Fleet Europe °113

113 01/2020

FOR INTERNATIONAL FLEET & MOBILITY LEADERS

NEW ENERGIES Gnewt, the largest e-LCV fleet in UK

LAST MILE

What 95g/km CO2 means for your fleet

INNOVATION AWARD

Europe vs Asia

Nexus communication - Fleet Europe #113 - Periodic magazine - JANUARY 2020 - Deposit Office X

REMARKETING

ALD enhances MaaS app

HOW TO ROLL OUT A GLOBAL FLEET STRATEGY Jorge Fernรกndez, Roche GLOBAL FLEET MANAGER OF THE YEAR

GLOBAL FLEET CONFERENCE

ROME 25-27 MAY 2020 https://conference.globalfleet.com

LAST MILE 4-10 4

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The e-commerce boom

Why the last-mile business model seems to be flawed.

We wouldn’t be talking about Last Mile Delivery without the tremendous growth of e-commerce over the past few years, and the corresponding rise of urban logistics.

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The global race to deliver your groceries Online grocery shopping is booming. Big automated fulfilment centres are popping up across Europe and North America. But is that the model that will win the race? In Asia, an age-old system of micro-deliveries is getting a high-tech make-over.

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10 When food and parcel delivery would merge

Selecting the ideal telematics partner: OEM or Third-party.

Why aren’t there more food delivery companies sharing resources with parcel logistics operators?

Let’s have a look at the added value of such a merger.

16 Why access to data will form part of fleet procurement criteria.

20 Savings and efficiencies thanks to connectivity.

COLOPHON SALES: David Baudeweyns, Elke Leën, Daniel Savigny, Sven Van Rossum, Aline Verpoorten, Estelle Remacle

FLEET EUROPE #113

CHIEF EDITOR: Steven Schoefs PROJECT COORDINATOR: Céline Gilson EDITORS: Benjamin Uyttebroeck, Dieter Quartier, Yves Helven, Frank Jacobs, Fien Van den Steen

MARKETING: Vincent Degives, Virginie Emonts, Benoit Delisse

CONTRIBUTORS: Stijn Blanckaert, Daniel Bland, Shane Curran, Tim Harrup, Jonathan Manning, Alison Pittaway, Mark Sutcliffe

PICTURES: ©Shutterstock

PUBLISHERS: Caroline Thonnon, Thierry Degives LAYOUT: Cible - www.cible.be

TO CONTACT OUR TEAM: FirstletterfirstnameLastname@nexuscommunication.be 2

CONNECTED

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Connectivity is not telematics The lines between the connected car and telematics are blurring now that carmakers equip their vehicles with eCall and provide databased services. Still, there are some crucial differences.

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Why Europe is losing the 5G race When it comes to 5G, Europe produces excellent ingredients, but America and China bake the cake. Why would they sell it to us cheap?

Urgent action is needed, says Neils Kalnins.

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Savings and efficiencies thanks to connectivity The Global Fleet Survey 2019, conducted with 107 multinational companies, indicates that most fleet managers not only understand the benefits of telematics, but are also actively looking for a solution.

Telematics is no longer considered to be a tool for the logistics industry only.

Gnewt shows how EVs can win in last mile deliveries.

NEW ENERGIES 22

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Get ready for light commercial electrification Now that electric cars are about to break through, the e-wave is also building up in the LCV segment. The focus is on larger vehicles, which are particularly popular with courier companies, but the offer will soon expand to the midfield.

FINANCIAL MODELS 30

Meeting with Jorge Fernández, Global Fleet Manager of the Year.

For VWFS, mobility and multi-brand are the future “2020 will be an important year – for the automotive industry in general but also for us in particular,” says Jochen Schmitz, Head of International Fleet at Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS). VW Group’s finance and fleet management pillar will focus more on integrated mobility and multi-brand services to grow its international corporate customer base.

REMARKETING 31

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Brace for the 2020 e-wave The number 95 will go down in automotive history as one of the most dreaded targets ever. It is the amount of CO2 in grams per kilometre the EU has imposed as a maximum weighted average for all cars OEMs sell this year. Guess what this means in terms of new EV and PHEV models.

MAAS 36

Smart, smarter, smartest: Madrid goes zero-emission and MaaS.

Smart cities get traffic flowing Whether you call them smart or wise, cities have a determining role to play in getting people and goods from A to B. Fleet Europe spoke with Thomas Vith of the city of Vienna and with Michael Glotz-Richter of the city of Bremen about how both cities do this.

SAFETY 38

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ADAS create new road safety risks Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are designed to make traffic safer but in reality they can engender new road safety risks. The independent Dutch Safety Board identified a number of types of new risks that it claims are not yet sufficiently recognised or managed.

Discover more news, features and analyses on the Fleet Europe ecosystem on our website

ALD Customers help build MaaS app

FLEET EUROPE www.fleeteurope.com • Fleet Europe Magazine • @Fleet_Europe • FleetEurope • contact@nexuscommunication.be Fleet Europe is published by Nexus Communication SA - Parc Artisanal 11-13, B-4671 Barchon (Belgium) - T +32 4 387 87 71 - Fax +32 4 387 90 63 Fleet Europe is registered and copyrighted trademark. Reproduction rights (texts, advertisements, pictures) reserved for all countries. Received documents will not be returned. By submitting them, the author implicitly authorizes their publication.

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FLEET EUROPE #113

ADVERTISERS

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THE E-COMMERCE BOOM Frank Jacobs

We wouldn’t be talking about Last Mile Delivery without the tremendous growth of e-commerce over the past few years, and the corresponding rise of urban logistics.

Here are some of the trends powering further growth in Last Mile Delivery.

Online retail has been around since the start of the millennium, and it’s grown slowly and steadily ever since. More and more consumers are comfortable ordering things online, even personal items like clothing or perishables like groceries.

accelerate, and fundamentally shake things up. To understand how it is creating opportunities for new business models – and threats to old ones – it helps to get a sense of just how seismic the shift towards e-commerce is. So, let’s throw some numbers at you.

It seems the phenomenon has now reached enough critical mass to

CHINA

WORLD

$1.93 billion

200 billion parcels by 2025

e-commerce sales in 2018

• 2017: 74 billion parcels sent around the world • 2018: 87 billion parcels sent around the world • By 2021: e-commerce = 17.5% of all retail sales worldwide more than x2 within • By 2025: 200 billion parcels 6 years (according the logistics company Pitney Bowes)

• 2013: China overtook the US as the largest e-commerce market in the world • Online retail market in China: 2017: 17% of total retail sales 2020: 25% expected • India and other Asian markets are following China’s growth trajectory

UNITED STATES millennials do online

60% of their shopping TOP 10

• 2017: 47% 2020: 60% for US millennials (22-37) Mobile: 36% (up from 16%) vs Desktop or laptop: 24% (down from 31%) = shift to totally digital thinking • 64% of US millennials used Amazon for more than half of their online shopping

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• Virtually all used America’s #1 online retailer for at least some online shopping.

Reasons: 1. Availability of online reviews = 43% 2. Attractive pricing = 41% (2019 CouponFollow survey)

e-commerce represents of retail sales

16%

• Except for a small dip around the time of the 2008 recession, e-commerce as a share of total retail sales has grown consistently: 2000: around 1% 2012: over 9.7% 2019: 16%

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Global top 10 of retail e-commerce sales in 2018 (compared to 2017): 1. China

$1.93 bn (+27.3%)

2. US

$587 m (+14%)

2. UK

$142 m (+10.9%)

4. Japan 5. South Korea

$111 m (+4%) $103 m (+18.1%)

6. Germany

$82 m (+7.8%)

7. France

$69 m (+11.5%)

8. Canada

$50 m (+21.1%)

9. India

$46 m (+31.9%)

10. Russia

$27 m (+18.7%)

EUROPE

25% of online orders are

9.3 billion parcels in 2018

for groceries

• 2018: 9.3 billion parcels shipped in Europe • Leaders of the pack: UK and Germany with 3.5 billion parcels each. Both markets are highly consolidated.

TOP 5 CARRIERS IN THE UK 1. Royal Mail

= 75% of parcel deliveries

2. Hermes 3. Amazon 4. DHL 5. UPS

TOP 6 CARRIERS IN GERMANY 1. DHL 2.Hermes 3. UPS 4. DPD 5. GLS

= 98% of the market

• Perishables = one of the most difficult segments for online sales.

• Yet European consumers are starting to embrace online grocery shopping: 2009: 13% By 2018: 25% (almost x2)

+12.6% growth for Ocado, the onlineonly grocery store (see page 6) 3 of the Big Four chains also generate promising revenue online: SAINSBURY’S = 20%

6. FedEx

•

of their turnover online

ASDA = 8% TESCO = 7%

France

Parcel volume: 1.3 billion BIGGEST PLAYER

UK

•

France

•

= La Poste with 45%

E. LECLERC = 8%

of the total volume

CARREFOUR = 4%

e-commerce grows at

e-commerce has an

13%

• European B2C e-commerce turnover growing at an average rate of more than 13% per year.

• 2013: ¤279.3 billion 2019: ¤621 billion expected • 2019: ¤1,464/European on +8.8% online shopping (2018)

of their turnover online

8.8% share

• Growth in Europe has been slower but is still significant: 2012: 4.8% 2018: 8.8% • Figures vary strongly per country:

UK

GERMANY

FRANCE

SWEDEN

NETHERLANDS

2012: 10.6% 2018: 17.8% Outpaces the US

Almost tripled: 5.9% to 15.1%

Nearly doubled: 5.4% to 10.1%

6% to 9.7%

5.7% to 9.1% Grew faster than the European average

20,000 VANS CAN’T BE WRONG

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parcels per capita • 1 of the world’s leading e-commerce markets • 2018: 53 shipped per capita 12.4% increase (2017) • 1 of the highest figures anywhere in the world

• Viewed from the perspective of logistics suppliers, the boom in e-commerce has shifted the focus from long-haul bulk delivery to on-demand retail services. That has a profound impact on the hardware required for the job.

• Amazon, for instance, recently placed an order in the US for 20,000 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans – just to be less reliant on the LCV fleets of traditional players like FedEx and UPS. Those vans will be driven by independent logistics entrepreneurs who can hire up to 40 delivery vehicles from a lease company. Tomorrow’s Last Mile Deliveries clearly have the potential to provide sustenance for a large number of players down the supply chain.

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FLEET EUROPE #113

UK

LAST MILE

THE GLOBAL RACE TO DELIVER YOUR GROCERIES Yves Helven, Frank Jacobs

Online grocery shopping is booming. Big automated fulfilment centres are popping up across Europe and North America. But is that the model that will win the race? In Asia, an age-old system of micro-deliveries is getting a high-tech make-over.

