Best of LinkedIn: Commercial Fleet Insights CW 14/ 15

00:00:00: This episode is provided by Thomas Alakair and Frenis based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts about commercial fleets in calendar weeks, fourteen and fifteen.

00:00:08: Frens is a B to B market research company that supports automotive suppliers with building feature-by-feature competitive intelligence That shows exactly how their products stacks up against the competition.

00:00:17: you can find more info in the description.

00:00:20: So what if I told you that?

00:00:22: By holding off on upgrading your fleet right now You're actually Quietly paying a ten percent diesel tax every single month.

00:00:29: Yeah, or that two point five percent of your total fuel spend is just vanishing due to organized theft entirely because you're current sensors are You know looking in the wrong place?

00:00:38: I mean it's the harsh operational reality we are unpacking for you today.

00:00:43: Welcome to The Deep Dive.

00:00:45: We're on a mission Today To cut through all the noise and build you A targeted map Of the commercial fleet landscape And this Is based Entirely On the top Insights We've seen across LinkedIn over the last Two Weeks.

00:00:55: Right.

00:00:55: And if there's one overarching takeaway from all this recent data, it's brutal but its clear the era of like experimentation in fleet tech that is completely dead.

00:01:07: Yeah!

00:01:07: It's over.

00:01:08: You either have a system delivering measurable ROI right now or you are just bleeding capital.

00:01:13: The industry is demanding real results.

00:01:16: Exactly.

00:01:17: So let us start with our first major theme which how AI is fundamentally transforming Fleet Intelligence.

00:01:24: Gourvinder Butter actually crystallized this recently on LinkedIn.

00:01:28: He pointed out that telematics is no longer just a dot-on-a-map...

00:01:31: Which, it's such relief because knowing a truck's GPS coordinate hasn't been a real competitive advantage.

00:01:37: for what?

00:01:37: A decade!

00:01:38: Yeah

00:01:38: at least a decade.

00:01:39: Cameron Butt and Philip Gowes have both analyzed this transition, And they're calling what we are in right now the third wave of fleet technology.

00:01:47: Okay... The Third Wave?

00:01:48: Break that down for us!

00:01:49: Well first wave was just basic location tracking then second wave was reactive monitoring so getting a harsh breaking alert or dash cam clip but only after an incident already happened

00:02:00: Right After fact

00:02:01: Exactly.

00:02:02: But This Third Wave It's defined by predictive maintenance and moving from tracking to predicting.

00:02:07: And I want to look at the predictive side first because David Fish shared some data regarding Ford Pro Intelligence that, it really puts a dollar value on this.

00:02:15: they're leveraging predictive telematics To analyze these tiny micro trends in vehicle data.

00:02:21: Yeah so we aren't just talking about a trick.

00:02:23: engine light coming off?

00:02:24: No not at all.

00:02:25: The system can flag say A battery showing us subtle voltage drop.

00:02:30: Well, the vehicle is just sitting idle at the depot at three AM.

00:02:33: Which is huge because the mechanics of that are what actually matter.

00:02:36: if you spot that voltage anomaly before the morning shift The Depot manager can just swap the battery or sign the driver a different truck right?

00:02:44: Because it break down on the side of a highway That requires a tow.

00:02:47: You've missed your service level agreement with the client and you're paying hours of wasted driver pay.

00:02:51: Yeah to nightmare

00:02:52: but fixing in at the Depot as just a standard cheap scheduled repair.

00:02:57: Fish's data actually shows this.

00:02:58: predictive health monitoring can reduce unscheduled downtime by up to twenty percent.

00:03:03: Wow, twenty percent I mean that is massive for overall uptime.

00:03:07: but here's the thing spotting.

00:03:09: the problem was only half of battle right because if an AI system generates a thousand predictive alerts you've just created a massive administrative bottleneck for your team.

00:03:19: which brings us to the automation side of things.

00:03:22: Reed Jackson from Fledio highlighted this recently.

