The times have changed since the fleet business first came about in the 1930′s. Technology, economic whirlwinds, and customer needs are ever evolving making room for even more change. Below are 7 milestones have dramatically changed the nature of fleet, and have ultimately impacted the way business is done in the fleet world.
1. Higher Content Fleet Vehicles: In the early days of fleets, companies had a choice of three models: Ford, Chevrolet, or Plymouth. The typical fleet car was the standard model with minimal equipment. The biggest selector deliberations were over the economies of installing a radio or adding air conditioning for vehicles located below the Mason-Dixon Line. The “Plain Jane” fleet car became a historical footnote as OEMs bundled options into packages, allowed free-flow option ordering, and proved that higher-content vehicles sold better in the resale market.
2. Creation of the Open-End Lease: Early lessors offering full maintenance leases were R.A. Company, established by David, Harry, and Nathan Robinson, and Four Wheels, founded by Zollie Frank and Armund Schoen in 1938. Changing conditions in the 1950s led to the development of open-end or finance leasing, which PHH offered in 1951. Fleets wanted the ability to replace units after a 12-month period with off-balance sheet reporting. In 1981, the Swift Dodge vs. IRS court decision legitimized the use of the TRAC clause in an open-end lease.
3. Factory Ordering: Before the advent of OEM fleet departments, companies purchased vehicles from individual dealers. Use of dealer ordering codes by nondealers, such as fleet lessors, allowed factory-direct orders. Another factory innovation was the introduction of fleet previews to provide new-model specifications to facilitate vehicle replacement planning.
4. Drop-Ship/Courtesy Deliveries: In the late 1940s, the concept of volume drop-shipping fleet vehicles was developed. At that time, PHH factory-ordered vehicles delivered to drivers by local dealers. Wheels and McCullagh (acquired by GE) started delivering cars from regional dealers directly to drivers. Ultimately, it became an accepted industry practice to pay a courtesy delivery fee to non-ordering dealers to deliver and prep vehicles.
5. Creation of Fleet Management Services and National Account Program: The first recorded purchase of a fleet management program, other than leasing, was by Gibson Art in 1946. Tire company national account billing started in the early 1950s. PHH and Consolidated Service Corp. (acquired by LeasePlan) started selling tires nationally using centralized billing. Other programs such as maintenance management were not in great demand because gas was cheap and operating costs were manageable. This gradually began to change in response to market demands and new fleet services proliferated such as fuel management, accident management, and personal use reporting.
6. Repeal of the ITC: Prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, significant tax benefits prompted companies such as Dart & Kraft, PepsiCo, and Xerox to acquire existing fleet leasing companies. However, as a result of the repeal of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), many corporate entities sold off their fleet leasing business units. Around this time, GE entered the market as a ready buyer and initiated a series of rapid-fire acquisitions that coalesced the industry into 10 major fleet management companies.
7. Computerization: The fleet industry could not provide its breadth of services without computers. Wheels and PHH installed their first IBM computers in 1959. In the 1990s, fleet quickly shifted to Web-enabled services. Computers gave lessors the capability to evolve into full-service fleet management companies.
Reference: FleetLocate
Visit us online to see how GPS Tracking and Telematics can improve your fleet management at www.GPSFleetSolutions.com
TORRANCE, CA - Government Fleet magazine and the 100 Best Fleets are now accepting nominations for the annual awards, recognizing the top public sector fleets in North America at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels. Sponsored by INVERS, winners will be announced at the Government Fleet Expo & Conference (GFX) June 18-20 in Denver and recognized in Government Fleet magazine.
The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2012.
The 100 Best Fleets award program, founded by industry veteran Tom Johnson, rewards peak-performing public sector fleet operations. The program also identifies and encourages ever-increasing levels of performance improvement within the fleet industry. The purposes of the 100 Best Fleets program are to:
- Identify outstanding operations for others to emulate.
- Provide recognition within the larger organization and the community that the winning fleets serve.
- Promote pride in the industry and provide recognition within the national fleet community.
- Promote ever-increasing levels of productivity and operational effectiveness.
- Encourage more individuals to consider fleet operations as a career choice.
The City of Portland, Ore., was named No. 1 among the 100 Best Fleets in 2011.
Click here or copy and paste the URL below into your browser to start the nomination process.
Link to nomination form: http://www.government-fleet.com/100BestFleets/Content/100-Best-Fleets-Submit-Nominations.aspx
Visit us online at www.gpsfleetsolutions.com
WESTLAKE, Ohio — TravelCenters of America LLC (TA) installed GPS tracking technology on its entire fleet of more than 400 RoadSquad emergency road service vehicles.
