2022: New Trends In Internet of Vehicles (IOV)

The IoV, or Internet of Vehicles, is the next step in the evolution of transports. With sensors that acquire information from the vehicle, environment,  behavior from  drivers and possibly even information from other vehicles, we open the door to possibilities like better routing and navigation, traffic management and control of air pollution caused by vehicles. The value of the global IoV market was $66,075 million in 2017, and is projected to reach  $208,107 million by 2024. 

(From the Report: Internet of Vehicle Market by Allied Market Research)

 

But what is IoV?

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is a subset of the Internet of Things (IoT). There’s a growing need for intelligent and connected devices that help us in daily life. IoT devices – smart mobiles, refrigerators, watches, fire alarms, medical sensors, fitness trackers, sensors of autonomous cars, or any other smart objects – satisfy that desire, and the market is booming. IoV solutions combine inside vehicle networks and vehicular mobile internet. 

Next-generation mobile technologies will play a crucial role in how the automotive industry evolves. It will mean manufacturers can better manage complex supply chains by embedding data into the systems used for buying and delivery decisions. Robotic manufacturing will be taken to a new level by pulling together data across multiple production sites to crowdsource machine learning.

5G will enable fleet managers to monitor and control the parameters from remote locations through smartphones. 

As a new generation of vehicles gets embedded with IoT-powered sensors, they will produce vast data continuously. GPS tracking systems can give information about hard acceleration, mileage, and excessive speeding, allowing fleet owners to look deep into such data to promote safe driving. At the same time, data generated from vehicle telematics systems can assist in the dynamic mapping of roadway conditions to help drivers understand high-risk routes.

Embracing new trends will help decision-makers to remain competitive and keep track of vehicles, so they can improve efficiency, driver performance and offer real-time updates to customers.

 

 

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How tax refunds can affect your fleet

Tax refunds can reduce fuel costs, but still, many companies lose a lot of money each year by not accurately filing for fuel tax refunds. You can surely save your company a great deal with Link2Pump managing process. 

In 1933, the federal gasoline excise tax was implemented and taxed each gallon of gas at one cent. Current federal gasoline rates in May 2019 have escalated to 24.4 cents for each gallon of diesel and 18.4 cents per gallon of gas. 

Fleet managers often fail to accurately file for all the on-road taxes for the diesel fuel that is used to power tax-exempt processes of non-road everyday equipment, including concrete mixers, dump trucks and other construction site machinery.

Concrete producers and contractors can secure significant federal and state tax rebates for the fuel not used for on-highway activities, on average about 60 cents per gallon. Knowing and gathering the proper data, can offer fleet managers massive rebates. 

Paperless fueling systems can be incorporated into a software that helps fleet managers accurately track how each gallon was used, reducing recording errors. Armed with this important data, fleet managers can reconcile all the information needed for filing for fuel tax refunds. 

Link2Pump can easily track and reconcile all information required for filing fuel tax refund claims with a one-click report. It is easy to save money with our service. The best part is that facilitating the tax refunds process is one of the many features of our equipment, and you don’t have to pay anything extra for it. 

So with Link2Pump you can automate your managing process, have up to 25% fuel savings, more than 10 hours in time savings, and have your fuel tax refunds made easy. If you want to learn more about our solution and are searching for alternatives to improve bottom line and productivity, please get in touch.

 

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How will the chip shortage affect your fleet

Do you happen to know how much a semiconductor costs? One to two dollars. A whole car costs from 40 thousand – just to give you an idea of ​​the proportion. However, this little electronic David, the basis of integrated circuits, is bringing the great Goliath to its knees: a flea – also in its size – with the strength of a lion.

Because of the lack of chips, the production lines of almost all manufacturers have reduced production or even stopped. Reason: the disappearance of semiconductors. It’s the chip shortage.

If there are no major changes to a variant of COVID-19 (with more lockdowns), the forecast is that only in the middle of the year will the situation begin to normalize. Some experts predict a new normal only in 2023.

Semiconductors are essential in new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, IoT, cloud computing, autonomous vehicles and the entire repertory of 5G solutions. But they are equally in everyday devices, like our smartphone or washing machine. That’s why this dependence, when unbalanced, causes global damage.

With this in mind, you must know that fleet costs are expected to increase as production delays caused by the microchip shortage are delaying vehicle replacements. This can have a negative impact on fleet budgets in one particular way: higher fleet maintenance costs.

Knowing that maintenance costs can be higher, and you can have vehicles stopped due to lack of parts, more than ever it is important to be aware of preventive maintenance of the fleet.