00:03:25: He noted that their newly deployed AI service advisor is now automating seventy percent of all maintenance spend approvals.

00:03:31: Okay, let me pause you right there because letting an AI approve financial spend sounds incredibly risky for a fleet manager who's already tight on margins.

00:03:40: I mean, how does an algorithm know a break job estimate is legitimate and not heavily padded by the repair shop?

00:03:46: Right.

00:03:46: It sounds scary but it isn't guessing.

00:03:48: The AI ingests the incoming estimate And then it instantly cross-references against millions of historical invoice data points localized leader rates... ...and specific vehicles maintenance history.

00:04:00: Yeah So if a shop quotes four hours for labor that historically only takes two.

00:04:07: The AI flags it But if it matches the parameters, they'd prove to spend instantly.

00:04:13: You just eliminated a massive layer of administrative friction.

00:04:17: That

00:04:17: makes total sense.

00:04:19: and Daniel awfully touched on a really similar leap in efficiency with geotab ace.

00:04:23: They've integrated a generative AI engine that lets fleet managers literally just ask their data questions.

00:04:29: Yeah Just natural language right.

00:04:30: what used to take hours of exporting CSV files and building pivot tables now happens In seconds.

00:04:36: you just type in what you need.

00:04:37: But you know, the ROI of this intelligence isn't just about efficiency in the back office.

00:04:41: It's also about physical security.

00:04:44: Adnan Wasini brought up a vulnerability that I think most operators ignore...

00:04:48: The fuel theft right?

00:04:49: Yeah!

00:04:50: Fleets without high precision monitoring lose up to two point five percent of their total fuel supply to organize diesel theft annually.

00:04:57: And we really need to clarify what kind of theft is because it wasn't an opportunistic thief with plastic jug and parking lot.

00:05:04: No, this is systematic organized draining.

00:05:07: Traditional telematics often just rely on the standard fuel gauge which might only update periodically or it completely misses skimming from secondary fuel reservoirs.

00:05:16: Right so Wissini advocates for high precision tank probes installed directly inside a reservoir.

00:05:22: These probes measure the liquid level down to the millimeter, and they trigger an instant alert.

00:05:27: The moment a suspicious drop occurs even when the engine is turned off

00:05:31: exactly.

00:05:32: And we are seeing that exact same principle of AI driven security applied to actual vehicle theft too.

00:05:38: I'm on.

00:05:38: Kobisi Abu Kyle shared a fascinating case study from Swift ride.

00:05:43: Oh this one was wild.

00:05:44: Yeah They rent vehicles two gig economy drivers like for uber in lift and they were facing this existential threat.

00:05:51: Fifteen percent of their fleet was being stolen every single year.

00:05:54: I mean a fifteen percent total asset loss rate is catastrophic.

00:05:57: You can't run a business like that

00:05:58: beyond catastrophic.

00:06:00: So they deployed geo tab keyless and they integrated it into a custom app That forces drivers to unlock the cars purely with their smartphones

00:06:07: creating that digital handshake,

00:06:09: right?

00:06:10: By creating that authenticated digital handshake for access, they dropped their gig economy vehicle theft rate from fifteen percent to literally zero.

00:06:21: Zero?

00:06:22: That's incredible!

00:06:23: Yeah

00:06:23: That single integration saved them four hundred thousand dollars annually.

00:06:28: Okay, let's unpack this for a second because I want to use an analogy here it sounds like we're moving from just checking our rear view mirror To having a full air traffic control tower for the fleet.

00:06:36: yeah that's a good way to put It.

00:06:38: but Here is my question and Chris Pellegrino actually noted This he warned did these platforms?

00:06:43: Just collect dust without an internal champion?

00:06:47: Our fleets Actually structurally ready to Use all this AI data?

00:06:50: or are they just buying fancy dashboards?

00:06:52: I completely agree with Pellegrino.

00:06:54: You can buy the most sophisticated air traffic control tower, but if nobody in your organization owns it... If no one is accountable for executing the insights that AI generates… It's just noise!