RoadSquad service trucks are equipped with certified technicians who handle a variety of roadside problems professional drivers face. After suffering a breakdown with his/her vehicle, drivers can either call RoadSquad or those with iPhone or Android smartphones can make the same call via a mobile application (app).
“Our GPS technology allows us to know exactly where to find the downed driver and provides service technicians that drive our emergency service trucks with detailed directional information to the breakdown site,” said TA President and CEO Tom O’Brien. “Our national dispatch center knows exactly where everyone is; that allows us to provide more accurate arrival time and status information to downed drivers, lowers our response times and gets our customers back in business faster.”
The retailer invested significant capital in the new system, which also provides “critical RoadSquad fleet maintenance, operation and driver performance data,” O’Brien added in a company news release.
TravelCenters of America operates travel centers and convenience stores in 41 states under the TA and Petro Stopping Centers brands.
Visit us online at www.GPSFleetSolutions.com
Driver monitoring has evolved tremendously in recent years. Some carriers still rely on reports from a 1-800 “how’s my driving” number to find out when a driver is driving poorly, but many more are putting technology to work to take advantage of near-real-time reporting on driver performance. Today’s technologies allow fleets to keep track of not only where their trucks are at any moment, but also how the trucks are being operated.
Fleets have become more interested in tracking driver behaviors, particularly in response to the new CSA enforcement program put in place last year by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
“The biggest things we are seeing a push for (from customers) is driver performance and driving habits,” said Robin Hamlin, product manager for McLeod Software. “Anything to do with driver performance such as lane changes, braking and quick starts.” Read the rest of this entry »
A survey of more than 4,000 trucking industry executives by the American Transportation Research Institute revealed the top 10 critical issues facing the North American trucking industry:
1. The economy: For the third year in a row, the state of the nation’s economy was the top concern. However, the number ranking it as their number one issue has dropped each year since reaching 51.6% in 2009, to about 31% this year.
2. Hours of Service: Federal rules governing driver hours of service climbed two positions after taking the fourth spot in 2010. Nearly half of respondents (46.5%) ranked this as the first, second or third most important issue.
3. Driver shortage: This issue is up from number five in 2010, but has a larger concentration of “high priority” and “low priority” rankings compared to other issues. Some carriers are having serious problems finding drivers, but others seem to be meeting the demand through financial and work culture strategies.
4. CSA: After debuting in the No. 2 spot in 2010, the government’s new enforcement regime retreated two spots from second to fourth this year. Nearly 30% of respondents ranked this issue first or second.
5. Fuel issues: Fuel issues ranked first in 2005 and again in 2008, but dropped to sixth in 2010. This year the issue, along with the price of fuel, has risen again.
6. Congestion: While standard peak-hour congestion is costly in terms of freight delays and fuel consumption, unexpected delays are considerably worse. While congestion did not make the top 10 list in 2009 and 2010 due to the recession, it has reemerged as a standalone issue in 2011.
7. Transportation funding: This reemerged as a standalone issue this year with continued delays in passing a highway bill.
8. Tort reform: This and related legal issues returned to the top 10 list in 2011 for the first time since 2008. The trucking industry seeks tort liability reform to ensure that punitive damage awards are reasonable and directly related to negligence.
9. Onboard truck technologies: First surfacing in 2007 as a top 10 issue, this has fluctuated among the last three positions. This includes electronic logs, speed limiters, onboard safety systems, and using technology to enhance or replace roadside safety enforcement practices.
10. Truck size and weight: This first emerged as a top issue in the 2009 survey. Increased flexibility in truck size and weight could reduce congestion and fuel consumption and help with the driver shortage.
By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief
http://truckinginfo.com
http://truckinginfo.com
Visit us online at www.GPSFleetSolutions.com
The Women in Trucking Assn. is inviting all female professional truck drivers and their families to attend what it said is the largest celebration of women behind the wheel at the 2012 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY.
The 3rd Annual Salute to Women Behind the Wheel will be held March 24 from noon to 3 p.m. and recognizes the outstanding safety and performance accomplishments of professional female drivers. The Salute will be held in Rooms C201-C205 of the South Wing at the Mid-America Trucking Show. There will be refreshments, goodie bags and a photo will be taken of all professional women drivers in attendance.
Driver registration is now open. To register go to http://salute2women.eventbrite.com/.
Gold sponsors of the Salute to Women Behind the Wheel are Frito-Lay and Walmart. The Silver sponsor is U.S. Xpress, Inc. and the Bronze sponsor is McGriff, Seibels, & Williams. Copper sponsors are FedEx Freight, J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc., Owner-Operator Direct, Trucker Charity, Inc., and UPS Freight. Nickel sponsors include Airtab, Brenny Transportation, Inc./Brenny Specialized, Inc., J.B. Hunt, and Schneider National.
