Q. How can GPS vehicle tracking lower my insurance premiums?
A. While insurance companies do not require all vehicles to have GPS systems installed, there are a number of benefits for fleet owners and the greater...
A. Imagine waking up one day to no fuel, damaged roads, and unknown damage to your fleet of 500 vehicles. It’s the ultimate nightmare for a business with any exposure at all to mobility. That’s a scenario managers of fleets and transportation systems across the United States would rather not contemplate. But it only takes one that’s poorly timed and poorly placed to crimp mobility, hamstring business operations and leave companies vulnerable to big losses. Some businesses fail if cut off from their customers for a week -- or even a day. For others, 100% uptime isn’t just nice, it’s mission-critical.
It’s easy to not prepare for something that only has a minor chance of affecting your business. After all, prior to last year, when Hurricane Harvey blasted the petroleum refining patch around Houston, the U.S. had gone a decade without a major hurricane landfall. If you’re among those of us who don’t like pushing our luck, here are some of the biggest issues for fleet-focused businesses and agencies to monitor.
Develop a written preparedness plan, and train your employees to implement it. The plan should outline how you will protect vehicles and equipment, and identifies which employees play essential roles during a disaster.
Within the physical plant, patch roofs and windows, check security and flood lighting, identify loose items in outside areas that may become missiles, check your emergency backup generator (and consider renting or purchasing one if you do not have one), and move vehicles to any obtainable satellite parking areas at higher ground.
Determine if computer support will be available for users who need to remain operational.
Verify that communications equipment is operational.
Identify and protect vital records such as accounts receivable, customer records, tax records, human resources documents, etc.
Review insurance policies. Are you in an evacuation area? Does your insurance include wind/storm coverage? Is the facility in a flood prone area? Is the flood insurance adequate?
Speaking of insurance, get an Emergency Fuel plan. It’s not too late to sign up now for a plan that functions basically like insurance: You pay a pre-set monthly fee and sign a contract that assures you will have access to a set amount of fuel, delivered right to your fleet, even if the civilian distribution network is idle. For firefighters, first responders, utility companies and other mission-critical fleets, Emergency Fuel means 100% uptime and at least a little peace of mind. The downside is paying for something you may not need.
For drivers: Check with your dispatcher to verify operational status before hitting the road. If you are operational, strategize routes less affected by river rise, sewer overflows, low-lying areas and other flood risks. Use a premium GPS tracking solution like WEX Telematics to help optimize routing and avoid chokepoints, in any weather.
If you are driving in heavy rain, safely exit the road, stay in the vehicle and turn on the emergency flashers. Never drive into flooded areas; if flood waters rise around your car, abandon the vehicle and move to higher ground.
Contact your local emergency management agency for information before you drive.
In a damaged area, avoid contact with electrical equipment, cords, metal and water.
After the event: Prepare for price shocks that averaged 10 to 30 cents per gallon during Harvey, for at least a week. The WEX Connect mobile app can help you and your drivers locate which gas stations are still in operation in your area, and which have the best pricing based on real-time fueling data.
Hurricanes are a fact of life for everyone. But many of our businesses simply cannot allow them to cause major disruption. Profits are one thing, but protecting public and employee safety may be the ultimate test of how a business weathers a tough storm.
Senior Vice President and General Manager
A. While insurance companies do not require all vehicles to have GPS systems installed, there are a number of benefits for fleet owners and the greater...
A. The latest fleet management solutions will take advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide fleet operators a wide range of benefits over the lifetime of their vehicles. These could include seamless payments, reduced fuel spend, driving analytics...
A. Drivers are often at the backbone of your daily operations, so it’s important to keep them satisfied and loyal to your business, especially given recruitment challenges that appear to be getting tougher. So, companies need every advantage to help drivers overcome challenges and eliminate some of the obstacles out on the road. One way they can do that...
A. When many people think of automation, they think of self-driving; however, automation is everything from robotics in logistics to automated payment software—both of which help the fleet industry progress and its partners succeed. The innovation behind WEX’s Fleet One Factoring helps partners keep...
A. Adding telematics to your fleet card lets you monitor operations almost second-by-second, to spot performance outliers and inefficiencies that often go unseen from just a fuel file or activity report. So, this helps government fleet managers get more out of...
A. Beyond the big one – a shortage of drivers -- three common challenges fleet managers tell us about: overabundance of administrative tasks, rising cost of fuel, lack of transparency in their business operations. WEX can help overcome all these. That’s why fleet...
A. Customization is the future. It’s true in many retail industries and we’re already seeing that with many of our customers. They don’t necessarily want high-technology. They just want the right...
A. Mobile fuel payments are more secure than the physical card swipe because, with mobile, there’s no physical contact between the card and the fueling terminal. So, there’s no way for the information on your card to be swiped, so to speak. That’s the short answer. The longer answer is...
A. Yes. In June, WEX and ChargePoint announced a merchant agreement we believe will expand electic vehicle charging to fleets throughout the U.S. Now, up to 11 million WEX Fleet cardholders can pay for charges at more than 66,000 places to charge on the ChargePoint network. We tested and developed...
A. It’s an umbrella term that really encompasses a lot, depending on who is speaking. Is it driver assist technology? Is it autonomous vehicles? Navigation and traffic apps? EV charging? Payments? Emergency road service? It’s all of those things, and will become...
A. WEX got started by creating a number of different technological controls to help companies with vehicles manage their fuel spend, and we attended a Connected Car conference in southern California in June to showcase how...
A. Well, we’re already there with many of our products. Things like telematics -- collecting the data and helping to reduce accidents and help driver safety, optimizing routes, those kinds of things – have been in our arsenal for a while, about 17 years. DriverDash is a mobile fuel payments platform now...
A. Partnership has been a core WEX value forever. And some of the legacy partners that we have are evolving, so those partnerships are looking and feeling a little different as everyone continues to evolve their products. We had a discussion with one of our big, long-standing FMC partners, and traditionally it's been supplying cards and fuel management service to their customers. But as they're starting to develop different mobile applications...
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