State of the Fleet Industry Automotive Fleet

Hello and welcome to this edition of State of the Fleet Industry Spotlight Series, sponsored by US Bank, in which we engage with leaders in fleet on what’s driving the market today.

I’m Chris Brown, associate publisher of Automotive Fleet. In this episode, I connect with Debbie Struna, national account manager for Fleet Street Remarketing, former board member of the American Fleet Leasing Association (AFLA), and chairperson for the Women in Fleet Management mentorship task force.

Debbie and I discuss how organizations can best plan for succession in the fleet manager’s role and the resources available for new entrants into the fleet community.

Today's topics include:
- Struna explains how she got into fleet.

- She discusses how new fleet managers can benefit from association involvement and industry events.

- Struna shares how to use internal meetings in the organization to create better awareness of the fleet manager’s role.

- She offers the idea of creating an industrywide document with best practices for succession planning.

- She discusses the succession process when she left her role as a fleet manager to take a new job.

- Struna suggests leveraging the vendor community for knowledge, along with fleet publications and media.

- She explains AFLA’s mentorship program.


This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠⁠⁠U.S. Bank⁠⁠⁠⁠.

📰 Sign up for the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

🚗 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Visit Automotive Fleet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more fleet industry content.

🎥 You can watch these episodes on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

The State of the Fleet Industry video series, produced by Automotive Fleet, offers insights into the state of the fleet market.

In Episode 142, Associate Publisher Chris Brown interviews Brian Fielkow, an executive leader, author, and speaker who has spent three decades in fleet and transportation with a direct focus on safety. Fielkow breaks down preconceived notions on fleet safety and offers a new framework on how to manage it in your organization.

He is delivering the opening keynote at the 2023 Fleet Safety Conference, convening November 8-10 in Santa Clara, Calif.

Today's topics include:

- Safety is not a priority.
- It's not an accident and it’s not minor.
- Move from a blame culture to a just culture.
- We don’t necessarily need more processes.
- Safety is not a department.
- We’re drowning in data.
- Just because you are compliant does not mean you are safe.


This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠⁠U.S. Bank⁠⁠⁠.



📰 Sign up for the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

🚗 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Visit Automotive Fleet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more fleet industry content.

🎥 You can watch these episodes on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

The ⁠State of the Fleet Industry⁠ video series, produced by Automotive Fleet, offers insights into the state of the fleet market as presented by AF Editor Mike Antich.



In Episode 141, learn more about the top factors contributing to increasing costs in the commercial fleet market, as presented by AF Editor Mike Antich.



🎙Today's topics include:


While cost containment has been a top priority since the birth of the fleet industry, today, it has gained even greater urgency since fleet is more expensive than ever.
When you examine fleet cost increases in their totality, the fleet industry is experiencing a simultaneous convergence of many different cost trends.

The top six cost trends examined are:


Higher acquisition costs and the minimal or non-existent availability of fleet incentives.
Inflationary pressures on all goods and services, higher interest rates, and higher fuel prices.
Ongoing sourcing constraints primarily due to restrictive OEM ordering allocation systems that preclude fleets from getting all the replacement units they need.
As the average age of fleet vehicles in service increases, so does the frequency of unscheduled maintenance incidents and PM expenses as older vehicles enter new PM intervals, often requiring replacing wear items such as tires and brakes.
Higher rental expenses due to unpredictable OTD and slower maintenance turnaround due to replacement parts shortages.
Increase in tolls, dollar amount for parking fines, miscellaneous environmental disposal fees for tires and motor oil, and assorted property taxes on fleet assets.


This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠U.S. Bank⁠⁠.



📰 Sign up for the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠.

🚗 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Visit Automotive Fleet⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more fleet industry content.

🎥 You can watch these episodes on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠!

The State of the Fleet Industry video series, produced by Automotive Fleet, offers insights into the state of the fleet market as presented by AF Editor Mike Antich.



In Episode 140, we have a wide-ranging discussion with Shlomo Crandus, CEO of Wheels, about the evolution and transformation of fleet management in the next five years.



🎙Today's topics include:


The industry disruptions experienced over the past three years will be the catalysts for innovation and transformation in fleet management, ultimately strengthening the industry.
The goal in merging the three legacy companies – Wheels, Donlen, and LeasePlan USA – is to go beyond integration with a focus on transforming the overall Wheels business.
A key focus is rethinking technology by expanding the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), augmented reality applications, and electrification. Wheels is generating one-and-a-half billion miles of EV driving data per year.
In the next five years, downtime management will evolve into efficiency management, privacy protection will gain greater importance as vehicles generate increasing volumes of data, and there will be a  convergence of technologies such as V2V communication, communicating with fleet management tech, vendor tech, and client tech.


This episode is sponsored by ⁠U.S. Bank⁠.



📰 Sign up for the ⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet newsletter⁠⁠⁠.

🚗 ⁠⁠⁠Visit Automotive Fleet⁠⁠⁠ for more fleet industry content.

🎥 You can watch these episodes on the ⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠!

The 139th State of the Fleet Industry video produced by Automotive Fleet offers insights into the state of the fleet market as presented by AF Editor Mike Antich.

 

🎙Today's topics include:


One of the top trends impacting fleet managers is ongoing sourcing constraints to acquire replacement vehicles amplified by logistics delays throughout the entire order-to-delivery process.
The average age of fleet vehicles is increasing. The limited availability of replacement vehicles has forced fleets to extend the service lives of those vehicles currently in service. This has resulted in fleet managers being forced to operate older vehicles in a high-mileage fleet environment, resulting in the inevitable uptick in unscheduled maintenance.
The difficulty in sourcing replacement vehicles has caused fleet managers to use multiple OEMs or to compromise and settle for vehicles that may not be their first choice but are a secondary choice to fulfill the fleet application. This creates complexity in maintenance schedules due to the diversity in models in operation.
Inflationary price pressures and higher interest rates are putting upward pressure on total fleet costs, such as fleet acquisition expenses aggravated by lower or no fleet incentives, higher repair expenses, higher labor rates, and the ongoing price increases of replacement parts.

This episode is sponsored by U.S. Bank.



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🚗 ⁠⁠Visit Automotive Fleet⁠⁠ for more fleet industry content.

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This episode of Fleet Momentum is sponsored by and created in partnership with Fleet Response. 🤝


Catalytic Converter thefts have reached epidemic proportions, with thefts up 288% in just two years. In this Fleet Momentum episode, Chris Brown, Bobit associate publisher, discusses how fleets can address the issue with Richard Jacko and Lindsey Fade of Fleet Response.



Fleet Momentum videos are designed to shine a spotlight on key industry leaders, trends, and products for fleet management.

Topics discussed:


Who is Fleet Response and how do they serve fleets?
What is a catalytic converter and what is its main
function?
Is there still a backlog of orders and sourcing issues
for catalytic converters?
How would you guide fleets on replacement options – OE
versus aftermarket?
What vehicle models are thieves targeting for catalytic converter theft?
What are some common-sense deterrents to help fleets
prevent catalytic converter thefts?

📰 Sign up for the ⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet newsletter⁠⁠⁠.

🚗 Visit Automotive Fleet for more fleet industry content ➡ ⁠⁠⁠https://www.automotive-fleet.com⁠⁠⁠

Follow and connect with Automotive Fleet on social media!


Connect with ⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠.
Like ⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet on Facebook⁠⁠⁠.
Follow ⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet on Twitter⁠⁠⁠.

🎥 You can watch these episodes on the ⁠⁠⁠Automotive Fleet YouTube channel⁠⁠⁠!