This type of maintenance aims to reduce excessive expenses with the fleet, as it is based on scheduling stops in advance for adjustments, lubrication, and replacement of components. Its cost is usually between 30% to 40% lower than the other modalities, in addition to increasing the time between maintenance, increasing safety, and reducing the probability of problems on the road. It also ensures that you have time to come up with workarounds if you don’t find what you need to solve the problem.

To use these benefits, it is necessary to draw up a maintenance plan: in an agenda, or a fleet management software, point out which vehicles and components will be overhauled and the respective dates. Do it in a way that meets the need for maintenance of each type of vehicle, in addition to not leaving the fleet without enough units to operate and meet the demand of the company and its customers.

 

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What is fleet management? All you need to know

Managing a fleet of vehicles, no matter how large or small, involves keeping track of many moving parts. Every task related to owning and maintaining a fleet is considered an element of management, and is a fast-growing trend. Here’s what fleet management can do for you.

Fleet management is a function for businesses and agencies that rely on transportation for their products or services. It is designed to control costs, manage productivity and reduce risks. The activity of fleet management can drive valuable benefits for an organization such as increasing efficiency in vehicle acquisition, fuel management, strengthening compliance and increasing employee safety.

But why do businesses use fleet management?

When you purchase or lease a vehicle, you also need to factor in the many costs that come along with ownership. This includes storage, insurance, gas prices, registration, title, and maintenance. Now imagine being responsible for all those components for an entire fleet of vehicles. A fleet management solution allows businesses to view data on all of these expenses within one app, which can take a lot of the headaches out of managing vehicles.

Fleet Management Benefits

With consumers often expecting instant gratification and next-day delivery, implementing fleet management is absolutely essential for companies to maximize their resources and promote growth. Here are some of the top benefits of fleet management:

  1. Driver training and compliance.

This can include general administration, driver license reviews, data preservation, compliance reporting and driver instruction in adherence with local, regional, or national compliance standards.

  1. Fleet maintenance.

Fleet maintenance is the management of policies and processes designed to keep company vehicles in safe and reliable operating conditions to protect drivers and residual value.

  1. Contract management and fiscal planning.

Negotiating contracts for new vehicles and equipment, vehicle replacement forecasting, disposing of out-of-service vehicles and equipment, and managing fleet contracts for parts, service, and fuel are central to the practice of fleet management.

  1. Fuel management.

Fleet managers are responsible for managing fuel types as well as the repair and related compliance procedures associated with them. In this topic, you can count on Link2Pump. Link2Pump offers a simple solution that automates the entire fueling and tracking process. This way, you will always know where every drop of fuel is going, keep your inventory under control and do much more to drive fuel efficiency and performance to your fleet.

If you want to learn more about our solution and are looking for alternatives to improve bottom line and productivity, please get in touch.

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Advanced trucks could increase driver retention

Fleet companies are facing challenges in the retention and recruitment of drivers at an especially risky moment. Drivers are needed now more than ever before to progress in migrating the shipment of goods, food, medicine, and vaccines globally. 

Retention is especially important for drivers, as the current market is tight. The most recent ACT Research For-Hire Trucking Index revealed a Driver Availability Index that significantly decreased to a new low of 16.7 in March, down from its previous low of 23.6 in February.  

The most recent data on driver turnover from ATA comes from the fourth quarter of 2020, which reported that for the year, the turnover rate at large fleets averaged 89%, two points higher than the previous year.

While it may be easier to blame the staggering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced by the numbers, this has been a problem for many years.

Compensation programs are frequently discussed to allure new drivers and hold onto existing ones. However, fleets are now starting to utilize other strategies for driver recruitment and retention. 

The average cost of onboarding a new driver usually exceeds $10,000 for many companies. That’s why it’s very important to retain their existing drivers to avoid paying this costly onboarding expense. 

Modern trucks come with advanced technology, advanced safety features, and less maintenance and repair problems, which means less downtime and breakdowns on the road. This allows drivers to often return home to their families at the end of the day and operate trucks on their routes with the assurance that they will most likely avoid breakdowns on the side of the road.  

Fuel management systems also can help, because, with automated supply, the logistics become much more agile: times are shortened and you no longer depend on external factors that reduce business efficiency. Fleet management systems provide everything you need to develop a preventative maintenance schedule, helping you manage maintenance costs.

If you want to learn more about our solution and are looking for alternatives to improve the bottom line and productivity, please, get in touch.