In mid-June, America’s largest supermarket chain Kroger broke ground in Ohio on the first of up to 20 ‘customer fulfilment centres’ it is planning across the country. Kroger is using the knowhow of its British partner Ocado, which started pioneering online grocery deliveries in the UK in 2002.

Jefferies downgraded Kroger stock because they thought its strategy was costly and risky. In their analysis, each ‘shed’ – costing $55 million and taking two to three years to build – could take up to four years to turn a profit. In that time, a lot can happen in the fast-moving world of e-commerce.

Delivery van

Micro-fulfilment

Online-only grocery retailer Ocado operates a network of giant automated warehouses across the UK. As soon as customers enter a shopping list via smartphone or computer, robot pickers in the nearest Ocado ‘shed’ start picking the products on the list from separate stacks. Once assembled, the orders are dispatched by delivery van right to the customer’s door.

Jefferies called Kroger’s partnership with Ocado a “misstep when compared to micro-fulfilment,” which uses the same online order, automated picking and home delivery principles, but on a much smaller scale.

In just over a decade and a half, Ocado has gone far in streamlining and automating its service. And the effort is starting to pay off. Admittedly, Ocado remains the smallest UK grocer (1.4% market share), but its trajectory is very promising. Over the summer, Ocado was the fastest-growing British grocer (+12.6%), while the UK’s Big Four chains (Asda, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and Tesco) all lost market share.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Costly and risky On the heels of its growing success in the UK, Ocado has partnered with chains in Canada, France and now the US to export its business model across the world.

But not everyone in the US is convinced Kroger’s partnership with Ocado is the best way forward. Equity researchers

Instead of a few large locations, micro-fulfilment solution providers envision hundreds of locations across the United States. These are faster and cheaper to build. Because they’re smaller, they can be located closer to consumers. This makes them more cost-effective and efficient.

The Ocado strategy lacks the ability to do quick deliveries, since the sheds are located well outside large metropolitan areas. Walmart, Kroger’s main competitor, is experimenting with micro-fulfilment centres. If upscaled right, it could blow Kroger’s strategy right out of the water.

Asian specifics If smaller is better in terms of lastmile delivery processes, then perhaps Asia has a lesson to teach Europe and North America. The specifics of the Asian situation require some historical perspective, as well as some insight into local processes to transform raw

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material into finished products.

Especially for the produce and food sector, the wider context explains why Asia is approaching on-demand and last mile in a different way. In Europe, food is produced relatively far from consumers. It needs a complex supply chain to reach them at home. In Asia, food is traditionally produced closer to the consumer. This allows groceries to be distributed almost directly from farm to dinner table.

Logistics backbone Yes, there are supermarkets in Asia.

But they were introduced only a few decades ago, because of urbanisation and under Western influence.

The backbone to Asia’s approach to grocery logistics has always been – and remains – home delivery.

In practical terms, food delivery in Asia is either traditional or modern.

Interestingly, both models are boosted by a mobile user experience. Let’s look at the ‘old’ model first. Imagine you need eggs or 18-liter bottles of water for your water dispenser. Consumers go on an app and place an order.

That is sent to couriers on a motorbike who drive around with eggs or water bottles. Geolocation matches the most conveniently located courier. Much like an Uber driver who accepts your ride, the ‘guy on a bike’ will accept your order and deliver to your doorstep.

Payment is in cash, the receipt is available on the app.

Who will win the race to deliver your groceries: the top-down Western model or the bottom-up Eastern one?

Willing takers

The modern system pushes the same principle a lot further. Let’s imagine a shopping list containing multiple items: some vegetables, some meat and some cleaning products. You might prefer one shop for your veggies and another shop for your meat, but not care so much who delivers your Mr Clean.

Building on local specifics, last-mile grocery deliveries in Asia have adopted modern technology to evolve a system that is flexible and sophisticated without being complex and costly. Would it work in the West?

When placing the overall order, various sub-orders go out. Two specific ones are sent to your favorite meat and vegetable shop, whereas the cleaning products will be picked up at the shop that makes most sense from a logistics point of view.

The next command goes out to a delivery person on a motorcycle, who will collect the three items. Payments are made either via credit card on the application, on the dedicated ‘virtual wallet’ function of the app or in cash on delivery.

While the logistics background may be different, the various regions of the world are increasingly similar in terms of technological sophistication and flexible employment. There are certainly plenty of willing takers for high-tech micro-jobs in the West as well.

So perhaps the top-down approach to last-mile grocery delivery by companies like Ocado will produce a bottom-up counter-reaction. Don’t be surprised if your next Uber driver has a carton of eggs or a few large water containers tucked into their car…

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What Europe can learn? Last-mile grocery deliveries in Asia have adopted modern technology to evolve an ageold system that is both flexible and sophisticated.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Multiple items

LAST MILE

IS THE LAST-MILE BUSINESS MODEL FLAWED? Alison Pittaway

What if food delivery companies shared resources with parcel logistics operators?

What if they shared with each other? Let’s have a look at the added value of such a merger.

This is the view of Chris Kirby, founder of collaboration technology start-up Tomorrow’s Journey. Speaking at the International Asset Finance Network in London in September 2019, he primarily referred to new mobility services but his comments could just as easily apply to last-mile delivery.

Kirby argued that this outdated business model needs to be replaced by something that brings together vehicle asset owners and companies that have transport requirements. Too many vehicles are sitting idle while transport demands increase. The solution is not to add more resources to the fleet, it’s to collaborate – even with competitors.

Cooperating with competitors This type of relationship is often referred to as ‘Coopetition’; simply defined as a value-creating synergy between two competing companies.

The assets of one are used to add value to the product or services of another, without compromising either.

An example of this is where both UPS and FedEx use the Postal Service in the USA to provide last-mile delivery for a significant portion of their ground parcels.

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However, Kirby’s view is that the concept can go further and help address the challenge of creating profitability while supplying a cost benefit and convenience factor to consumers.

The future he sees is where one vehicle can be put to many uses. A car, for example, can be used for carsharing in the morning, parcel delivery in the afternoon and by an Uber driver at night.

Chris Kirby, Tomorrow’s Journey: “The ‘one vehicle, operated by one company, to provide one service’ approach to last-mile delivery must be changed.”

One vehicle, many uses His company has built what they term “a collaborative digital ecosystem that connects underutilised vehicle assets”.

Named JRNY, the platform logs vehicles from multiple owners, aggregates them to understand their availability and what they can be used for and allows them to be accessed by multiple service providers. Essentially, this creates numerous sources of utilisation for each vehicle.

Vehicle owners, ranging from businesses to fleets, local authorities, leasing companies and rental firms can use the system to list underutilised assets. The service is currently in trial phase but the company has

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attracted notable funding and support from a variety of players. Projects underway include OEM pool car fleet management, dealer-based rental optimisation, free-floating carshare, on-demand rental, university bikesharing and food delivery.

Looking at the last-mile business model from the point of view that there are already underused vehicle resources available, it’s not difficult to see the solution to the flaw. What is needed, however, is a broadening of mindset to include collaboration and technology platforms that support it.

It’s never just another delivery. It’s being efficient and flexible. It’s about precision, planning and keeping track of the next steps.

Just like your vehicle.

IT’S NOT JUST A PROACE CITY. IT’S A TOYOTA.

• • • • •

Toyota Warranty Toyota Service Smart Cargo Toyota Traction Select Toyota Finance

• • • •

Smart Load Indicator Smart Active Vision Toyota Safety Sense Customised Accessories

LAST MILE

WHEN FOOD AND PARCEL DELIVERY WOULD MERGE Alison Pittaway

What if food delivery companies shared resources with parcel logistics operators?

What if they shared with each other? Let’s have a look at the added value of such a merger. hyper-localised zones and its Editions restaurant kitchen facilities.

Locating meal production out of town takes pressure off the sit-in city centre restaurant and puts it closer to parcel distribution facilities, making it easier for the two to merge services.

It’s this data that’s key to answering the questions posed earlier – could the answer lie in a merging of fulfilment and delivery services between food and parcels?

Spain’s Glovo is an interesting model.

Founded in January 2015 by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, the company offers to “deliver anything”, including food, groceries and pharmaceuticals and have it delivered “within minutes”.

Merging delivery services for food and parcels would be the sustainable path to follow.

There are important reasons why these questions should be considered and not dismissed as hypothetical whimsy.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Food delivery companies, such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Takeaway. com (which agreed a merger earlier this year) and Glovo, have spent the last decade redefining ‘the last-mile’.

The creation of a delivery service for consumers has also provided a turnkey logistics solution for restaurants that wouldn’t otherwise have them.

causing serious problems for citybased restaurants that offer delivery services, plus throwing last-mile parcel delivery into havoc.

Managing customer expectations

Curbing Congestion

Another issue is the “Amazon Effect”, which is putting pressure on business leaders to increase speed of delivery on all sorts of goods, not just food.

Through Amazon Prime, next-day deliveries have become commonplace and the default customer expectation.

Food consumers expect food deliveries within minutes.

The problem currently, with everyone doing their own thing, is too much traffic clogging up city streets, taking up kerbside parking space and spewing out fossil fuel emissions. This is

Deliveroo has been borrowing ideas from logistics since the beginning and is using data to design unique fulfilment approaches, including

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Catching customers when they’re in Another advantage for B2C parcel delivery companies to share resources with food delivery is in the area of scheduling. Rather than trying to deliver during the working day when most consumers are out, evenings and weekends are when food deliveries are most popular and people are in. The potential for this to reduce the nuisance of unsuccessful delivery attempts is huge.

As cities become less and less vehicle-friendly and last-mile demand continues to increase the complexity of delivering, fleet operators in these sectors are digging deep to find solutions. Perhaps data will show that one answer is to partner up on resources.

Apply data to GO Electric with confidence.

Learn more at geotab.com/ev Š 2020 Geotab Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CONNECTED

CONNECTIVITY IS NOT TELEMATICS @DieterQuartier

The lines between the connected car and telematics are blurring now that carmakers equip their vehicles with eCall and provide data-based services. Still, there are some crucial differences.

Connectivity is basically the technology that allows devices to communicate with one another, through Bluetooth, wifi, LTE (4G), NFC, GPS, radio waves, infrared or any other format or standard. It is a combination of hardware and software that enable entities to send and/or receive data, no more, no less.

Everyday examples are your phone connecting with the infotainment system of your car, your key that sends out a signal to the door locks, your car radio that receives traffic info, the ECU that gets a software update, automated crash response thanks to eCall, the on-board wifi hotspot in your vehicle, and so on.

