The 2018 Fleet Forward Conference convened Oct. 9-10 at The Pearl in San Francisco.
The event is dedicated to providing strategies and new mobility solutions to fleets.
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2018 Fleet Forward Conference in Pictures
Nick Tempelhoff, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans Future Transportation North America, presented a plenary seminar that walked attendees through the coming evolution of the work van. These include new concepts such as mobile lockers, "last-meter" deliveries by drone and robot, automated loading, and van sharing.
Photo: Thi Dao
Mercedes-Benz's Recognition and Organization System, or CoROS, is explained. CoROS transforms Mercedes-Benz Vans into an intelligent cargo space via computer vision and artificial intelligence with the goal of automating labor-intensive processes in last-mile deliveries.
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Breakout seminars were divided into the main room and the mezzanine, where "campfire discussions" required audience feedback and input on issues such as electric vehicle carsharing, blockchain, and optimizing fleet operations.
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Kevin McLaughin of PSA's free2move talks to James Neir of Dollar Rent A Car and Ashley Cashion of what3words.
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The 2018 Fleet Forward Conference drew attendees from as far away as Brazil and the U.K., as well as many tech entrepreneurs from San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Those new to the fleet world were introduced to commercial and government fleet managers, car rental operators, representatives from fleet management companies, and vendors to the fleet world.
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David Peterson (left) of ChargePoint and Evan Speer of the State of California discuss the implications of the rollout of electric vehicles in the state fleet and installation of electric infrastructure.
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Jon Stanley and Kellie Jones of Bridgestone (left to right) enjoy the rooftop reception along with Rob Minton of Geotab and Anthony Franklin of Gurtam Inc.
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Christofer Kazanchyan of Mercedes-Benz, Claire Alleaume of Trak Global Group, Greg Buckland and Kayla Bailes of LeasePlan USA, and Noha Ahmed Fekry of Mercedes-Benz network during the Tuesday evening reception.
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Ohad Zeira, vice president Fleet Ventures for Avis Budget Group, delivered a plenary address that focused on the evolving discipline of Fleet Management as a Service (FMaaS) along with insights from Avis Budget Group's Kansas City connected vehicle lab.
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The plenary seminar "Your Autonomous Strategy Begins Now" discussed what mobility buzzwords such as autonomy, electrification, sharing, and connectivity and the implications for fleets. The panel, moderated by Chris Brown, consisted of Mark Thomas of RideCell, David Liniado of Cox Automotive, and Tony Candeloro of Holman Enterprises.
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Attendees experience Ford's autonomous technology on the Transit Connect van using virtual reality.
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Mike Branch of Geotab delivered insights into how telematics fleet data can be used in conjunction with city planning. In one example, Geotab data was collected and shared with a city to modify green light lengths in high fleet traffic corridors. The result was a reduction in overall carbon emissions and fuel savings for the fleet.
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Alex Thibault of Vulog explains new business models allowing corporations to share vehicles and reduce fleet size.
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Rachel Pautler from Fleetcarma digs into the discussion during a breakout seminar.
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John Possumato of DriveItAway (left-right), along with Joe Poznick of Poolcar and Paul Hirsch of Launch Mobility, discuss shared-use models for commercial fleets and strategies for implementation.
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Mark Smith (left) and Aaron Sandstrom of Element Fleet Management flank Erin Gilchrist of Safelite. Each took a side for "The Great Mobility Debate," where new mobility solutions, the need for change, and processing disruption were balanced with the realistic needs of fleets today.
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Marco della Torre (left) and Karl Weber of Derive Systems greet Chris Brown of Bobit Business Media in front of the Derive test vehicle, in which attendees could experience Derive safety technology firsthand.
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Joe Furnari of Hyrecar (left to right) Andro Vrdoljak of Turo, and Eric Rothman of Fast Track Mobility explain how their businesses are scaling with owned fleet.
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