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Equipment finance industry confidence improves in July

The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation released the July 2021 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI). The index reports a qualitative assessment of both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives from the $900 billion equipment finance sector. Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market is 72.9, an increase from the June index of 71.3.

Some of the results are: 
  • When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 58.6% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, up from 42.3% in June. 41.4% believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, down from 57.7% the previous month. None believe business conditions will worsen, unchanged from June.

 

  • 55.2% of the survey respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures (capex) will increase over the next four months, up from 51.9% in June. 41.4% believe demand will “remain the same” during the same four-month time period, a decrease from 48.2% the previous month. 3.5% believe demand will decline, up from none in June.

 

  • 27.6% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “excellent,” an increase from 22.2% the previous month. 72.4% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “fair,” down from 77.8% in June. None evaluate it as “poor,” unchanged from last month.

 

  • 48.3% of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, a decrease from 51.9% in June. 51.7% indicate they believe the U.S. economy will “stay the same” over the next six months, an increase from 48.2% last month. None believe economic conditions in the U.S. will worsen over the next six months, unchanged from the previous month.
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Vehicle Telemetry: what you need to know

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In fleet management, it is very important to keep looking for new technologies that help the control system of different KPIs, such as fuel, routes, loads, mechanics, drivers, among others. Vehicle telemetry is yet another of the digital innovations that assist in this process, collecting vehicle information remotely.

With telemetry, it is possible to check speed, distance, location, downtime, and fuel consumption. In this way, operations are optimized and controlled in real-time to verify all the information necessary for effective fleet management.

How does it work? 

Vehicle data is generated in real-time. The onboard computer is essential in this process since telemetry is the management system with all the data collected. The system is usually wireless, whether radio or satellite, to identify all the information.

Usually, equipment is installed in vehicles, which arrive wirelessly at a server, accessed by the manager. The data can be tracked in any environment, and bring opportunities to further optimize the functioning of the processes. 

Fleet managers can make a mapping according to the required KPI, seeing issues such as mileage on specific routes, and more. Telemetry is a tool to manage the vehicle’s handling, but the system can be even more detailed, also controlling fuel consumption.

That is why your telemetry tool must integrate with other solutions, like fuel management, for example. This way the vehicles in the fleet that are monitored by the telemetry system are fueled according to the release determined by the manager.

There are a lot of benefits that telemetry can bring to your business. Increased security, cost reduction, conservation and security of assets, and optimization of processes are just a few of them.

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What to expect at World of Concrete 2021

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World of Concrete has been serving the global concrete & masonry construction industries for 46 years. The event connects and educates buyers and sellers through live and digital events throughout the year. 

The face-to-face event normally takes place every January or February in Las Vegas. This year the World of Concrete Las Vegas was rescheduled to take place on June 8 – 10. 

“Moving the event from winter to late spring in 2021 will allow additional outdoor activities that everyone can enjoy in the big city of Las Vegas,” says Jackie James, director of World of Concrete Group.

Drawing record numbers year after year, the 2021 World of Concrete, sometimes referred to as the Concrete Convention Las Vegas will feature a week of exciting new products, cutting-edge technologies, the latest equipment, exciting spectator events and competitions, and more than 150 educational sessions including luncheons, interactive workshops, and industry hands-on training.

Important! There will be no onsite registration this year due to new COVID safety protocols. You must register online before coming to the show.

With a detailed set of measures developed collaboratively with industry associations, event organizers, and venues, World of Concrete aims to deliver the highest levels of hygiene and safety at its event, providing everyone with reassurance and confidence they are participating in a safe and controlled environment. 

They recommend that every attendee read the safety requirements needed to enter the event, along with safety and hygiene measures guests can expect.

Early this year Link2Pump was part of World of Concrete Virtual Industry Forum. Over 300 industry professionals attended our VP of Sales session on how to reduce fleet costs by managing and claiming fuel tax rebates. Concrete producers and contractors can secure significant federal and state tax rebates for the fuel not used for on-highway activities, on average about 60 cents per gallon.

Have you already scheduled to go to the event this year?

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What have fleet managers learned in 2020?

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2020 brought a great lesson for business. It showed the need for preparation, connectivity and resilience. Fleets across industries have had to navigate uncertainty and adapt to new ways of operating. It was a year that forced fleet leaders to evolve continually, learning how to operate in totally new ways and, especially, doing more with less. 

As we enter in 2021, it’s time to think how fleet managers can apply what they’ve learned in 2020 to help shape future plans and practices? Let’s look at some scenarios. 