Telematics is more

FLEET EUROPE #113

The data as such are not analysed or converted into intelligence.

That’s where telematics starts. It is about collecting data from a remote connected device and turning this data into useful information. Connectivity is a sine qua non for telematics, but the opposite is not true.

Telematics provides business intelligence based on the large-scale integration of different sets of data, which can even come from different sources. Combining these data sets

can produce valuable insights, for instance in the usage profile of your drivers, peaks and troughs in utilisation, and so on.

Today, Artificial Intelligence allows telematics providers to process large amounts of data, recognise patterns and create algorithms to predict events or calculate the probability of something happening. Concrete applications are predictive maintenance, pay-as-you-drive insurance, and the redistribution of a shared vehicles for maximum occupancy and availability.

Also considered a connected service is the trendy Digital Personal Assistant (Hey, Mercedes!). You can talk to your car using natural speech, thanks to the fact that your words are analysed in the cloud for better recognition. The internet connection means you can ask for the nearest pharmacy that is open.

Another example: find where your vehicle is parked with the dedicated smartphone app – which also allows you to verify the fuel level (or state of charge) and send your destination straight to the satnav unit.

Connected services: grey area Today, telematics is also often confused with connected services. Data-based services can be telematics-related, but there are also services that have nothing to do with business intelligence or fleet management. Some services are free, but many of them come with a subscription.

Examples are productivity tools such as Office 365 and Skype for Business, music streaming services such as Deezer and Spotify, traffic information tools like TomTom Live Traffic, but also weather info, parking tools such as Parkopedia, and so on. They usually take the shape of an app on your car’s central screen.

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CONNECTIVITY IN NUMBERS • 250 million: the number of connected vehicles on the road worldwide in 2020 • 150-250 billion euros: the value of the connected car market in 2020 • 22.7 million units: the number of telematicsequipped EVs by 2026

Make the most of everyday life with less impact We all make thousands of choices every day. Some are small and some are big. But what if those seemingly insignificant decisions could mean more than we think?

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Because everyday life can be more sustainable than they think.

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VISIT THE PLUG-IN HYBRID RANGE AT VOLVOCARS.COM *Offer applies to all drivers of Volvo Plug-In Hybrids valid for orders placed from 16th of October and 6 months ahead.

Available on all Volvo on Call markets. Contact your retailer for local terms and conditions.

CONNECTED

THE IDEAL TELEMATICS PARTNER:

OEM OR THIRD-PARTY? @DieterQuartier

Are you convinced of the ROI of telematics but don’t know which partner to turn to? Both OEMs and aftermarket partners have pros and cons and your choice should really depend on what you need and who can deliver.

As a fleet manager, you want to keep your vehicles on the move. Downtime caused by technical failure or by an accident due to unsafe driving means loss of money. So do inefficient routing, sub-optimal vehicle usage and fuel-wasting driving.

That’s where telematics come in.

Gathering data from the vehicles allows you to prevent breakdowns because the engine will tell you before it’s too late. It enables you to detect unsafe and wasteful driving so you can take corrective measures, for instance by offering in-vehicle coaching. It can help you find patterns in the way your vehicles are used so you can pick the right powertrain, save money by relocating them and perhaps even discontinue the contracts of vehicles that are underused.

But these are just a few of the possibilities telematics offer. Depending on your needs, you want to collect and combine different data sets. Choosing a supplier basically comes down to determining what you want to achieve with the data and who can collect, analyse and report these data to you in an actionable shape.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Factory-fitted or blackbox Every vehicle today leaves the assembly line connected. The embedded connectivity enables OEMs to offer (and monetise) connected services – from real-time traffic to music streaming, from a virtual assistant to concierge services.

Every vehicle has an OBD port, which is the gateway to the car’s brain.

Aftermarket telematics devices tap into this interface and send out the data to the cloud.

It also keeps the relationship with the brand “warm”. Dedicated smartphone apps make sure you stay in touch with your vehicle: you can check the fuel level or state of charge, the mileage, when your car needs maintenance, where it is located. Some OEMs offer you an aggregated overview of your vehicles – or at least the ones that belong to the brand concerned.

This type of OEM telematics is therefore not as customisable as some of the aftermarket solutions. Also, because it is embedded, you can’t switch provider if you wish to. Updates are generally slow and this telematics solution only works for that particular OEM.

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On the upside, you do not need to invest in an aftermarket device (blackbox) and you get easier access to enhanced vehicle signals. Basically, embedded telematics give insights in more vehicle data than an aftermarket device. This is especially useful in the context of predictive maintenance.

And let’s not forget AdBlue levels: plug-in devices can’t always tell you when it’s time for a refill.

A third-party solution requires an extra investment in the shape of an aftermarket device that is installed on the vehicle’s diagnostics port (OBD), but it allows you to deploy telematics across all your vehicle makes and models. They are also generally

The Free2Move telematics system is multi-brand and compatible with your entire fleet, but getting data out of vehicles from the group’s own brands is easier than retrieving them from a “foreign” brand.

OEM-grade data Most LCV brands truly appreciate the importance of telematics for their customers – and that this requires collaboration with third parties. Ford, for instance, has developed two separate offers to help their LCV customers leverage their fleet data. Ford Telematics is the brand’s embedded system for Ford vehicles alone, whereas Ford Data Services has been set up to feed Ford data into third-party systems their customers are using.

The key area is the embedded modem, which can be found in all new Ford vehicles. “We offer OEM-grade data, i.e. data that is certified by our engineers, which can be used both by Ford Telematics customers and companies working with Ford Data Services. Because we’re the Ford Motor Company, we’ve engineered these vehicles, designed these vehicles, we understand the flow of data so we can get more data, more accurate and faster than we ever could before,” Lee Jelenic, CEO of Ford Commercial

Solutions, told Fleet Europe at the latest IAA in Hanover.

“The Data Services product is about providing data into third party systems like telematics systems providers to help fleets choose a telematics partner.

Our Telematics product is very much focused around customers who have decided that Ford is an important large part of their fleet so that we can provide them with Ford telematics which integrates upstream into our order and delivery systems, downstream into our dealer network.”

Hybrid solutions Free2Move Business Solutions, which belongs to the PSA Group, has also come up with a telematics solution that deserves the fleet manager’s attention because it comprises a multi-brand ‘hybrid’ approach.

PSA Group’s latest cars (Peugeot, Opel, Citroën, DS) are equipped with a telematic box installed in the factory. For the non-PSA (and the older PSA) models in your fleet, Free2Move can provide an aftermarket device that is validated by other OEMs to harvest data from the vehicle’s CAN BUS. Regardless of the brand and model, data are collected and processed on the Free2Move Connect Fleet platform.

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“Our goal is to meet the needs of all B2B clients and for that we have several partners who are connected to our platform, including Masternaut, TomTom Telematics, Ocean, Axodel, Mapping Control, Targa Telematics, Octo, as well as several leasing companies,” explains Olivier Emsalem, Head of Free2Move Business Solutions.

“The B2B customers can take PSA cars with our embedded telematics solution and they can continue to use their current platform without any installation required. We can also send the data directly to the customer platform. We simplify their customer journey and bring more accurate data,” he concludes.

Choosing a supplier comes down to determining what you want to achieve with the data and who can collect, analyse and report these data in an actionable shape.

FLEET EUROPE #113

better designed for fleet management applications, allow you to tailor your solution, and are quicker to see features added to the system, according to Fleetcarma’s online Ultimate Guide to Fleet Telematics.

CONNECTED ADVERTORIAL

CONCEDED EDITORIAL SPACE

ACCESS TO VEHICLE DATA TITRE1 WILL FORM PART OF FLEET TITRE2 PROCUREMENT CRITERIA Intro

Jonathan Manning

As connected vehicles become data centres on wheels, businesses will rely on this information for efficient fleet management and enhanced customer service.

Texte

Addison Lee is running a pilot programme with five Audi e-trons to analyse how EVs can fit in the company’s operations.

The value of vehicle-generated connected data is so great for efficient fleet management, customer service and the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) that one of the UK’s largest car fleets will make free access to this information part of its procurement criteria when sourcing new vehicles.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Addison Lee Group has about 4,500 vehicles in its chauffeur drive, private hire and courier fleet, each one of which is currently connected via a third-party telematics system, RAC Telematics.

Paul McCabe, Group Mobility Innovation Director, Addison Lee Group: “Maximising opportunities requires close collaboration between the business and vehicle manufacturers.”

“As we look towards embedded connected car tech in our fleet, a key criterion for whether we procure a particular manufacturer’s vehicle or not will be whether their connected car platform can fulfil our data and feature requirements or the roadmap is present to accommodate our needs, and whether the manufacturer themselves can offer up extra connected car feature innovation that we can

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take advantage of within our business,” said Paul McCabe, Group Mobility Innovation Director, Addison Lee Group.

“Buying fleet vehicles is now also about procuring a connected car platform and having access to data we require on a fleet scale. This also presents an interesting question around fleet choices and standards of connected car interoperability – if no one manufacturer can supply the entirety of a fleet, can we expect a minimum standard for connected car across all vehicle choices regardless of manufacturer? We hope to find out in 2020 as we reach out to most major manufacturers and begin the process of tendering our fleet.”

10 years of telematics Addison Lee Group has used connected vehicle data for more than a decade, and its current system provides a full range of reporting functions on vehicle statuses, including geo-fencing, crash

The company’s drivers have a proprietary app which provides the details of each job, routing information, and gives them access to support services. In future, asked McCabe, could this information be sent directly to a car’s dashboard display, rather than the driver’s smartphone, to improve convenience for drivers?

He also identified areas where connected technology could help Addison Lee Group to improve its customer service still further.

Connected car advantages

detection and driving behaviours to improve the safety of its drivers and passengers.

“For example, if there is evidence of frequent sudden braking, this enables us to provide the driver with feedback on their performance. In addition, in the event there is an accident, we call on telematics data to help provide the evidence required in order to process insurance claims efficiently,” said McCabe.

He added that from a fleet management perspective, the company’s in-house fleet team rely on data to “run an optimised, efficient, well maintained fleet.”

Telematics and electrification Vehicle tracking data is already helping Addison Lee Group to identify opportunities to electrify its fleet, an important consideration given the fact that many of its vehicles are already operating in ultra low emission zones.

“The duty cycles of our vehicles start and end from a driver’s home or street rather than a depot, and vehicles may travel up to several hundred miles a day if carrying out national work,” said McCabe. “When coupled with the limited EV product available from auto manufacturers and limited charging network, these circumstances present a significant challenge to designing a workable charging approach for our fleet. Data we collect from our fleet, including when and where stops and breaks occur between jobs, helps us understand what we need from a charging provider.”

