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Mike Antich
Former Editor and Associate Publisher
Automotive Fleet's former editor, Mike Antich, shared his opinions and ideas on the overall commercial fleet industry and draws interesting comments from fleet managers and other industry professionals from across the country. Mike was inducted in the Fleet Hall of Fame in 2010.
The cliché in fleet management is that trucks are kept in service until the wheels "fall off." In many cases, this isn’t too far from the truth. Typically, the more expensive the asset, the longer it will be kept in service, especially units upfitted with expensive auxiliary equipment. However, as study after study shows, extended truck replacement cycles often have the unintended consequence of resulting in greater long-term expenses and degradation in worker productivity.
Read More →Nearly all fleet-related expenses, both fixed and operating, are influenced by when a vehicle is taken out of service. A growing number of fleets are shifting to more flexible vehicle replacement cycles. Some fleets no longer call their replacement cycle a policy and instead call it a “guideline.” They want to reserve the right on determining when to take a vehicle out of service based on prevailing market conditions rather than predetermined mileage and months in service.
Read More →Upfitters are feeling the pressure from the increase in the number of upfitted vehicles requiring a ship-thru, which is overwhelming some installers and body builders. Also, many upfitter-related OTD issues are the result of OEM quality holds. Oftentimes, upfitted units are held at the body company due to limited storage space at the assembly plants caused by quality hold backlogs. This prevents the release of upfitted units into OEM traffic for final delivery via ship-thru/freight re-entry.
Read More →There are many similarities between eco-driving techniques and safe-driving techniques. In fact, there’s a direct correlation between safe driving and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It’s been proven: the safer the driver, the lower the GHG emissions.
Read More →Within the context of fleet management, the concept of megatrends is used to identify economic and technological forces that can potentially alter our present-day industry in game-changing ways. Among the current megatrends that can potentially alter fleet as we know it are a higher interest rate environment, a higher taxation environment, leap-frogging technology, changing fleet demographics, and higher acquisition costs.
Read More →Although fleet management requires a strategic perspective, the reality is that it is a detail-oriented profession. The job requires paying attention to a multitude of details crucial to ensuring a well-run fleet. But, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. A case in point is license plate disposition.
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