MANAGING PUBLIC SECTOR VEHICLES & EQUIPMENT
The average fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in December fell to 25 mpg — down 0.2 mpg from a revised November value, according to Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak, researchers from the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).
There will be dramatic changes in new-vehicle purchasing processes, remote vehicle diagnostics, increasingly “smarter” vehicles, and next-generation online fleet management systems powered by fleet-specific social media.
All indications are that new-vehicle orders from government fleets will be down or flat for the 2010 model-year. Many fleet budgets have been decimated by dramatic decreases in tax revenues. The downturn in the economy has caused many user departments to scale back new-vehicle and equipment orders. Also, widespread government layoffs have created a surplus of vehicles available for reassignment, deferring the need to acquire new vehicles.