Audi e-tron trial The company is currently running a pilot programme with five Audi e-trons to gain a deeper understanding of how a battery-powered car can perform within the company’s expected duty cycle, and how charging status data could be analysed by its dispatch algorithms to ensure customers and drivers are never inconvenienced by running out of charge.

But it’s arguably in the areas where connected technology can improve its service offering and deliver new services that hold the greatest potential for Addison Lee Group. Status data sent from its cars is now used to automatically allocate 95% of its jobs in London, ensuring the best car for a particular job is assigned, said McCabe, and that wasted empty miles are minimised.

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“A better-connected car has the potential of making mobility services more convenient and featureful for passengers and drivers, journeys greener and roads less congested.

Connected car technology brings benefits both in the shorter term with today’s driven vehicles, but is also a foundational component for enabling the longer term evolution of services towards autonomous vehicles. Fleet operators can look to better connected car solutions to cover traffic safety, such as remote diagnostics and maintenance or SOS calls, connected infotainment features for passengers, traffic efficiency such as optimal routing and journey planning, cost efficiency such as predictive maintenance, and improved driver convenience and interaction through in-dash displays.”

However, to maximise these types of opportunity, said McCabe, will require close technical collaboration between the business and vehicle manufacturers, although unfortunately “this style of collaboration is something few manufacturers seem ready to support,” he said.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Addison Lee has about 4,500 vehicles in its private hire and courier fleet.

“We see lots of opportunity in the next generation of connected car tech.

Based on a passenger’s preferences, could we have the car’s heating, seat recline, music and mood light settings adjust when the passenger enters the car? Could we use seat occupation data to create a new rideshare service?” he asked.

CONNECTED

WHY EUROPE IS LOSING THE RACE Frank Jacobs

When it comes to 5G, Europe produces excellent ingredients, but America and China bake the cake. Why would they sell it to us cheap? Urgent action is needed, says Neils Kalnins.

Up to 20 times faster than our current 4G standard, fifth-generation (or 5G) mobile internet enables real-time communication between IoT devices. In other words: it’s crucial for the advancement of Big Data-driven technologies like connected and autonomous driving, among many other applications.

Digital gap While some countries are piloting 5G schemes, and most will start with 5G from 2020, China and South Korea have already rolled out multi-millionuser networks earlier this year. And Europe? We’re asleep at the wheel.

• European 5G start-ups are taking their business elsewhere, notably to the US and China, where the legal framework for 5G commercialisation is already taking shape. In those markets, the general public will be more accepting of 5G applications, and it’s easier to attract investors.

“Europe suffers from the ‘digital gap’ between developers and deployers of 5G. Decision makers don’t really understand the implications of 5G. So their instinct is to restrict. This makes Europe weak,” says Mr Kalnins, who is programme director of 5G Techritory, the annual 5G ecosystem forum in Riga, Latvia.

Policy hackathon

“Although Europe has excellent tech companies, they are just delivering the ingredients to other players who use them to add value to their products. If Europe remains immobile and divided, we will lose the global competition race. In 20 years’ time, we could be reduced to mere users of 5G, at the mercy of developers elsewhere.”

“This is especially the case for developing legislation: our system for making laws and rules is hundreds of years old. That’s why at our first 5G Forum last year we staged a ‘policy hackathon’, as a method to produce better and faster policy results.”

Worrying symptoms FLEET EUROPE #113

That is legally impossible everywhere in Europe – except in Finland.

By accident of omission, Finnish transport law doesn’t state vehicles must have drivers. Yet even Finland is not taking advantage of this loophole to test driverless vehicles.

Some worrying symptoms of Europe’s worrying regulatory blind spot:

So how do we close Europe’s digital gap? Mr Kalnins has a few ideas.

“It’s not about technology, it’s about attitude. We need to educate policy makers on 5G, and we can learn that from the way great tech companies learn from each other.”

“Also, let’s not keep learning the same lessons over again. So-called smart cities are each solving the same problems – congestion, pollution, electrification, etcetera – on their own. We’re losing too much time.”

• UAE police use drones and the US is close to implementing robotaxis.

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Neils Kalnins, programme director of 5G Techritory

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PROACE CITY

Meet PROACE City – the new compact van from Toyota, a highly capable and stylish addition to your fleet.

PROACE City is now on sale and has all of the attributes needed to succeed in Europe’s largest commercial vehicle segment.

NEDC EMISSIONS AND FUEL EFFICIENCY PASSENGER CAR SHORT LENGHT

With so much space available it is good to know that the PROACE City can carry a one-tonne payload – but if you occasionally need to move more, PROACE City can tow up to 1.5 tonnes in a braked trailer.

PROACE City is available with a range of petrol and diesel engines from 75 to 130 DIN hp and a choice of five or six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmissions. These advanced powertrains deliver exceptional fuel efficiency and low CO2 emissions.

As you would expect in this segment, you can select a number of glazing, door plan and seating configurations to suit the needs of your operation – with a range of trim levels that cater for all types of utility and high-mileage users.

CO2

(gr/km)

FC

(l/100km)*

LONG LENGHT CO2

(gr/km)

FC

(l/100km)*

SHORT LENGHT CO2

(gr/km)

FC

(l/100km)*

LONG LENGHT CO2

(gr/km)

FC

(l/100km)*

Low/High Low/High Low/High Low/High Low/High Low/High Low/High Low/High 1.2 PTL 130Hp

119/124

5.2/5.5

121/125

1.2 PTL 110Hp

122/123

5.3/5.4

1.5 DSL 130Hp

107/118

4.1/4.5

1.5 DSL 100Hp

106/112

1.5 DSL 75Hp

N.A.

5.3/5.5

119/123

5.2/5.4

123/126

5.4/5.5

122/125

5.3/5.5

111/118

4.2/4.5

121/125

5.3/5.5

124/127

5.4/5.6

114/119

4.3/4.5

114/120

4.3/4.6

4.0/4.3

110/113

4.2/4.3

106/111

4.0/4.2

108/111

4.1/4.2

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

*Fuel Consumption

Clever storage areas are featured throughout the cabin to help keep everything organised, and PROACE City can be specified with an 8’’ touchscreen compatible with Android Auto and Apple Carplay so you will always be connected.

High-tech safety features are fitted as standard, including pre-collision (Autonomous Emergency Braking) and lane keep assist. Additional features can be selected - including trailer sway warning, adaptive cruise control, head-up display and blind spot monitor. For panel vans, an innovative rear camera setup provides excellent rear visibility both while driving on the highway and while manoeuvring in confined spaces.

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With these and other advanced features available, including wireless smartphone charging and smart load meter, PROACE City is well equipped to meet the challenges of the new decade.

More info https://www.toyota-europe.com/ business-customers/european-sales

FLEET EUROPE #113

Available in two body types, the PROACE City can carry up to 4.3m3 cargo in the long variant and accommodate two Euro pallets - thanks to a useable wide load area. A Smart Cargo option allows items up to 3.4m long to be carried by folding the front passenger seat and opening a bulkhead hatch.

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CONNECTED

SAVINGS AND EFFICIENCIES THANKS TO CONNECTIVITY Yves Helven

The Global Fleet Survey 2019, conducted with 107 multinational companies, indicates that most fleet managers not only understand the benefits of telematics, but are also actively looking for a solution.

Telematics is no longer considered to be a tool for the logistics industry only.

The frustration Unfortunately, within the employee community, the resistance against telematics is significant and works councils across Europe are blocking the implementation of what is wrongly called “ vehicle trackers”. Improving the reputation of connectivity and telematics, means focusing on three areas.

Firstly, the employees and their representation bodies don’t have a correct understanding of telematics and are convinced that its only aim is to control employee movements, with the ultimate goal to increase workload or pressure.

Next, it ignores the fact that digital isolation is a thing of the past. Not only have many people activated location services, cookies and other behavioural recorders on their mobile phones, watches and computers, in addition, there’s a lack of understanding that many vehicles today leave the factory with some kind of a telematics or connectivity device.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Finally, works councils and employees seem to forget that, especially in Europe, they are very well protected against data abuse by GDPR.

Find mutual benefits However, the main reason why people don’t mind, for example, Google having access to their private lives, lies in the benefits that Google is offering its users: a great search engine, amazingly

efficient predictive logarithms, email etc. There’s a perceived balance between benefits that we receive and the privacy we’re giving up by searching the web, translating words, looking for directions, reading our emails, storing documents and so much more, virtually free of charge.

Telematics is unfortunately considered as a “bad deal” for the employee, more stick than carrot. The first job is therefore to explain telematics and demonstrate how it can benefit the employee.

This can be about safety, about comfort, about taxation, but providing a trade-off is key.

Ask yourself: do you need telematics?

Employees are afraid of being “tracked” - their employer knowing where they are each minute of the day. The reality is that most fleet managers have no ambition to know the location of their employees at all times and wouldn’t know what to do with this information.

Fleet managers are, however, keen to understand the utilisation rate of their assets, the mileage, the private/professional ratio and the overall condition of the vehicle.

Connectivity versus telematics This is exactly the sweet spot of connectivity.

Connected vehicles collect some data from the car, some data from the driver, but stay away from sensitive data, such as location or behavioural data, such as speed.

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Simply put, the “car computer” transmits data to a database via a connected device. As such, connectivity tends to come across as much less intrusive as full-blown telematics.

Case study: non-profit client The client, who prefers to remain anonymous, has a fleet of 300 cars for about 1,000 employees. They also manage expense reimbursements for a grey fleet of 400 vehicles, belonging to a community of volunteers. The grey fleet is owned by the volunteers, whereas the 300-car fleet has been purchased.

The client was looking for a solution to the following concerns:

1

Understand the utilisation rate of their vehicles and eventually reduce the number of vehicles

2 3

Reduce operating cost of the owned fleet Meet the duty of care requirements of the grey fleet

It took a very long time, but telematics and connectivity are no longer considered to be solutions for the logistics industry only.

Immediate benefits The OviDrive system allows the driver to switch on/off all the location services. When switched off, the system will only record the mileage and the purpose of each trip, asking the drivers (when they turn the car off) whether they completed a personal or a private trip. This methodology has delivered two advantages for the client: they know exactly how many professional kilometres their own fleet are driving and, useful for the employee’s taxation, a digital vehicle logbook is available on car and employee level.

Grey fleet benefits Concerned about the condition of the cars that are used by their volunteers, the client has also activated the application and OBD device in the grey fleet.

As the OBD device pulls data from the car’s ECU, the client is now able to monitor the service and maintenance status of the volunteers’ cars. Vehicles that are poorly maintained can be identified and suggestions to schedule maintenance were pushed to the drivers.