Adapt your business model

Many fleet leaders had to evaluate their existing business models, with some pivoting  to  service  essential  industries. One  example  of  this change  involved  repurposing  fleet  vehicles  to  fulfill  last-mile  delivery. If your fleet is not being fully utilized, you can look up and find new markets to operate. 

Keep a good relationship with suppliers

Fleet management companies depend on supplier relationships. These relationships can become complicated when fleets have reduced needs, such as fewer tires, less preventive maintenance, or a pause in vehicle acquisitions. 

The best you can do to prevent the loss of relationships with suppliers is to be proactive in their outreach. When business gets back at full capacity, the transition back to regular work will be complicated if supplier relationships haven’t been maintained. Remember that they are fundamental to your business and make the necessary effort so that the relationship remains healthy.

Identify possibilities for automation

From GPS tracking to fuel management, there are a lot of opportunities to automate your fleet operation. Automated operations can help to make  the  transition  to  remote  work  easier, for example. With automation you can manage, control, analyze, optimize, and schedule tasks for your business. Automated processes also help to save time and money. 

Controlling vehicle costs and yields in relation to usage indicates how much each item in your fleet is consuming. This measure is essential to generate savings in the short and long term, as well as to verify the performance of each truck. With Link2Pump you can control your fuel supply quickly and intelligently. We can install our system in your fuel pumps, ensuring safety and data accuracy for managing your fleet. All fleet fueling data is sent in real time to the system and only authorized drivers and vehicle are able to pump fuel. In addition, you can generate several reports, with all fuel consumption information. If you want to learn more about our solution, get in touch . 

Stay more connected than ever 

Working from home it’s not new, but the trend has increased as governments all over the world have introduced lockdowns in a bid to fight the coronavirus. For some it was a very bad experience, but many others want the flexibility to continue. Companies are not only adapting their policies to allow working from home, they’re also downsizing their offices and other expenses. 

That’s why it is very important that you hire talented managers for fleet, mobility, facilities and other key departments. Managers who are connected with the present and future of the company and are ready to act.

These are some lessons to anticipate solutions for the future and it is also an opportunity to make your business thrive in difficult times. One thing is certain, data-based technology is already making a difference in many companies.

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Benefits of having a fuel management system

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A very common question today is: Do I have to set up a fuel supply system for my company’s fleet or continue to refuel at gas stations? If your company has a minimum demand , you can start thinking about enjoying the benefits of your fleet supply system.

Agility and speed in routine

With automated supply, the logistics become much more agile: times are shortened and you no longer depend on external factors that reduce business efficiency. In addition to being able to be placed in strategic locations, a fuel management solution allows the entire fueling process, including vehicle identification and odometer reading, to be completed very quickly.

Avoid and reduce fraud

Another important point is to avoid and reduce fraud. Companies tend to lose a lot of money in the risk management process. A software system solves this issue by ascertaining that the right vehicle is fueled at the right time and place. Indeed, managers can monitor their fleet conveniently and at all times.

Focus on your core activities

You can also increase focus on your core activities, as management of fuel can consume a lot of time from your time. After engaging a professional to build an on-demand fuel delivery app, most of the manual work is handled by the features and tools. It is, therefore, possible to focus on other management functions such as planning, controlling, and coordinating activities to achieve goals. 

Improve maintenance

Fleet management systems provide everything you need to develop a preventative maintenance schedule, helping you manage maintenance costs. Kilometers traveled, engine hours, fuel usage. These are some of the data points that can be used to create a preventative maintenance schedule. 

Easy fuel tax refund

In most states and for the federal government, motor fuel excise taxes are collected and designated for highway and road construction and maintenance. So, fleets using fuel for powering vehicles and equipment at off-road applications may qualify for federal and state-level refunds. Some fuel management systems, like Link2Pump, easily track and reconcile all information needed for filing fuel tax refund claims with one-click reports. 

The real picture of the operation

Fleet management software gives you a more comprehensive picture of your fleet’s operations. When you have this well-rounded view of your fleet, you can expand it more efficiently. By understanding your current fleet, you can find opportunities to bring in more jobs.

So, to sum up, the main advantages of installing your own fueling point are:

  • Fuel quality assurance, reducing the risk of fraud and ensuring that the entire fleet can have the same performance;
  • Elimination of the costs of moving machinery/vehicles to the gas station;
  • Practicality and speed of supply, since it will have the availability of supply 24 hours;
  • Fuel tax refund; 
  • Centralization and rationalization of consumption control. 

If you want to learn more about our solution and are looking for alternatives to improve bottom line and productivity, please, get in touch.

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