Any corporate member of Women In Trucking may become a sponsor by contacting Ellen Voie, president and CEO of WIT at ellen@womenintrucking.org.
Jan 30, 2012 11:13 AM, By Deborah Whistler, contributing editor
http://fleetowner.com/management/news/registration-salute-to-women-0130/
Visit us online at www.GPSFleetSolutions.com
The American Trucking Assns. urged the Obama administration “to live up to its promise to relieve the burden of unnecessary regulations” as it considers changes to the hours-of-service rules.
“Late last year, DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) proposed costly changes to truck drivers’ hours-of-service rules which, if finalized, would result in reduced wages for hundreds of thousands of drivers, significant administrative and efficiency costs for trucking companies, and most importantly, billions of dollars in lost productivity,” Dave Osiecki, ATA senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, wrote in a letter to Cass Sunstein, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.
“These inefficiencies and costs would deal a serious and sustained blow to the huge ‘tangible goods’ economy that trucking supports, affecting not only shippers of freight, but ultimately consumers.”
Proposed after political pressure from outside groups, the FMCSA’s proposed rule would enact drastic changes to driver’s lifestyles and carrier operations without providing any safety benefit, Osiecki charged.
“DOT described its proposal as a means to further improve trucking’s highway safety record. Yet, FMCSA’s own regulatory impact analysis showed that the proposal’s costs outweigh any potential crash reduction benefits,” Osiecki wrote.
The current hours-of-service rules, in place since 2004, he said, have allowed for trucking to move 70% of the nation’s goods and achieve record low levels of crashes and fatalities.
“On Aug. 31, 2011, FMCSA released even more evidence demonstrating that compliance with the current HOS rules is ‘strongly correlated with crash rates.’” Osiecki wrote. “In other words, carrier compliance with the current rules is directly linked to safer trucking operations.”
Sep 9, 2011 10:25 AM, By Deborah Whistler, contributing editor
Vist us online at www.GPSFleetSolutions.com
Industry responses to the proposed fuel economy standards unveiled yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have been generally positive. Only hours after the joint announcement by the two agencies, a number of suppliers to the industry, including engine manufacturers, truck OEMs, drivetrain suppliers and others, issued statements indicating support for the approach to reducing greenhouse gas emission through better truck efficiency.
The Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA), for example, “encouraged and supported the President’s efforts to assure that the two federal agencies coordinate efforts to propose a single national GHG reduction and fuel efficiency improvement program.”
“As the primary manufacturers of medium and heavy-duty engines and vehicles in the United States, EMA and TMA members have always focused on improving fuel efficiency and have made significant advances in reducing fuel use in medium and heavy-duty engines and vehicles,” Jed Mandel, EMA president, noted. “Better fuel efficiency is a key customer demand in the commercial vehicle sector, and our members continuously work to introduce better and more efficient technologies and systems into the marketplace. Because improved efficiency also results in lower greenhouse gas emissions, engine and truck manufacturers’ efforts to improve fuel efficiency for our customers align well with the overall goals of the regulation proposed today.”
Engine maker, Cummins, Inc., was also quick to endorse the proposed standards. “For some time now, Cummins has advocated for consistent and responsible regulations that recognize the needs of business, offer clear direction and provide incentives to companies that create innovative technologies as well as jobs in this country,” said Rich Freeland, Cummins Engine Business president. “Such regulations also add real value to our customers, as better fuel economy lowers their operating costs while significantly benefiting the environment. We look forward to working with the EPA, DOT and other stakeholders in developing the final rule.”
The Diesel Technology Forum was positive, as well. “More than 95% of all heavy-duty trucks are diesel-powered as are a majority of medium-duty trucks,” said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the non-profit Diesel Technology Forum. “Diesel power is the driving force today of goods movement by truck in our economy. This proposal clearly envisions clean diesel power as the centerpiece of freight transportation in the clean energy economy of tomorrow.
“Diesel engines offer an unmatched combination of energy-efficiency, work capability, reliability and now near-zero emissions environmental performance making them the technology of choice for commercial trucks today and into the foreseeable future,” Schaeffer said. “For all parties, the challenge of increasing fuel efficiency while maintaining or improving environmental, safety and productivity of commercial vehicles is as important as it is complex. It is fitting that a key solution for solving this challenge lies in the diesel engine.
Continue reading “Trucking support for fuel economy standards running high”
Visit us online at www.GPSFleetSolutions.com