It also made life easier for the volunteers, as they no longer needed to submit spreadsheets for mileage reimbursements. Consequently, the reimbursement claims are now much more accurate, and the client has already saved ¤150,000 as a result of connectivity in the first year following implementation.

Maintenance benefits for the owned fleet Thanks to accurate odometer reading, the client is now able to proactively manage all scheduled maintenance and

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control spending approvals. OviDrive’s artificial intelligence features detect unusual expenditure and push back on costs that are excessive or those that should not occur at the time of maintenance. The AI approves acceptable costs but will ask the client’s fleet manager’s approval for costs that are unacceptable, unforeseen or unique.

The client has recorded 35% of savings on operational cost.

Reduced costs For this client, connectivity allowed for better control of the fleet, better understanding of the utilisation rate, improved the safety of their grey fleet and dramatically reduced costs. The client highlights that connectivity, compared to telematics, was easier to implement as it delivered many advantages for the drivers and doesn’t intrude in the employee’s or volunteer’s private lives. In addition, says the client, connectivity is not expensive and delivers a positive ROI within the year of implementation.

FLEET EUROPE #113

After a tender process, the client selected the OviDrive operating system, which combines 3 elements: a digital fleet manager (AI powered fleet management software), a mobile phone application that connects the driver to the digital fleet manager and an OBD plug-in device that communicates via Bluetooth with the mobile phone application and connects the car to the driver.

NEW ENERGIES

GET READY FOR LIGHT COMMERCIAL ELECTRIFICATION @DieterQuartier

Now that electric cars are about to break through, the e-wave is also building up in the LCV segment.

The focus is on larger vehicles, which are particularly popular with courier companies, but the offer will soon expand to the midfield.

With the exception of Renault (Kangoo Z.E.) and Nissan (e-NV200), few van builders were eager to invest massively in e-vans. Times change. Cities struggle with traffic congestion and air pollution, while more and more inhabitants want their packages delivered at their doorstep. An electric van will not change the urban traffic jams, unless it will soon be the only one allowed to enter the heart of the city.

OEMs feel the pressure from their customers and are launching electric vans, albeit sparingly. These customers today are mainly government institutions, but also courier services, maintenance technicians and multinationals with a strong sense of corporate social responsibility.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Range or payload The big challenge with vans is the reconciliation of load capacity with driving range. You can only get a big range by mounting a large battery pack, but that in turn reduces the payload. So it comes down to finding the right balance - and looking at the actual usage.

Mercedes-Benz is one of the few OEMs that offers two battery pack sizes to maximise either driving range or payload.

Mercedes-Benz decided to offer its eSprinter with a choice of two battery packs. The biggest one has 55kWh worth of cells for 168km of range (NEDC) and enables you to carry 891kg of cargo. The smaller one holds 35kWh, reducing the range to 115km but increasing the carrying capacity by 140kg. These ranges may disappoint, all the more so because they are NEDC and not WLTP, but research shows that 80% of the vans that Amazon uses in America drive less than 150km per day, while the distances in America are generally greater than in Europe.

Volkswagen decided to offer just one battery size for its e-Crafter, which promises an electric range of 173km – also measured according to the obsolete NEDC standard. The WLTP will shave some 25% off this number. The

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e-Crafter does have a USP: a payload of up to 1.7 tonnes, no less, giving it a serious advantage over the eSprinter. If its volume you need, there is not much difference: the VW claims 10.7m3, which is just 0.2m3 more than the Mercedes.

The advantage of being late The sooner you enter the market, the faster you can serve your customers, but those who wait longer can offer the latest technology and a more mature product.

Fiat has waited until now to provide the latest Ducato with an electric drive.

It will be available in all body variants with the same load volumes as the conventional Ducato, from 10m³ to 17m³, and with the largest load capacity in the segment: up to 1,950kg. There is a choice of different battery options,

with either a 35kWh or a 52.5kWh battery pack offering NEDC ranges of between 220 and 300km. Later this year, the Chinese OEM will start exporting another new model, the EV90, to play with the biggest boys in the school of e-life.

Renault: innovating yet again The Master Z.E. was one of the first large electric vans on the market. Just two years after its presentation, its technology is already outdated, as demonstrated by a meagre 120km of WLTP range.

The advantage of arriving late is that you can offer the best technology. The Fiat Ducato Electric offers the best driving range and payload in its segment. for a total range of 220 to 360km – again, measured on the NEDC cycle, so our best guestimate for the WLTP range is between 160 and 260km.

Austria, Norway, the UK, Ireland and Italy. Today, you can order the Chinese van in Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxemburg as well.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced in November that it would merge with PSA (Peugeot-Citroën). Both OEMs have already been working together for some time: the Peugeot Boxer and Citroën Jumper (called Relay in the UK and Ireland) are rolling off the assembly line in Atessa, near Pescara, alongside the Fiat Ducato. 2020 will see the arrival of an e-Jumper (e-Relay) and e-Boxer, with technical characteristics that are very similar – if not identical – to the e-Ducato’s.

The EV80 comes in three flavours: a long-wheelbase panel van with a medium (9.7m3) or high roof (11m³), plus a low-roof chassis-cab. Maxus promises 950kg of payload and a range of 192km (NEDC) delivered by a 56kWh lithium iron phosphate battery.

It believes this type of cells is more stable and better suited for frequent DC fast charging.

In March 2020, Maxus will add a smaller electric van to the line-up, called EV30. The model will come

Still, the French OEM is set to defend its reputation as a pioneer in zero-emission mobility. It recently presented a new version of the Master Z.E., which gets the suffix “Hydrogen”. It is not a classic fuel cell vehicle, but basically the standard battery-powered Master Z.E. with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell that operates as a range extender.

According to Renault, the driving range would triple compared to the standard Z.E. The big advantage is that you don’t need a large battery and that you can refill the hydrogen tanks in just a few minutes. But then again, you have to find a hydrogen station... Otherwise you will have to rely on the plug, just like an ordinary electric vehicle.

Renault said it would also launch a fuel cell range extended version of the Kangoo Z.E. this year, with a class-leading range of 370km WLTP.

PSA will also be joining the arena of the midsized e-vans with the triplets Opel Vivaro, Peugeot Expert and Citroën Jumpy (called Dispatch in the UK and Ireland). As PSA also builds the technically nearly identical Proace for Toyota, the latter will be available as an all-electric model as well. Interestingly, their battery packs will hold either 50 or 75kWh for a WLTP range between 200 and 300km.

If its immediate availability and value for money you are seeking, then the SAIC-owned company Maxus is definitely a supplier to consider. The EV80 has been on the market in China for years and crossed the Eurasian continent in 2018 to arrive in showrooms in the Netherlands, France, Germany,

Renault defends its reputation as a pioneer in e-mobility with this Master Z.E. Hydrogen, which uses a fuel cell to extend the range to 350km.

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FLEET EUROPE #113

Maxus: the Chinese disrupter

NEW ENERGIES

HOW EVS CAN WIN IN LAST MILE DELIVERIES Jonathan Manning

Logistics and courier business Gnewt runs the UK’s largest electric van fleet, supported by the UK’s largest recharging and vehicle-to-grid infrastructure.

Of all the industries that rely on light commercial vehicles, the logistics sector is arguably the least obvious early adopter of electric vehicles.

True, air quality issues in urban areas are increasing the pressure on diesel vans, but the need for delivery fleets to operate around the clock and carry varying loads over flexible distances makes electric power a far from natural fit.

Yet in London, the courier business Gnewt now operates the UK’s largest zero-emission van delivery fleet and runs the country’s largest electric vehicle recharging infrastructure. It has also recently become the operator of the UK’s largest vehicle-to-grid charging system.

Sam Clarke founded the business a decade ago to offer environmentally-friendly last-mile deliveries, starting with a handful of cargo bikes, before swiftly diversifying into small electric vans. Since then the company’s fleet has covered 5.6 million emission-free kilometres, delivered 10 million parcels, and saved 3.5 million tonnes of carbon.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Re-engineering vehicles With very little choice of suitable electric light commercial vehicles available, Gnewt has engineered models to meet its own requirements. Only half of its 120-strong fleet are ‘off the shelf’ Renault Kangoo Z.E. or Nissan e-NV200 models – the other half have been converted.

Sam Clarke is in charge of the UK’s largest electric LCV fleet. Gnewt’s 120 LCVs deliver zero-emission courier services.

“The Kangoo Z.E. and the e-NV200 remain the two mainstays of electric vans in the market at a price point that is affordable,” said Clarke. “However, they are small and we wanted bigger.

We needed to carry more freight, more volume and more accessibility to larger space, but we didn’t want to pay £70,000 to £80,000 per vehicle to do it.”

The solution has been to upsize the Nissan, giving it an extended body, while leaving its power train and

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battery unit untouched. The result is the Voltia, which has an 8m3 carrying capacity, a 600kg payload, and a range of 160 to 190 kilometres.

“Weight has never been a concern because the e-commerce parcels that we deliver are reasonably light, so we have never been overly concerned about payload because we never get close to the top level,” said Clarke.

“We would always like more range, but in urban areas we are very productive

and our mileage is very low. A van would typically drive 20 to 30 miles [30 to 50km] per day.”

These thresholds are likely to be stretched further to their limits in the years ahead as Gnewt’s owner, Menzies Distribution, looks to roll out zero-emission deliveries to other areas of the country. It has already deployed electric vehicles to its depots in both Scotland and the Midlands. Due to the higher acquisition costs of electric vans, the total cost of ownership is still higher than for diesel-powered alternatives, but the differential is narrowing, and the day-to-day running costs of battery power are proving exceptionally competitive, with lower energy costs, cheaper maintenance and no fee to enter London’s Congestion Charge area or and Ultra Low Emission Zone.

Why smart charging is essential Gnewt’s growing fleet does, however, demand smart recharging solutions to avoid the risk of its depots overloading the local electricity grid when its vans are plugged in. The company is using a combination of overnight smart charging and vehicle-to-grid technology to minimise its impact on local power supplies.

“The night is our dwell time when we spread the charging over as long a period as possible and use as little energy at any one time as possible,” said Clarke. “As the fleet starts to evolve and we look to double-shift our

vehicles to run them night and day, we’ll look to reconsider the speed with which we can recharge the vehicles on site. That’s a whole new piece of commercial fleet learning.”

So far the company has not experienced any power supply issues and has studiously avoided having to upgrade any electricity substations, an investment that could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“This is where telematics becomes incredibly important. It’s not just about knowing where a vehicle is when it’s out, but also where it is when it’s back in – which bay is it in, what its state of charge is, and we can then make an informed decision about how to prioritise the energy we have available. We work out what power we have available and what vehicles we have on charge,” said Clarke.