00:07:09: And fleets simply don't have the margins to fund decorations anymore, which really pivots us perfectly into the financial and operational realities these fleets are facing.

00:07:18: If your software isn't actively solving the inefficiencies in your physical assets you're losing!

00:07:24: And that friction between digital insights and physical hardware is exactly where C-GULAC's concept of efficiency triangle comes into play.

00:07:32: GULAC argues survival requires balancing aerodynamics, telematics & driver behavior.

00:07:38: The driver behavior piece is where the fastest financial leaks occur, hands down.

00:07:43: Laura Clawn and Steve Lockington highlighted what they call the

00:07:47: idling virus.

00:07:47: Yeah their data shows that commercial vehicles are idling anywhere from one to four hours every single day.

00:07:53: Let's just do a math on it for you listening.

00:07:55: A heavy duty truck burns roughly four liters of fuel per hour of idling.

00:07:59: Lockington calculates that reducing idling by just ten to fifteen percent yields up to seven hundred and fifty dollars in savings per vehicle annually.

00:08:08: I mean, for a mid-sized fleet of fifty trucks you are looking at nearly forty thousand dollars quite literally going up in smoke In the parking lot

00:08:16: And telematics can identify that idling.

00:08:19: but again Going back To The Internal Champion Point If A Fleet Manager Doesn't Use That Data To Coach The Driver Maybe They're Keeping The Cab Cool Or Leaving The Engine On out of habit during loading, the fuel is still gone.

00:08:32: Right

00:08:32: but I want to push back on this efficiency triangle for a second.

00:08:36: so

00:08:36: what does all mean for the fleet manager listening right now?

00:08:40: You can have perfect driver behavior and world-class telematics.

00:08:44: But What happens if the fleet fundamentally botched The physical hardware purchasing decision?

00:08:49: Oh like the payload issue.

00:08:50: Yes Lehan Hansen exposed This massive blind spot regarding box trucks.

00:08:55: So a fleet operator looks at A sixteen foot box truck and a twenty-six foot box truck.

00:09:00: The sixteen foot is significantly cheaper, right?

00:09:02: So they buy it thinking purely about cargo space.

00:09:05: The payload versus volume trap

00:09:07: Exactly!

00:09:07: They aren't calculating the density in weight of what they were actually transporting

00:09:11: Right.

00:09:11: so they fill this sixteen foot truck to its volumetric capacity.

00:09:14: but because the cargo is dense...they wildly exceed vehicle's payload capacity.

00:09:19: Every single day, that truck hits the road riding on its bump stops.

00:09:24: The suspension gets destroyed... ...the brake pads burn out at double-the normal rate and the powertrain is stressed beyond it's engineering limits.

00:09:32: Efficiency isn't just about driving habits—it's about physical assets!

00:09:36: So the efficiency triangle completely collapses if the physical asset is spent wrong?

00:09:42: And Arthur Chavezot brought up another physical challenge this time with a transition to electric vehicles….

00:09:48: Urban EV delivery vans are chewing through tires thirty to forty percent faster than internal combustion vans.

00:09:54: Thirty-to-forty percent?

00:09:55: The physics behind that is fascinating and deeply impactful for the ROI.

00:09:59: with a diesel engine, power curve builds gradually but an EV one hundred percent of torque available at zero RPM.

00:10:06: Right!

00:10:07: Instant Power

00:10:07: Exactly.

00:10:08: The moment the driver touches the accelerator, massive rotational force hits the tire.

00:10:14: Combine that EV torque with this sheer weight of battery packs and constant stop-and go traction of urban delivery And the tires simply disintegrate faster.

00:10:23: So if your maintenance algorithms aren't adjusted for a forty percent accelerated tyre wear schedule Your EVs are going to end up sidelined.

00:10:31: You cannot just swap a diesel engine for a battery and run the exact same operational playbook.

00:10:35: You really can't.

