ushering in a new era of innovation in fleet management. READ MORE

Fleet managers have to deal with other department managers who may not be team players or who have egos the size of a Class 8 truck. As a result, there are the inevitable fleet-related interdepartmental conflicts, typically driven by the challenge of balancing HR/driver requirements versus finance/accounting department requirements, which are often at odds with one another. Some criticize this involvement of “non-fleet” managers, rather than seeking ways to partner with them. READ MORE

Tags: Best Practices, Risk Management, Fleet Management, Procurement

Fleet management metrics are not a new phenomenon, but has gained increased emphasis in recent years. Senior management and sourcing groups are demanding the use of metrics to measure the performance of the fleet and its suppliers. In addition, tight budgets and high expectations by management make metrics a crucial element to maintaining a cost-efficient fleet. READ MORE

Tags: Best Practices, metrics, Truck Fleets

Commercial fleets began a widespread migration to four-cylinder engines and downsizing to a smaller class segment of vehicles in 2005. As a result, fuel costs and depreciation, the two largest fleet expenses, have been lowered by smaller displacement engines and vehicle segment downsizing. This has caused the breakeven point of a company-provided vehicle to shift downward, both in terms of minimum monthly miles and total costs, incrasing the competitiveness against reimbursement. READ MORE

Tags: Engine Downsizing

Despite a few negative trends, the 2013 calendar-year, on the whole, promises to be a good one for the commercial fleet management industry. Here what I foresee for the balance of the calendar-year. READ MORE

Tags: Commercial Fleets

Bobit Business Media, in partnership with the publisher of Fleet Europe magazine, Nexus Communication, is launching the all-new Global Fleet Management Conference to be held Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2013 in Phoenix. The idea of a global fleet conference has resonated with fleet managers of the world’s largest multinational organizations. We have assembled some of the brightest minds in fleet management in both North America and Europe to help develop the agenda for this all-new conference. READ MORE

Tags: Global Fleet Conference, Europe, Multinational Fleets, Global Fleet

A growing number of fleets contend that Compliance, Safety & Accountability (CSA) program is in need of substantial improvement. Currently, a fleet’s score in the CSA safety monitoring system is based on all fleet-involved crashes, including those that the company’s driver did not cause and could not reasonably have prevented. This scoring criteria is contrary to accepted industry standards and, in the long run, will undermine the validity of the CSA program in the eyes of covered fleets. READ MORE

Tags: FMCSA, ATA, American Trucking Associations, CSA, Preventable Accidents

What is your primary responsibility? Is it managing the vehicle or managing the driver? Where do you think you will have the greatest opportunity to control costs and increase productivity? READ MORE

Tags: Sustainability, Asset Management, Productivity

In Europe, they are asking the question: What is the next evolution of fleet management? A growing number of European fleet professionals believe the concept of “mobility management” will transform the concept of fleet management. They foresee an industry-wide move away from traditional fleet management to mobility management. But, what exactly does this mean? READ MORE

Tags: France, Sweden, Netherlands, Fleet Managers, Belgium, Nexus Communication

When you electronically buy an airline ticket, you do so through an electronic hub, such as Egencia. When realtors electronically list homes for sale, they use a multiple listing service for all other realtors to simultaneously see the property listing. Many see comparable change occurring for the remarketing of vehicles in the wholesale market. The consensus among remarketers is not “if” this will occur, but “when.” And, just as important, most see it happening sooner, rather than later READ MORE

Tags: IARA, Remarketing, Online Auctions

Significant dates in the history of fleet management, which ushered the start of profound change in the industry, include: Oct. 16, 1973 - The first OPEC oil embargo, which completely altered the types of vehicles driven by fleets and August 12, 1981 - IBM’s launch of its first desktop computer, which expanded computerization beyond the IT department to the desktop of every fleet manager. In future years, a new milestone date will be recognized - June 29, 2007. READ MORE

Tags: Fleet History, Mobile Devices, iPhone, Mobile Apps

Sustainability initiatives will continue to play an important, albeit complex, role in corporate fleets of today and tomorrow. There are a number of excellent alternative-fuel solutions currently available in the market and there are a growing number of fleets that have successfully implemented these solutions. But what can fleets do, whose spirit is green, but whose fiscal reality and operating requirements present road blocks to implementing corporate sustainabililty goals? READ MORE

Tags: Sustainability, Novo Nordisk, Fuel Efficiency, Konecranes, FedEx, Fleet, green fleet

During the course of a year, I talk with hundreds of fleet managers and one common complaint is that they are often the last to know when significant corporate decisions are made that impact fleet operations. In these instances, fleet managers are not afforded the same consideration given to their counterparts managing the company’s core businesses. Why does this occur and what can you do about it? READ MORE

There is ongoing upward pressure on operating costs for medium-duty truck fleets. Factors impacting operating costs are volatile diesel prices, replacement tire costs, and longer service lives, which are increasing maintenance expenses due to component failures, escalating parts prices, and higher labor rates. Here are 10 strategies fleets are employing to mitigate these cost increases. READ MORE

Tags: Operating Costs, Medium-Duty Trucks, Tires, DISC BRAKES, Market Trends, Rightsizing, engine governors, LED Lighting

While technology has transformed fleet management to a science, it has also created the risk that, ultimately, technology may “dumb down” fleet managers. In the past, fleet managers would personally perform the calculations and engage in the “cerebral sweat” to accomplish almost all fleet functions. Nowadays (and increasingly so in the future), sophisticated fleet management systems perform these calculations and analyses with the fleet manager only seeing the end result, not the prrocess. READ MORE

Tags: Technology, Fleet Managers

The average replacement tire cost per month rose 15 percent, and, on a cost-per-mile basis, rose 10 percent in 2012 compared to 2011. There are a variety of factors influencing tire costs, such as commodity prices and increased global demand; however, the industry-wide retail trend to larger diameter OE tire sizes is a key factor in driving up replacement tire prices in the past decade. READ MORE

Tags: GE Capital Fleet Services, Tires, Modern Tire Dealer Magazine, fleet tire costs

Vehicle quality continues to improve and extended powertrain warranties have covered some expensive repairs, which occur at higher mileage. Although quality has increased, vehicles are becoming more complex, especially with the proliferation of new onboard technologies. In this context, what follows are the top 15 maintenance trends for passenger cars that are facing commercial fleet managers in 2013 and beyond. READ MORE

Tags: Tires, Re-refined oil, Replacement Parts, Labor Costs, Post-Warranty Recovery, Replacement Tires, Motor Oil, Fleet Maintenance

How much of a fleet’s annual budgeted dollars are wasted? Is it 5 percent, 10 percent, or even more? In my mind, eliminating waste is the proverbial low-hanging fruit. Before implementing new fleet initiatives requiring new dollars, let’s make our No. 1 priority to stop the waste of existing dollars. Let's examine the fleet-related areas that are rife with waste and discuss the protocols you need to minimize it. READ MORE

Tags: Depreciation, Idling, Driver Training, Fuel Management, Tires