Vehicle-to-grid system “By using V2G technology – and its bi-directional chargers – we’re able to charge our EVs on the national grid at off-peak times. And rather than storing the unused energy on the battery after usage, which can be harmful to the vehicles’ long-term health, we can plug them into the grid and sell the energy back. Ultimately this helps the grid operate at peak times, as well as provide us with revenue for our unwanted energy. It also helps the charging process become a less wasteful exchange – a key aim for our sustainability goals.”

Gnewt:

120 e-LCVs 5.6 million

3.5 million tonnes CO2 saved

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FLEET EUROPE #113

emission-free km

FINANCIAL MODELS

MEET THE 2019 GLOBAL FLEET MANAGER OF THE YEAR Benjamin Uyttebroeck

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FLEET EUROPE #113

JORGE FERNÁNDEZ, ROCHE

The quick wins have been achieved, the low-hanging fruit has been picked.

Fleet and mobility management has been professionalising at a dizzying pace. Nevertheless, Jorge Fernández, Global Category Manager Fleet, Roche, was the obvious winner for this year’s Global Fleet Manager of the Year award.

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Mr Fernández strives to provide the best company car solutions to Roche’s employees in line with the company’s green guidelines, while preparing the transition to mobility packages, electrification and connectivity.

His ambitions include a reduction in fuel consumption and emissions by 20% in 3 years, an increase in preferred vendors usage to 90% and the extension and merger of previous European and North American strategies to the rest of the world.

The jury was impressed by the excellent analysis Mr Fernández provided of the cost elements of his strategy.

“I think they liked that my presentation was based on facts,” commented Mr Fernández. “My personal professional approach is based on accuracy as I used to work as an accountant. Facts and achievements made it concrete.”

In general, how realistic is it to have a real global policy? Does it always require exceptions and specific rules for specific markets?

“The point is to have the right balance between flexibility and constraints. We have a framework that provides enough flexibility to allow a limited number of exceptions, for example in countries where none of our preferred vendors have a presence. The APAC region, for instance, remains challenging.”

“In Europe and North America, and increasingly also in Latin America, following a global policy is much easier than in other parts of the world.

The big leasing companies have really starting expanding in Latin America.”

Do you use telematics?

“Not yet and I don’t know if it will be possible in the future. Telematics in the pharmaceutical sector isn’t easy to implement. We have some countries doing this and we need to analyse how this will evolve.”

“At the same time, we are aware that all cars will be connected very soon. This will come from the carmakers and I do not want to duplicate these efforts by hiring another company to manage the data connected cars generate as that would make the situation very complex.

We are looking for simplicity – that’s why we prefer to work with leasing companies to manage this data.”

How concrete is Roche’s move towards mobility?

“Mobility solutions will become available in some markets but I don’t think it’s going to be an abrupt or a very strong move. A couple of years ago, we thought company cars were on their way out but we have since learnt that even if millennials may not like owning a car, they understand they need one as they grow older and they want to have a family and buy a home outside the city centre.”

“Mobility services will be a complement to the company car but they are not going to fully substitute the company car. We are investigating these solutions locally but we are also following up with leasing companies that are trying to enter this new mobility world. Ideally, we want to have something homogeneous, which is why we’re pushing our leasing companies to move into this direction. We’re hoping to have something more than pilot projects in the next couple of years.”

What’s your view on fleet electrification?

Safety is also more of an issue in Latin America and APAC. To what extent do you focus on safety in your global policy?

“Electrification is going to happen but it is clearly market-related.

Electrification is not going to happen at the same speed in Portugal than in the Netherlands. Taxation in particular impacts TCO quite a lot.”

“It’s very difficult to define the minimum standards. The best solution we found was to determine minimum standards everyone is required to meet, no matter the country or the region, but higher national standards that may exist on the local level always prevail.”

“We are also looking at where the electricity is coming from. In Poland, for example, the electricity to power your EV is produced from coal, so you’re going to pollute more than when you drive a petrol vehicle.”

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Do you already have EVs in your fleet?

“It’s only below 1% and we don’t have EV targets yet. We’re looking at that together with the stakeholders, who we like to involve more, and we are working on identifying driver profiles that are eligible for EVs.”

I read in your application that you eliminated the ban on automatic gearboxes. It surprised me that you had this ban in the first place.

“We used to have a ban on SUVs and on automatic gearboxes because of their higher fuel consumption. Three years ago, we scrapped both bans both for safety reasons and also because we understand that traffic in cities like Istanbul is so bad that it makes automatic gearboxes a necessity.”

“Also, there is no longer a significant fuel consumption gap between manual transmissions and automatic transmissions as technology has developed significantly.”

Was this ban also lifted to make it easier to attract or retain talent in your company?

“No. We don’t want to use the company car as a tool to attract talent. We are conscious that some people see it differently, but talent should join us for other reasons than only for the car.”

Jorge Fernández Role Global Category Manager Fleet, ROCHE

Sector Pharmaceuticals

Responsible for Global: 14,202 Europe: 7,592 North America: 3,097 LATAM: 1,365 APAC: 782 AMEA: 1,365

Meet the man behind the Fleet Manager

FLEET EUROPE #113

Together with his team, Mr Fernández manages a global fleet of 14,200 vehicles.

FINANCIAL MODELS

JORGE FERNÁNDEZ: THE MAN BEHIND THE FLEET MANAGER The 2019 Global Fleet Manager of the Year is a native of Madrid. It’s where Jorge Fernández was born, where he studied economic science at university and where he started his professional career.

“I started out as an accountant for Lafarge, a construction materials company, back in 2001,” said Mr Fernández. “That’s probably why I still like my numbers to be precise.”

When Lafarge created a procurement department, he applied for the job of Procurement Analyst and got it. Later, he switched to Philip Morris before joining Roche in 2007.

“My first position at Roche was for the Spanish office. I moved to the headquarters in Switzerland in 2015 on a one-year temporary assignment.

When the year was over, I kept the position but I moved back to Madrid, taking the job with me.”

At that time, Mr Fernández was in charge of fleet alongside various other categories for the pharmaceutical division of Roche. When the procurement organisations for the pharmaceutical and the diagnostics divisions merged, Mr Fernández was mapped into the new position.

“Now I only manage fleet but on a global level,” said Mr Fernández, explaining how he now deals with cars full time. He’s come a long way since buying his first car, a Citroën Xsara. “I was so proud of it! I even took it up in the mountains to take pictures of it. I never gave it a name, though!”

Today, his car is no longer his pride and joy. “I have a twelve year-old son and a wife. Well, I say wife but we never found the time to get married.”

“Becoming a father changed my outlook on life. I used to live to work but I have since discovered I can be more productive by focusing more on myself and my family and by protecting a good work-life balance.”

If you’re ever in Madrid, Mr Fernández suggests you go to the historic city

centre for some tapas and for a stroll along the historic places. “Don’t forget to adapt to Spanish ideas of timekeeping, though!”

Mr Fernández himself is more likely to be found on the stands of a basketball court, cheering for his son. “I’m not that tall myself,” said Mr Fernández with a clear talent for understatement.

“But my wife is and our son takes after her for his height. I used to play sports myself and I love watching how he’s enjoying himself during his games.”

FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL WITH MERCEDES-BENZ For over a decade, MercedesBenz has been sponsoring the Global Fleet Manager of the Year award. Stefan Herbert, the carmaker’s Senior Manager of International Corporate Sales, explains why.

“Our International Corporate Sales Team is strongly committed every day to cater to our customers’ specific needs, as each industry and each multi-national company has its own individual requirements.

Thus it gives us a great pleasure, that we hand-over the #1 award to the person showcasing outstanding achievements in managing their fleet on a global level.”

According to Mr Herbert, Jorge Fernández is a worthy winner.

“Jorge presented on a global view his fleet management strategy with the aim to provide the best company car solution to employees. His implementation achievements has been very convincing. Especially his insights about how to move from local to global sourcing were very remarkable.”

Madrid-born Jorge Fernández enjoys travelling, like here in Lombard Street, San Francisco.

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2020

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FLEET EUROPE #113

UPCOMING

EVENTS

7-8 APRIL I SINGAPORE

FINANCIAL MODELS

FOR VWFS, MOBILITY AND MULTI-BRAND ARE THE FUTURE @StevenSchoefs

“2020 will be an important year – for the automotive industry in general but also for us in particular,” says Jochen Schmitz, Head of International Fleet at Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS). VW Group’s finance and fleet management pillar will focus more on integrated mobility and multi-brand services to grow its international corporate customer base.

“We have more than 21 million contracts around the world over all customer groups, but Europe remains our core fleet market – starting with Germany, our home market. Moreover Eastern Europe is growing fast. We do business with small and medium fleets and of course multinationals. Our Europewide dealer network gives us good coverage within the SMEs. In addition, our large and multinational customers are supervised by our local and international Key Account Management.”

is and will still remain the dominant part for corporate mobility, but we also have to consider new trends. But in this context it is very important to understand that not every trend or every solution is appropriate for all customers and all situations. Therefore, part of our consulting strategy is to think from a customer’s point of view and to focus only on the relevant innovations.”

And what about growth?

“One of our important growth segments are large multinationals.

For this customer group alone, we increased our new business volume, adding 55,000 new contracts in 2019.

We now have more than 140,000 contracts of multinational companies in Europe in our portfolio. In 2020 we’re concentrating on improving knowledge in our network to better serve and grow in this segment.”

FLEET EUROPE #113

What are your ambitions for 2020?

“In 2020, we’ll be focusing even more on EVs, because that’s where the market is going. We’ve been advising our customers about EVs for a year and a half already. Within this scope we have created an EV consulting team, which is visiting our customers to look into driver profiles and to advise them on the new generation of EVs.” “Another important topic are new mobility solutions. The company car

modules. It will be an open platform, so if a new and requested trend emerges, we can implement it easily.

What makes VWFS a mobility provider rather than an automotive finance company?

“We’re constantly moving forward with our mobility strategy. We’re working hard on the merger of fleet and travel management, including mobility budgets. In the market, we see customers don’t just want solutions for company car drivers, but for other employees as well – both for commuting and business trips.”

“In metro areas, a growing amount of customers have both a fleet and a mobility policy. They look to their supplier to provide solutions for both.

So we also have to satisfy employees who have a mobility budget, without a car. Presumably in 2020, we’ll have a solution for this trend with our mobility platform.”

Jochen Schmitz of Volkswagen Financial Services admits he’s not the biggest fan of nor believer in corporate car car sharing.