00:10:36: you have to treat the vehicle, driver and data as one integrated system.

00:10:42: But despite these physical learning curves The financial imperative is becoming absolute.

00:10:49: John Burton raised a fundamental question Why are we agonizing over ten percent fuel efficiency gains when technology exists to eliminate fuel spend entirely?

00:10:58: And numbers completely backburten up.

00:11:00: Miltiades, Babelis and Mark Ochs still be cited.

00:11:03: a joint report from EYN Euroelectric estimating that fleet electrification could unlock an astonishing two hundred forty six billion euros in operating cost savings.

00:11:12: Yeah, but macroeconomic projections are one thing.

00:11:15: Fleet managers need per kilometer realities.

00:11:18: Mauricio Sardi provided exactly that with the receipts.

00:11:21: he looked at real-world data from fully loaded forty two ton commercial operations in Europe.

00:11:27: Okay what

00:11:27: were the numbers?

00:11:28: Hactoring

00:11:29: in vehicle energy and infrastructure.

00:11:31: electric trucks currently operating at sixty euro cents per kilometer.

00:11:36: The European diesel average is sitting at sixty-six cents per kilometer.

00:11:40: So electric has already beating diesel by ten percent in heavy freight, right?

00:11:44: And Sardi framed this brilliantly.

00:11:46: if you are a fleet operator waiting for cheaper EVs.

00:11:50: You're actively choosing to pay a ten percent diesel tax on your operations every single month.

00:11:55: But and here's where it gets really interesting Greg Urban an Ivan Lindosky point out a massive reality check.

00:12:02: The hesitation from fleets isn't really about the vehicles anymore, is it?

00:12:06: The bottleneck has shifted entirely to the last mile depots and local grid constraints.

00:12:11: Yeah absolutely I

00:12:12: mean a fleet buys twenty electric vans parks them at their depot And then though local utility tells him It will take two years in a million dollars To upgrade the grid.

00:12:20: enough to charge them all simultaneously...it feels like putting the cart before the horse!

00:12:25: It is massive hurdle.

00:12:26: but industry hacking these roadblocks?

00:12:30: Tony Niesum highlighted a technology from Optigrid that elegantly bypasses the utility bottleneck using battery-integrated chargers.

00:12:41: battery inside the charger.

00:12:43: Yeah, so normally if you want to push two hundred kilowatts of fast charging power into a truck You have to draw two hundred Kilowatts directly from the grid.

00:12:51: If you have ten trucks you need a two megawatt grid connection which most depots do not Have

00:12:56: right.

00:12:57: but off-the-grids hardware pulls a slow Manageable fifty kilowattes in the existing grid Connection.

00:13:02: twenty four hours A day trickling that energy Into a massive stationary Battery built Right into The Charger.

00:13:09: Then when the truck plugs in, the charger dumps energy from its internal battery into the truck at lightning-fast two hundred kilowatt speeds.

00:13:17: Oh wow!

00:13:18: So you get high speed DC charging without triggering a massive infrastructure upgrade from The Utility Company?

00:13:25: That is brilliant.

00:13:26: Exactly.

00:13:27: but even with hardware hacks...the capex ...the upfront capital expenditure of buying vehicles and chargers Is still a nightmare for boardroom approvals,

00:13:36: which is where Debra P notes that the financial structure has to change.

00:13:40: Shifting to leasing models turns that terrifying upfront capex into a predictable monthly OPEX

00:13:46: and executives are way more comfortable managing OPECs

00:13:49: right?

00:13:50: And we can't ignore.

00:13:51: Mark Duxbury and Daniel Lyons discussed the UK government launching a one-million pound fund specifically for fleet electrification where individual operators can claim up to one million pounds in infrastructure grants.

00:14:02: So, the financial barriers are systematically being dismantled?

00:14:06: But let me push back here.

00:14:08: if the TCO is already better and there are grants available and we have battery integrated chargers why aren't we still having this debate?

00:14:15: Are fleets just paralyzed by the infrastructure complexity?

