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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.
With the 2009 model-year behind us and 2010 model-year ordering in progress, how will 2010-MY order-to-delivery times (OTD) fare? Some foresee the 2010 model-year being a challenging one for OTD (not as challenging as 2009-MY, however), but one that could result in longer than normal delivery times.
Read More →Fuel costs, the largest fleet operating expense, declined dramatically in the 2009 calendar-year due to a sharp decline in worldwide fuel consumption. Also, many fleets downsized, due to widespread corporate layoffs, which lowered overall fuel spend. However, maintenance and repair costs increased in 2009, primarily due to vehicles kept in service for longer periods as a result of corporations slashing capital expenditures. Open the blog for a forecast of 2010 operating cost trends.
Read More →The popularity of texting has skyrocketed over the past four years. All agree that texting and driving are incompatible. However, a texting ban could have unintended consequences of interfering with productivity devices business drivers and truckers rely on. There are numerous ramifications to overzealous prohibitions on the use of on-board electronic communications that potentially may be counter-productive to driver safety. Let's target unsafe driving behavior, not on-board productivity tools.
Read More →The multitude of factors buffeting order-to-delivery (OTD) times for commercial fleets during the 2009 model-year were breathtaking and historic. To say the 2009 model-year was a difficult year for new-vehicle deliveries would be an extreme understatement.
Read More →Many companies are wondering whether they are charging enough for personal use. At some companies, this discussion is long overdue. When re-evaluating personal use charges, a common mistake is to focus solely on the cost of fuel. However, doing so ignores the other “hidden” costs of personal use, which have also risen.
Read More →Let's face it, some companies don't take fleet as seriously as they say they do. For them, fleet is not core to their business. The refrain is: We're in the "widget" business, not the car business. Internal corporate politics introduces many gray areas to fleet management such as making fleet decisions based on favoritism, giving lip service to safety, greenwashing, and pressuring suppliers for favors.
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