How? “We’re constantly revising our mobility solutions. Besides our classic full-service leasing these include smart-parking, fuelling, fleet management and in the future travel management and mobility budgets. If all goes well, we’ll launch a platform soon, where customers will be able to choose their relevant mobility

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The globalisation of Volkswagen Financial Services Read here the complete strategy interview with Jochen Schmitz.

REMARKETING

BRACE FOR THE 2020 E-WAVE @DieterQuartier

The number 95 will go down in automotive history as one of the most dreaded targets ever. It is the amount of CO2 in grams per kilometre the EU has imposed as a maximum weighted average for all cars OEMs sell this year. Guess what this means in terms of new EV and PHEV models.

Most car manufacturers have been postponing the launch of their all-electric model to this year. That is only logical: they cost a lot to develop, create little margin and the market is only starting to warm up. In 2019, the total battery-electric vehicle sales hit 350,000 units in Europe, on a total of roughly 15 million. That’s a market share of just 2.3%.

TOTAL NUMBER OF AVAILABLE EV MODELS ON THE MARKET IN EUROPE 350

Volkswagen Group PSA

300

Toyota

250

Daimler

200

FCA

BMW Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi

This year, a multitude of new BEV and PHEV models will be arriving on the market, as demonstrated by the graph in this article. From about 60 battery electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and fuel cell (FCEV) models available at the end of 2018, the offer will go up to a combined 176 models in 2020.

EVs are still relatively expensive to build and create little margin for OEMs, but they are a “necessary evil”. OEMs have two options, basically: push EVs now and make less money than they would if they just continued selling combustion engine cars or pay hefty fines in 2021 for not respecting their target. The most cost-efficient solution seems to be to sell just enough EVs to hit the target – and that is going to be an interesting balancing act for OEMs next year.

Hyundai-Kia Jaguar Land Rover

100

Ford 50

Honda Tesla

0 2025

2023

2024

2021

2022

2020

2019

2017

2018

2015

2016

2014

2012

Mazda Suzuki Subaru

In 2020 we will witness an exponential increase in the number of EV models becoming available.

It may cause serious local market disturbance, especially towards the end of 2020. Carmakers that are on an emission collision course will surely search for solutions to make sure the numbers add up. It is likely to become a combination of big discounts, self-registrations and an increased rental activity. The latter option only postpones the problem: these cars are coming back after a few months.

The first two options are definitely bad news for residual values, which are only just starting to increase.

Sales steering Depending on how eager the market will be to absorb all those new EV models – something that is directly linked to the availability of subvention schemes and charging infrastructure

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- OEMs may also limit the availability of high-CO2 models, such as petrol-powered crossovers, even though they are in demand.

Other models, mainly diesel-powered C-segment and D-segment hatchbacks, saloons and estate cars, will become more difficult to sell, even though they have no negative impact on the CO2 average. For those vehicles, importers and dealers will have to be creative, too. Rather than dumping them on the local market, they may want to consider the services of a trading company, which can discretely channel ‘unwanted’ vehicles outside the EU.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Push now or pay later

Volvo/Geely

150

2013

But there is another good reason: a thing called super credits. Starting in 2020, every vehicle that emits less than 50g/km counts double in the calculation of an OEMs weighted average CO2 emissions. Indeed, that means that most plug-in hybrids (which typically emit between 40 and 50 g/km) also contribute to lowering the average, but not to the same extent as EVs (0 g/km).

MAAS

SMART, SMARTER, SMARTEST

MADRID Fien van den Steen

Madrid is among the smartest cities in Europe. Smart was its introduction of the Low Emission Zone in 2018, yet less smart might be its replacement

by Madrid 360. Really smart however, is the MaaS Madrid app, the first such app led by a city. Have a look at the facts and figures.

CO2

LOW EMISSION ZONE

MADRID Population:

+3 million

• Madrid Central low-emissions zone since 2018 • Madrid 360 will come into effect in 2020

in the city (+6 million in the Greater Metropolitan Area)

2018 Madrid Central

Area:

ICE ban in Madrid Central, exceptions for local residents and public transport

ICE vehicles will be allowed again if they • carry two or more people that have a C environmental sticker (modern diesel and petrol cars) • are used by business owners with the same permissions as residents

• less parking space • increased fees

• more parking space for nonresidents • reduced fees: - EVs park for free - Hybrids pay half price - C permits receive 10% discount

Space priority

Shift in space from cars and parking towards pedestrians and cyclists

More parking space for non-residents’ cars and for motorcyclists

Introduced by

Mayor Manuela Carmena (end of 2018)

Current Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida Navasqüés

604.3km2 Mayor:

2020 Madrid 360

ICE ban

José Luis Martínez-Almeida Navasqüés (2019, Partido Popular)

FLEET EUROPE #110

Parking

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PUBLIC TRANSPORT

MAAS MADRID • MaaS app • Developed by public transport operator EMT • First city-led MaaS app • Public-private collaboration • Multi-modal • Public transport = backbone • Includes route planner • Includes payment platform: EMTPay • What: parking, public transit, bikesharing, Electro-EMT app (EV charging network), third-party mobility services

• Commute by public transit: average distance: 9.5km; average time: 62 minutes; 68% transfers at least once during one trip, 23% at least twice (source: Moovit) • Public transit: Light rail, metro, train, bus & cable car • Local Cercanías trains: every 10 to 30 minutes; from 5am to midnight • Metro: 12 lines, 300+ stations, from 6am to 1.30am; every 2 minutes (rush hour), every 10 to 15 minutes after midnight • Buses (EMT): 2,000+ buses, 200+ bus lines; 6am to 11.30pm (Monday to Friday), 7am to 11pm (weekends and holidays)

ACTIVE COMMUTE

SHARED TRANSPORTATION

ELECTRIC VEHICLES • +5,000 (DGT) EVs – on a total of 1.7 million vehicles • 324 charging points / 24 public charging points in the greater Madrid area • On average: 1 public charging point for every 221 users

• MaaS Madrid App: combines all available mobility modes in Madrid in one app • Bikesharing: BiciMAD, MoBike, Ofo, Obike, Donkey Republic • Carsharing: ShareNow, Vehículo Eléctrico (1,000 EVs circulating daily in Madrid), ZITY, Ubeeqo, Wible • Electric car rental: Wattacars, Emov, Spain Car • Ridehailing: Uber, Cabify • Taxi apps: Pidetaxi, Fee Now • Electric motor sharing: eCooltra, IoScoot, Movo, Muving, COUP • Scooter sharing: Acciona, Eskay, Voi, Taxify, Koko, Ufo, Rideconga, Flash, Lime, Wind, Reby Rides, Bird, Movo, MyGo, Jump Uber, SJV Consulting • Carpooling: BlaBlaCar, Carpool World

FLEET EUROPE #110

• Commute by walking: average distance: 0.59km; 14% walks more than 1km • Cycling: 43km of cycling lanes (compared to 200km in Barcelona)

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MAAS

ALD CUSTOMERS HELP BUILD MAAS APP Frank Jacobs

At the Fleet Europe Summit last November in Estoril, ALD Automotive won the Fleet Europe Innovation Award with ALD Move, its first MaaS app.

In a nutshell, ALD Move provides employees with real-time travel insight and advice to improve efficiency and optimise multi-modal mobility. ALD consulted its corporate customers during development, and they continue to be involved as the app evolves.

“Innovation is at the heart of ALD Automotive’s strategy,” says Lonneke Van Der Horst, Marketing and Strategy Director at ALD Netherlands, which developed ALD Move. “We clearly see this win as proof of our capacity to shape and deliver the future of mobility.”

How is ALD Move being rolled out?

FLEET EUROPE #113

“The app was conceived and developed in the Netherlands, but we worked with the Holding as one team to ensure the app’s future success within the Group.

The Dutch market is quite mature, so it was an obvious choice for the app’s first roll-out. Following our successful pilot, we now plan to roll it out in another country soon – ALD Move is built on the philosophy that it should be easy to adapt it to other countries.”

Lonneke Van Der Horst, Marketing & Strategy Director (center) with Christine Diniz Rodrigues, Innovation & Product Project Manager (left), and Niels Onderwater, Innovation Marketeer (right), after having received the Innovation Award in Estoril.

market of flexible mobility solutions.

If we can add value for our customers, volume will follow.”

ALD Move is described as a ‘mobility assistant’ for corporate use.

But is it useful for all company types? And will you be launching it on the B2C market as well?

What are your objectives with ALD Move?

“We’re starting with the B2B market.

Existing MaaS solutions focus on city-dwellers.

However, important aspects such as sustainability, productivity and employer attractiveness make MaaS relevant for corporates as well. As we are both platform and asset provider for ALD Move, ALD can offer a high level of service integration.”

“We aim to have around 500 users in 2020. But the main objective is to learn fast and to develop ALD Move further, together with customers who have made a priority of sustainability and flexible mobility. The MaaS market is not mature, which makes it almost impossible to predict volumes. But we want to play a role even at this exploratory stage, to help shape the future

“Customers appreciate that we are their single point of contact for a broad range of services. And from our consultations with fleet and mobility managers, we know that a major challenge for them as they transition towards flexible mobility is to balance offering users more freedom of choice with maintaining a clear insight into the

34

available options and the cost. ALD Move provides the answer.”

Finally, where do you think ALD Move still needs to improve to make it a true MaaS solution?

“On our road map, we foresee the integration of extra third-party services for micro-mobility and car-sharing. We would also like to integrate a payment functionality in the app itself. However, it’s largely up to our user group to define how the solution will evolve in the future. We use co-creation with customers as the approach for innovation development, because there is no point in developing services that our customers don’t need!”

The 2019 Fleet Europe Innovation Award was sponsored by

25-27

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MAAS

SMART CITIES GET TRAFFIC FLOWING Benjamin Uyttebroeck

@uytteb

Whether you call them smart or wise, cities have a determining role to play in getting people and goods from A to B. Fleet Europe spoke with Thomas Vith of the city of Vienna and with Michael Glotz-Richter of the city of Bremen about how both cities do this.

BREMEN: WISE, NOT SMART

Bremen, with just over half a million inhabitants, is a harbour city in the North West of Germany.

“I prefer being a wise city to a smart city,” stated Michael Glotz-Richter, Senior Advisor Sustainable Mobility for the City of Bremen. “Smart refers to using technologies and we want to think twice before we go for technology.”

He gives an example: a city can develop an app for cyclers to find the best route between A and B, but it can also build infrastructure that guides cyclists intuitively and safely.

cyclist, so there’s more respect for each other. Everyone cycles: politicians, bankers, people of all ages and genders. It is common and cool,” said Mr Glotz-Richter.