00:14:18: Honestly, yes.

00:14:19: And Claudio Gaikin made a point that answers this perfectly.

00:14:23: He argued that real value isn't hardware It's software orchestration of smart charging

00:14:29: Managing daily complexity.

00:14:30: Exactly!

00:14:32: An electrified depot is not only parking lot anymore but also micro grid.

00:14:36: You have to balance site power constraints, fluctuating energy prices and fallback logic if a charger goes offline.

00:14:42: That requires an immense amount of human oversight!

00:14:45: But what happens when we remove the human element entirely?

00:14:48: Because if electrification solves the energy puzzle autonomy is rapidly solving the scalability in driver shortage puzzles.

00:14:55: Yeah, autonomy is no longer just a prototype.

00:14:57: look at the micro-and urban scale.

00:14:59: Mohamed Wakar shared data out of China.

00:15:01: that is just mind-blowing.

00:15:03: There are already over ten thousand driverless delivery vehicles operating commercially across one hundred Chinese cities.

00:15:10: Ten Thousand units operating daily, That's staggering!

00:15:13: And the economics for what?

00:15:14: make it disruptive.

00:15:15: Wakar noted they're executing last mile deliveries from nine point.

00:15:18: nine RMB which translates to roughly a dollar and thirty eight cents.

00:15:22: Unbelievable.

00:15:23: They operate twenty four hours per day cost pennies to charge completely eliminate labor variables

00:15:28: And we are seeing the beginnings of this in Europe and

00:15:31: U.S.,

00:15:31: as well.

00:15:32: Inabehayufot highlighted Collect & Go, who just launched a driverless grocery pilot navigating the complex pedestrian-heavy city center of Luven in Belgium.

00:15:42: Right!

00:15:43: And Jeffrey Friedman brought up that Rivian's micromobility spinoff, Elzovo is actively partnering with DoorDash….

00:15:49: Oh I saw.

00:15:51: They are designing autonomous electric delivery vehicles tailored for bike lanes to conquer the urban last mile.

00:15:57: The last

00:15:57: mile is automating quickly because the speeds were low, but Merrick Futurejager scaled it up to heavy duty freight which changes the macro logistics game entirely.

00:16:06: Aurora Continental and NVIDIA have formalized a level four partnership to launch driverless trucks by twenty-twenty seven.

00:16:12: Level Four meaning no human driver in the cab under defined conditions And Twenty-Twenty Seven Is Essentially Tomorrow

00:16:19: Right and the operational math is crazy.

00:16:22: An autonomous truck doesn't have hours of service regulations, it doesn't need sleep!

00:16:26: A journey that takes a human driver ten days due to mandatory downtime can be completed by an autonomous truck in five days.

00:16:34: they project savings at up to twenty nine percent per kilometer

00:16:37: plus they estimated ten percent reduction fuel use purely because the AI optimizes driving perfectly every single time.

00:16:45: But we have to ground this in reality.

00:16:47: because Tomás Tairas provided a necessary structural readiness check, he warned that autonomy won't happen overnight.

00:16:53: it enters lane by lane hub-by-hub.

00:16:55: Yeah I look at like hiring world class robotic chef.

00:16:58: It doesn't matter how good the robot is if your kitchen isn't wired for its power supply or If you're stats digital system can give orders.

00:17:06: are our transport management systems actually ready?

00:17:08: Most of them aren't and The future won't be one by waiting for perfect certainty, but by preparing transport operations and digital backbones early.

00:17:17: That structural readiness is everything.

00:17:19: I

00:17:20: want to leave you with one final thought to ponder.

00:17:23: we've talked about AI predicting breakdowns EV's changing maintenance cycles in autonomous trucks running twenty four seven But think what happens when all three collide.

00:17:35: What does your operation look like when an autonomous electric truck detects its own EV torque tire wear using AI and automatically reroutes itself to a service bay without single human making phone call?

00:17:46: That's the true end point of

00:17:49: this data.