Smart Move °2

DECEMBER 2018 – QUARTERLY MAGAZINE Nexus Communication - SMART MOVE #1 - Quarterly Magazine - Deposit Office Liege X

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How mobility determines a company’s attraction

Regine Sixt:

‘‘We shape the mobility of the future’’ Efficiently dealing with WLTP

Unanswerable questions, exciting times Did you know that 40% of all new start-ups focus on mobility? That’s how attractive the ecosystem is to business. And did you know that four of the five luxury brands most appealing to millennials are OEMs? BMW, Tesla, Audi and Mercedes share the top spots with Apple. This popularity of mobility with both start-ups and millennials is in stark contrast with the uncertainty over its future. Which mobility solutions will go mainstream, when and how?

Which players will win the mobility race: established OEMs, lease companies, rent a car specialists, tech giants or disruptors? And although both questions are unanswerable, in this new magazine we continue our quest to smart mobility. Because mobility hasn’t been this exciting since the first Ford T rolled off the assembly line in Detroit back in 1908.

Steven Schoefs

Strategy & Vision How to handle my diesel fleet

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Face to face with Regine Sixt

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The impact of WLTP on your strategy 12

Travel The transformation to mobility with Merck

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Discover the chatbot travel solution 11

Drive 6

Say yes to private lease

Disrupt How to anticipate fuel card abuse

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Start-ups in the picture

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COLOPHON This magazine is realised with the expertise of

Contributors: Tim Harrup, Frank Jacobs, Jonathan Manning, Dieter Quartier, Benjamin Uyttebroeck, Fien Van den Steen

Published by Nexus Communication SA, Parc Artisanal 11-13, B-4671 Barchon (Belgium) contact@nexuscommunication.be

Lay out: Cible - www.cible.be and Push-UP Communication (Cover illustration)

This publication is registered and copyrighted trademark, reproduction rights reserved for all countries. Received documents will not be returned. By submitting them, the author implicitly authorises their publication.

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• Diesel residual values have been dropping, but seem to stabilise • The diesel sentiment is very region-dependent • Hamburg and Stuttgart are banning older diesels, but Euro 6 is not in the line of fire • The latest technology (Euro 6d-temp) makes diesels at least as clean as petrol engines

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Diesel: the answer is not black or white Diesel is still the cheapest option for many fleets, but legislation measures and falling residual values increase the anti-diesel sentiment.

Time to de-diesel your fleet, or to remain faithful?

There is no denying that diesel residual values have been dropping considerably.

According to consultancy specialist Autovista, older diesels especially are hard to shift. Young used diesels, too, are suffering, as OEMs offer considerable discounts on new diesel vehicles in stock.

Indeed, the market has clearly been shifting away from diesel, but the extent to which the fuel has fallen from grace depends on the region. Italy, for instance, seems unaffected by Dieselgate, both in terms of new and used car sales.

Moreover, research finds that used car buyers are less worried about emissions than the people who buy their cars new.

CLEANING UP THE DIESEL ACT Hamburg, Stuttgart and Antwerp are banning older diesels, Berlin is asked to do so, Paris is planning to and other cities will follow, but Euro 6 is not in the line of fire – at least for now. There is no reason for cities to ban the most modern diesel cars: emission-containing technology enforced by the latest emission standard (Euro 6d-temp) makes them at least as clean as petrol cars.

For high-mileage drivers, the share of the fuel cost in the TCO pie is so important that diesel still wins hands down from other options, with the exception – in some cases – of CNG (natural gas). Hybrids

make little sense on motorways: their batteries are depleted instantly and have little opportunity to recharge. More than ever, driver profiling is the answer to the powertrain question.

One question remains, though: what to do with older diesels in your fleet, i.e. Euro 5 or below? On the one hand, you could argue that they have lost most of their value already and are likely to keep further devaluation at bay. On the other hand, there is corporate social responsibility, image and risk control to consider. With regard to the latter, leasing companies rather replace Euro 5 diesels with a new diesel than extend the contract.

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TRAVEL

Mobility determines a company’s attraction Merck, a leading science and technology company, may have been founded 350 years ago, they’re not stuck in the past. Christoph Carnier, Head of Procurement Category Travel Fleet and Events, explains how his company is transitioning towards more flexible mobility services: “We want to give our employees more options.”