Civitas award

This also means air quality is not an issue in Bremen. “We fulfil air quality requirements and we don’t need diesel bans,” confirmed Mr Glotz-Richter.

Bremen must be doing something right. In October 2019, the city of Bremen won the Civitas award in the Transformation category in recognition of its efforts to reduce car use through cycling, integrated public transport and by offering alternatives to car ownership through carsharing.

Bremen’s wise mobility policy centres around two goals: providing an alternative to using a car and providing an alternative to owning a car.

Using a car Not only does Bremen have an extensive public transport network, it also has a very high share of cyclists on the road. “The infrastructure was improved significantly and cycling is fun. Almost every car driver is also a

Michael Glotz-Richter, City of Bremen: “Only rarely do companies have a full understanding of how much they spend on their cars.”

Owning a car Bremen was one of the first cities where carsharing was launched.

Today, there are three carsharing operators. So far, carsharing has predominantly been targeting private individuals but increasingly, the city is promoting its benefits for the private sector.

“Only rarely do companies have a full understanding of how much they spend on their cars, particularly if you take into consideration lost time when taking it to the dealer for maintenance, when washing it etc. Carsharing takes many of these hidden costs away.”

Bremen Pioneer in carsharing, today there are

FLEET EUROPE #113

3 operators

Rytle manufactures electric cargo bikes delivery companies can attach a rolling container to.

36

Vienna

€1/day

for public transport pass

Vienna has a very efficient public transport network.

to the development of social housing, health services and other services for all inhabitants. It also included a focus on public transport and it can still be felt in Vienna’s smart city strategy today.

Public transport

Increasingly, developers are looking at ways to avoid providing underground car parking, which they can legally do by including mobility services like carsharing. Not only does this make new buildings more future-proof, it also saves up to 15% in construction costs.

“I think it’s safe to say Vienna has one of the best public transport systems in the world,” asserts Thomas Vith, “both in terms of quality as in terms of reachability and price. For instance, a yearly pass for the full network is only ¤365 or ¤1 per day.”

Modular cargo bike

Thomas Vith is Mobility Expert for the Energy Centre at Urban Innovation Vienna, a city-owned company that acts as a competence centre on a variety of issues. “Having a good public transport network is already a smart approach,” said Mr Vith. But Vienna is doing much more.

A survey by Bundesverband Logistik (BVL) shows a delivery that takes six hours in Stuttgart only takes five in Bremen – and that’s with conventional delivery methods. A new service offered by Rytle could speed up deliveries even more. Rytle offers electric cargo bikes with a twist: at a hub, delivery companies can quickly attach a small standard rolling container or pallet to the bike with consolidated goods for delivery on the last mile and even the last meter.

VIENNA: SOCIAL DIMENSION OF BEING SMART

Vienna, the capital city of Austria and both a city and a federal state, has a population of roughly 1.8 million. With the exception of the Nazi period from 1934-1945, the city has been ruled by social-democrats since the first free elections in 1919. This has had a profound effect on how the city developed in the twentieth century, leading

Carsharing Today, carsharing in Vienna is mostly in the hands of car2go and DriveNow, who are in the process of merging. A local start-up, Eloop, was launched a few months ago with a smaller but growing fleet.

“Even though carsharing can never be a huge business and it is hard to make money with carsharing, it is crucial in the development of cities in which people don’t need to own their own car,” said Mr Vith.

MaaS Wiener Linien, the Viennese public transport company, developed WienMobil, a multimodal mobility app that shows users where they can find metro stations, taxis, car parks, shared cars, bikes and scooters. Integration of these modes of transport is not yet

37

Thomas Vith, City of Vienna: “Having a good public transport network is a smart approach.”

complete, as the app can be used to locate each service but not to order or pay it.

Hubert Hubert is a project for an urban consolidation centre where parcels can be grouped together so they can be dispatched in fewer shipments.

Another project in the same vein is City Hub.

Cycling Vienna is not a traditional cycling city, but you could mistake it for one when walking around in the historic centre.

“The city is constantly rolling out cycling infrastructure,” said Mr Vith.

Recently, Vienna reached the number 9 spot on the Copenhagenize Index, a list of the most bicycle friendly cities on this planet.

Metro tax Vienna’s U-Bahn metro network started operations in the seventies, funded in part through companies that are required to pay a yearly tax for each employee. Although most funding comes from the federal government and other city budgets, this tax pays in part for a 10km extension to the U-Bahn that is currently being built.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Bremen is working on the conversion of an old hospital in the inner city that should house 2,500 when completed.

There will only be four parking spots for ten apartments and the entire area will be car-free.

SAFETY

ADAS CREATE NEW ROAD SAFETY RISKS Benjamin Uyttebroeck

@uytteb

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are designed to make traffic safer but in reality they can engender new road safety risks. The independent Dutch Safety Board identified a number of types of new risks that it claims are not yet sufficiently recognised or managed.

In the study, which is based on accident investigations, a literature review and discussions with experts, the Dutch Safety Board states ADAS are not yet fully mature when they are introduced on the market. This means that they undergo further development while they are already being fitted in cars.

Together with a lack of knowledge among drivers, this can quickly lead to situations in which drivers fail to understand why the vehicle responds or fails to respond in a particular way.

DRIVER MONITORING SYSTEMS KEEP DRIVERS ON THEIR TOES centring systems because drivers put too much trust in them. It’s important to inform drivers that these systems are not self-driving systems. We try to do that but publications in the media and from manufacturers – well, from one manufacturer, really – thwart these efforts somewhat.” Mr Schram believes there is only one way to really ensure drivers do not misuse these comfort ADAS systems.

Who is in control?

Who is in control? That’s not only the title of the report, it is also a central issue that needs to be addressed. The Dutch Safety Board criticises the position carmakers and governments defend today, who both stick to the traditional, legal approach that the driver is liable, while that driver is at the same time often insufficiently equipped to operate the ADAS under these circumstances.

The new safety risks that go hand in hand with automation are swept under the carpet.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Computers on wheels The Dutch Safety Board also states that cars have become computers on wheels. Consequently, they are exposed to the same risks as computers, such as cybersecurity risks and risks associated with safety and security updates that aren’t carried out.

Even if those updates are carried out, they can create dangerous situations if they change the way the vehicle behaves or responds without the driver being fully aware of this change.

Richard Schram, Technical Director, Euro NCAP: “If you’re a normal driver, you shouldn’t see your safety ADAS kick in too often.”

Richard Schram, Technical Director at Euro NCAP, has reservations about the Dutch Safety Board report.

“To start with, there are two kinds of ADAS: emergency ADAS like AEB (automatic emergency braking) and comfort ADAS like ACC (adaptive cruise control).

Emergency ADAS are the ones we take into account for our Euro NCAP ratings, but they’re not the problem – if you’re a normal driver, you shouldn’t see them kick in too often and you shouldn’t rely on them.”

“There are risks associated with comfort ADAS like ACC and lane

38

“The only good solution is a driver monitoring system that uses sensors to know what the driver is doing and to intervene if necessary. And this system needs to be tamperproof.” Mr Schram added these systems will start being offered in new cars from 2021, for some models even from 2020.

“We are moving towards a reality in which drivers on motorways won’t be required to do anything for 90% of the time. But people aren’t good at monitoring things when they don’t have to actively do anything. That’s why these monitoring systems are so important.”

Euro NCAP also does not agree that carmakers introduce ADAS systems when they are still in the development phase. “It may be different at Tesla, but other OEMs clearly have assistance systems where you cannot say drivers are being used as beta testers.”

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems can lead to longer driver response times.

With systems like Tesla Autopilot engaged, the role of the driver changes from an active role to a supervisory role, leading to a much lower mental workload. Often, that leads to distraction, which in its turn leads to longer response times. The Dutch Safety Board does not agree with carmakers labelling this insufficient alertness as improper use of the systems rather than a logical consequence of the low mental workload.

Bottlenecks Based on the principle of responsible innovation, the Dutch Safety Board has identified bottlenecks in terms of design, policy, regulation and supervision, data availability and learning capacity.

DESIGN Road safety is not a basic principle in the design process and designers do not pay enough attention to the driver who is required to operate the innovation.

POLICY Dutch and EU policies are encouraging the installation of ADAS and even making some obligatory. However, there are no systematic risk analyses

and there are no assessments on how the risks can be mitigated. The policy tends to look ahead at a distant future in which vehicles will be autonomous and government attention is insufficiently focused on the current generation of ADAS systems.

REGULATION AND SUPERVISION Technology is outpacing regulations and the rules are lagging behind.

Regulations state that new systems are not permitted to make traffic less safe, but they do not specify how that could be assessed. Systems are approved without a full understanding of their effect on road safety.

associated with ADAS are only revealed in practice.

Zero fatalities In the conclusion to its report, the Dutch Safety Board says that both the Dutch government and the European Commission are striving to achieve zero road fatalities by 2050. Achieving this ambitious target will require technological development, like the use of ADAS. However, while ADAS can have a positive effect on road safety, there are as yet no guarantees that potential will be truly fully unlocked.

DATA AVAILABILITY Following an accident, the emergency services and the policy are often unable to access a vehicle’s data and to assess whether an ADAS system caused an accident or helped mitigate its consequences.

LEARNING CAPACITY Manufacturers do not undertake systematic investigation into accidents and as a consequence, they are unable to learn from any shortcomings in their products. A proportion of the risks

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ADAS need to be fully mature before they are introduced on the automotive market.

FLEET EUROPE #113

Longer response times

www.kia.com

Niro has never been so trendy.

available as

electric

hybrid

plug-in hybrid

Introducing the new Kia Niro family.

Available as electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid.

It’s time to update the way you drive. The new Kia Niro family has a redesigned new look and comes with three engine options: full electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid.

But that’s not all. Add to that an extra-spacious interior and a 7-year warranty, and you’ll find plenty of reasons to say that there’s nothing like a Niro.

*Max. 150,000 km vehicle warranty. Valid in all EU member states (plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Gibraltar). Deviations according to the valid guarantee conditions, e.g. for paint and equipment, subject to local terms and conditions. The WLTP combined cycle range for the e-Niro is 455 kilometres (282 miles) for the long-range 64 kWh battery pack, and 289 kilometres (179 miles) for the standard (39.2 kWh) battery pack. The specified driving range values were determined according to the legally prescribed measurement procedures (EU) 2017/1153. The above values have been tested in the new WLTP, Worldwide Harmonized Light vehicle Test Procedure, test cycle and converted back to NEDC, New European Driving Cycle, in addition measured according to the RDE, Real Driving Emissions method.