Posts Tagged ‘fleet owners’
Technology to Make Truck Fleets Safer and More Efficient
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
A new global study by IBM says that the implementation of new technologies will make commercial trucks more fuel efficient, environmentally friendly, and safer. The Global Truck 2020 Study, entitled “Transcending Turbulence,” was unveiled this week at CALSTART’s Hybrid Truck Users Forum National Conference in Atlanta.
“IBM’s study shows the trucking industry is eager to transform itself,” said Sanjay Rishi, vice president and global automotive industry leader for IBM. “Increasingly, fleet owners choose cleaner, more fuel efficient trucks that also have advanced systems to make transport more efficient.”
The study indicates that the trucking industry believes smart technologies will play a major role in commercial trucking as well as other applications, such as transportation systems.
“Truck transportation drives our economy; goods movement fills our stores and supplies our factories. But those benefits come with costs that are causing rapid change,” said Bill Van Amburg, senior vice president of CALSTART, an organization dedicated to clean transportation. “That’s why IBM’s study is critical. It highlights the emerging needs of truck customers, the technical and environmental challenges for the industry and lays out a roadmap for clean and profitable growth for the future.”
For a complete copy of the study, click here.
Photo courtesy of zugaldia under the Creative Commons License.
Tags: CALSTART, fleet owners, Global Truck 2020 Study, Hybrid Truck Users Forum, IBM, Transcending Turbulence, trucking industry
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Fleets Adopting Social Networking
Monday, August 17th, 2009
It seems like you can’t go anywhere without hearing the phrase “social networking” these days. The use of sites like Facebook and Twitter for keeping people up to date on everything from their friends’ sandwich preferences to big business announcements has skyrocketed since their inception, with no end in sight. Not surprisingly, fleet owners have begun using social networking sites to improve their business.
In a recent poll, fleet managers who use social networking sites made their preferences known. 41 percent use the business contact-oriented LinkedIn, with Facebook the second most popular site at 32 percent. 12 percent of those surveyed also use Twitter for fleet purposes.
Social networking allows people with similar interests and ideas to form an online community where information is shared immediately and effectively. The increasing popularity of these sites make them very effective tools for keeping customers and employees up to date on company information.
Does your fleet tweet? Check out the FleetCards USA Twitter feed by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of benstein under the Creative Commons License.
Tags: Facebook, fleet owners, FleetCards USA, Linkedin, social networking, twitter
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Employee Vehicle Sales a Welcome Benefit
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
As fleet vehicles become older and need to be replaced, business owners must decide what to do with the older vehicles. Generally, the vehicles in question are simply sold at auction or relinquished to a leasing company. But recently, fleet owners have ramped up programs that offer the out-of service vehicles to be sold to drivers at low cost, which saves companies money in selling costs and offers a valuable benefit to employees.
For many employees, the prospect of owning a familiar vehicle for a low price is very enticing. Employee vehicle sales have been met with great success at companies such as Mission Foodservice, where fleet facilities manager Chris Syed confirmed that at least 45 percent of the company’s out-of-service vehicles are resold to its employees. The program has been consistently successful; Syed reported that “The percentage has remained steady over the past several years.” Mission Foodservice operates a 300-vehicle fleet, leased from LeasePlan USA. With fleet vehicles being replaced every four years or so at Mission Foodservice, there is a steady flow of vehicles in need of new owners. The vehicle’s regular driver is given the first rights to purchase the vehicle, and the sale is opened to the rest of the company if the driver declines. The vehicles undergo safety inspections on-site and will not be sold to employees if they have any safety issues. The best part of the deal for employees is the selling price; drivers pay wholesale price for the vehicle while other employees pay, according to Syed, “somewhere between wholesale and the Kelley Blue Book private party price.”
The program became so popular that Syed could no longer handle all of the work on her own. In October of 2006, five years after the program was introduced, Mission Foodservice hired Flexco Fleet Services to handle the overwhelming demand for the program. Since the move to Flexco, the employee resale program has been just as popular as ever. Syed remains confident in the need for employee resale. “Employees love this program. They view it as a bonus.”
Photo courtesy of Caitlinator under the Creative Commons License
Tags: fleet owners, fleet vehicles, Flexco Fleet Services, Kelley Blue Book, LeasePlan USA, Mission Foodservice
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The Right Price: California Considers Pay-by-Mile Auto Insurance
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
The California Department of Insurance has introduced a bill this week to begin offering pay-by-the-mile auto insurance policies to California drivers. Under the new program, drivers would be able to select an insurance payment plan based on the number of miles they drive per month. A significant amount of money would be saved on insurance for, say, a vehicle that only makes occasional trips to a supplier a short distance away and spends most of its time sitting in a parking lot. For fleet owners, this system provides a way to keep themselves insured without overpaying for insurance on a vehicle they may very rarely use.
In addition to payment plans based on paying for a set number of miles per month, the proposed system also allows for mile-by-mile vehicle tracking at an even lower rate. The miles traveled by a vehicle would be checked by odometer inspections at various locations that are convenient to the driver’s routine, such as their local mechanic or emission center. Vehicle mileage could also be monitored by GPS devices, but don’t fear Big Brother just yet; GPS could be used to monitor a car’s mileage without relaying the vehicle’s location to the insurance company. With some drivers already hesitant to adopt GPS tracking for other purposes, this privacy clause offers reassurance that they retain the trust of their employers.
The legislation to create this system will be voted on in the next several months, and could become law shortly in the state of California. If California has any success with it, the same system could be on its way to other states across the country later this year.
Tags: Big Brother, California, California Department of Insurance, emission center, fleet owners, GPS, insurance policies, local mechanic
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Obama and The Future of Fleet Vehicles
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Earlier today, President Obama set in motion a nationwide program to cut vehicle carbon emissions and raise mileage by 30 percent by 2016.
The initiative, backed by auto executives, union leaders and environmental activists is aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars.
According to an article on MSNBC, the president estimates that the program will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years.
Doing so will also allow car companies to readjust their way of doing business and their product line, providing some optimism throughout the industry that a plan is in place to help them survive the recent economic downturn.
The new program will cost consumers an estimated $1,300 per vehicle starting in 2016, but Obama claimed that drivers could save nearly $2,800 over the lifetime of a car.
Ultimately, the goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 900 million tons.
For fleet owners and managers, Obama’s figures are based on a 35.5 mpg average, however cars and light trucks would be required to rise from 27.5 mpg standard to 39 mpg and larger trucks would rise from 24 mpg to 30 mpg.
With dealer lots closing and new standards being set by the President, a lot of news could be effecting how you are managing your fleet.
Let us know how this is impacting your business and for more information, read the full article about Obama’s new emissions program here:
Photo copyright of Gustty under the Creative Commons License
Tags: carbon emissions, fleet, fleet owners, gas prices, greenhouse gas, MSNBC, president obama
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