In the race to attract top talents, the company car or the mobility package remains one of the key benefits employees expect from their company, said Mr Carnier. It may be easier to focus on traditional policies where a fleet manager only deals with leasing companies and related suppliers, alternative mobility services are nevertheless gaining prominence.

MOBILITY ISN’T NEW “All the talk about mobility confuses me,” said Mr Carnier. “We’ve always had mobility everywhere. Today, we do see more demand for other services and it is important to listen to this.” Most people still want their own car but they don’t need it all the time, they want more flexibility in terms of models and sizes, they want access to other options.

Others are interested in a car as a status symbol. “This also illustrates the attractiveness of a company and that’s why we are interested in offering different solutions.”

In October this year, Merck management has decided to set up a pilot project to add flexibility to the mobility mix.

OPTION NOT WANTED “We’ve tried other innovations in the past,” said Mr Carnier. “We wanted managers to park their cars in a dedicated part of the car park and drop their keys off so other employees that needed a car during the day could use one of these pool cars. It didn’t work at all because people still want their own personal car and they don’t like sharing it. This option was simply not wanted.”

Under the new pilot, employees get more flexibility in terms of vehicle choice. Why not drive a smaller car in winter, a bigger one in the summer, a van when you need one, a convertible when the sun’s out?

Merck dismissed the idea of using rental cars to achieve this flexibility as this would put the burden of managing rentals on them. This is where Sixt and their mobility app comes in.

Merck • Leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials (e.g. biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer, liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions)

NO DELAYS The new pilot allows Merck employees to continue choosing cars like they always have, for instance a BMW 5 Series. But you can also opt for a smaller car in winter, a larger one in the summer, or no car at all when you don’t need one during a few weeks of the year. You could also pick a rental car or a train trip during your holidays.

Added flexibility isn’t the only advantage of the new system. Because they work with standard cars, in standard trims and colours, there is no delay or order procedure. “If your first day at the office is on 1 May, you can get your car on 1 May,” explained Mr Carnier. This works both ways: when an employee leaves the company, Merck can return the vehicle immediately without any financial consequences as is the case with traditional 3 or 4-year leasing contracts.

• €15,3bn sales in 66 countries in 2017 • Holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand except in the United States and Canada

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Don’t assume company cars are no longer attractive

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Listen to your workforce and match your offer to what they expect

Another way Merck addresses mobility issues, is by introducing working from home and floating working hours. Staff can also use shared bicycles, for instance to go to the train station, where they can take the train, prepaid and with subvention by the company, for their daily commute.

NO TRIPS TO THE DEALER Mr Carnier also expects considerable cost savings and efficiency gains if employees change cars every six months as this period is too short to require trips to the dealer for maintenance or tyre changes.

There are also savings with regard to management of insurance, fines and damages.

It is unlikely that the whole workforce will swap their traditional leasing car for this mobility service. “Our sales people in particular have a high usage and high mileage,” said Mr Carnier. They would have to change cars every couple of weeks, which may not make sense financially.

Instead, the new mobility service is aimed at management or at people who didn’t qualify for a leasing car previously.

• Founded in 1668 • Around 50,000 employees worldwide

Christoph Carnier’s top tips for intermodular mobility

NO STAND-ALONE OPTION “Leased cars can easily cost €600 to €700 a month. With this mobility concept, we have the option to support you not with the full car but with a smaller amount, like €300.” From a taxation point of view, this helps reduce a company’s labour costs and the monthly leasing cost.

Christoph Carnier • 46 years old • Head of Procurement Category Travel Fleet and Events • 26 years’ experience at Merck, always focused on fleet and procurement, business travel and meeting management • Manages a fleet of 6,500 cars across the world, 3,500 in Europe • Board member of the German business travel association • Enjoys playing tennis and travelling

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DRIVE

A ‘company car’ for every employee New employee car ownership schemes are delivering all the benefits of a company car to every member of staff.

The exclusivity of a company car is steadily evaporating as employers seek to extend all the benefits of peace-of-mind motoring to their entire workforce.

