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Keeping Crews Warm in Winter
Winter is approaching, and for utilities operating in the Frost Belt, keeping crews warm isn’t just a good thing to do – it’s a safety imperative. For vehicle cab comfort, the choices fall between...
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Using Gamification to Improve Employee Performance
Today’s utility fleets have a powerful tool at their disposal, and it’s one that nearly everybody already carries with them: mobile apps that run on cellphones and tablets. By tying new apps into...
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How Plug-In Hybrids Impact Vehicle Maintenance
Utility fleets are leading the way when it comes to the use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles – a growing solution for operations that must work around the clock to provide vital services to the...
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Upfitting Cargo Vans with Ergonomics in Mind
In order to keep employee health costs and downtime to a minimum, ergonomics – or fitting a job to the person performing the job – must play a big role in upfitting fleet vehicles. Many of today’s...
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The Future of Drones in the U.S. Utility Market
In the past year, a handful of U.S. utility companies – including San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern Co. of Atlanta and Commonwealth Edison Co. of Chicago – have received clearance from the Federal...
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Is 3-D Printing Shaping Up for Replacement Parts?
The mere presence of some cars can inspire creative journeys and wishful thinking. But a life-size Shelby Cobra, made with a 3-D printer? That takes even visionaries down a whole different road....
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Top Trends in Utility Fleet Telematics
What’s next for fleet telematics? Utility Fleet Professional talked to a few experts in the field to see where it is trending in the coming years. The conclusions? By 2020, better data analysis,...
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On Your Radar: The Latest Developments in Self-Driving Vehicles
Only a decade ago, the idea that self-driving cars could ever become mainstream within our lifetimes seemed far-fetched. Then came Google in 2009 with its fleet of retrofitted Prius hybrids and Lexus...
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New Power Sources Aid Anti-Idling Efforts
Unnecessary idling is still the bane of many utility fleets, and while not every fleet wants to turn off vehicle engines at job sites, some new and updated technologies are offering improved auxiliary...
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4 Smartphone Apps to Make You a More Effective and Efficient Fleet Manager
If you’re among the 64 percent of Americans who own a smartphone – up from 35 percent in 2011, according to Pew Research – you hold in your hand a powerful tool to record great ideas, facilitate...
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Getting Utility Fleet Drivers to Embrace Idle Reduction
Regardless of how cutting-edge a type of technology may seem, getting buy-in from prospective users often requires a pragmatic approach: They need to be convinced it works. Such is the case with...
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Anti-Theft Technologies to Protect Your Heavy Equipment
In 2014, heavy equipment theft cost U.S. companies about $400 million, and only 23 percent of stolen machines were ever recovered, according to a report by the National Equipment Register and National...
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The Pros and Cons of Driver-Facing Cameras in Utility Fleets
In-cab cameras have gained a foothold and acceptance among numerous service and freight delivery fleets for the technology’s ability to improve safety and lower accident and claim costs. Utilities,...
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What Utility Fleets Can Do to Curb Distracted Driving Incidents
Your company has clearly communicated its distracted driving policy to all employees. And the safety department is doing its part by screening at-risk drivers, providing consistent driver training and...
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The State of Electrified Pickup Trucks in the North American Market
While a growing number of utility fleets are purchasing electrified passenger cars – like the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf – and bucket trucks with plug-in electric power takeoff capabilities, one...
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Putting a Lock on Lost Keys
Keeping track of keys in a utility fleet environment – which may have thousands of assets, from pickups to bucket trucks and beyond – can be a costly endeavor. In fact, the price tag associated with...
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How Easy is it to Hack a Utility Fleet Vehicle?
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, hackers may be able to access a vehicle’s systems via a phone or tablet connected to the vehicle by USB or Bluetooth. The vehicle’s...
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Confronting the Human Dilemma in a Brave New Self-Driving World
In his speech at the AutoMobili-D Conference in Detroit this past January, John Krafcik, the CEO at Waymo – formerly the Google self-driving car program – cited this compelling statistic: “Each year,...
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Using Technology to Reduce Engine Idle
In the U.S., roughly 3 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline are consumed each year by idling engines on medium- and heavy-duty trucks, according to Argonne National Laboratory (www.anl.gov). So,...
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The Future of Drones in the Utility Market
Darting about inside one of Consolidated Edison’s 10-story steam boilers in Manhattan, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) looks like a hobbyist’s dream, a multirotor mini-helicopter outfitted with a...
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