Over the past several decades, the purchasing managers of yesteryear reinvented themselves into procurement professionals whose function is now viewed as a strategic asset that provides a competitive advantage to a corporation. Can fleet management, likewise, elevate its perceived value to a corporation, especially in the eyes of its senior management? I say yes, and the timing is right to do so.
Conventional wisdom in the fleet market is often wrong. If we roll back the calendar, the conventional wisdom about fuel prices was that there would be ebbs and flows in price per gallon rates, but the overall price trajectory would trend upward. The flaw with conventional wisdom is that it only works when no new variables are inserted into future projections. A case in point is the shale oil revolution, which now has experts predicting oil prices will remain flat for the foreseeable future.
Two of every five vocational truck fleet managers plan to increase their vehicle count in 2017 and more than half now use telematics, according to the NTEA's 2017 Fleet Purchasing Outlook.
Final government forecasts for diesel, gasoline and oil prices before 2017 gets underway are in with two of the three calling for double-digit percentage hikes compared to this year.
A rising supply of used pickups coupled with aggressive pricing for new models is expected to cause a weakening in values in the wholesale market, according to new data from Black Book.
General Motors should gain market share by replacing 88% of its light-duty lineup by 2020, while Volkswagen and Korean automakers are relying too heavily on cars with consumer demand shifting toward SUVs and trucks, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst.
A new fuel price forecast from the U.S. Energy Department shows little change from expectations a month ago for the price of diesel, but the outlook for gasoline has moved a little higher.
Commercial fleets will register a lower growth percentage of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2016, but feed strong demand for aftermarket parts, according to a new forecast from IHS Automotive.
Although the largest operating cost continues to be fuel, the No. 1 challenge facing medium-duty truck fleets is cost containment. There is always pressure to reduce costs, but management is exerting even more pressure than in recent years.
The number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations worldwide is expected to grow to more than 12.7 million units by 2020 from more than 1 million units in last year.
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