Employee car schemes promise all the advantages of a traditional company car to staff who do not qualify for one. These programmes are giving wider groups of employees access to the buying power of major leasing companies, for both the acquisition of cars and their service and maintenance. And depending on the complexity of the arrangement, the plans can also include significant tax savings.

NO CANNABALISM From an employer’s perspective, employee car schemes are a no-cost way to increase the range of flexible benefits available to their workforce, requiring little more than an introduction and a bit of extra administration by the HR or finance department.

Interestingly, experts said that only in rare instances are these schemes cannibalising company cars. In the vast majority of cases employee lease schemes represent incremental business.

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Olivier Theron, private lease development manager at leasing and business mobility company ALD, said, “Alternative car finance methods are starting to grow significantly and regardless of geography. The move away from ownership seems to be unstoppable. Offering full service leasing to employees who would not be traditionally entitled to a company car is seen as a way to pay attention to all company employees as opposed to a select few.”

Private leasing This is full service leasing for a private individual. In return for a fixed monthly rental a driver receives a car with no residual value risk and with service and maintenance typically included. At the end of the contract, the driver returns the car, at which point wear and tear charges for damage, as well as excess mileage charges, can apply.

BETWEEN CONTROL AND FREEDOM For car leasing companies, the extension of employee car schemes beyond the core company car population is a welcome introduction to a wider customer base and a valuable way to deepen relationships with clients.

Employee car schemes, however, involve a contract directly between the leasing company and driver, an arrangement that can make the terms and conditions more complicated for businesses that want to stipulate the makes and models of cars available, in accordance with their corporate brand values.

“Companies are trying to work out how much control they maintain and how much freedom they give to employees,” said Lakshmi Moorthy, SME solutions director, at lease company Arval.

“These are individuals, the risk is on them, so we underwrite them like individuals.

The mileages and the products and services we offer have to be tailored to the individual. This is not like taking a company car programme and copying it to the remaining 90% of employees. The cars will be different, they will not be big cars, the mileages will be lower, and the rental needs to be reasonable, but it’s still a full service product.”

HR INVOLVEMENT This acknowledgement of the individual also includes personal credit risks – employees with a poor credit record may find themselves excluded from personal leasing schemes. It’s a reminder that in this type of arrangement an employer is no more than an introducer.

Where technical arrangements become more involved is in salary sacrifice schemes. These see employees pay for a car out of gross salary, their payments

Mobility allowance In lieu of a company car, a mobility allowance is a financial sum paid to employees to cover their business and private travel costs. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) companies are already providing app-based access to car hire, ride hailing and car sharing, as well as urban public transport, all for a monthly subscription fee.

deducted directly from payroll (minimising credit risk for the leasing company). In these circumstances, HR departments have to be involved and insurance provisions put in place to cover instances where employees leave their jobs before the end of their lease contract.

Salary sacrifice This innovative system enables drivers to pay for a vehicle by sacrificing salary, effectively using gross, pre-tax income, which can deliver significant savings. The employee gets a car (with no residual value risk) as well as service and maintenance in return for monthly payments. The leasing company receives rentals directly from an employer, so there is HR admin involved, and insurance is often required to cover the risk of drivers leaving a company before the end of their car contract.

The implementation of a salary sacrifice model could be interesting when a company has many employees who are not entitled to a company car but do need or want a car for their personal mobility. The advantage for the employee is to benefit from company rebates and to pay for the lease rate from their gross income.

The longer term question is whether employee car schemes are a permanent fixture of benefits packages, or merely a stepping-stone to a future of corporate mobility schemes in which individual car ownership is replaced by flexible car usage and public transport.

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“We shape the mobility of the future” Deeply connected to family, strongly committed to innovation: no one embodies that winning combination better than Regine Sixt, the company’s Senior Executive President.

“We at Sixt want to inspire people internally and externally. That is an essential part of my work. I manage international marketing at Sixt and am responsible for the corporate identity of the company. In detail this means: I maintain cooperations and partnerships with renowned hotels and airlines all over the world, design the international Sixt stations and create successful communication channels with my team, such as our customer magazine ‘GoSixt’ or our award-winning image films. Not to forget the organisation of important events and trade fair appearances of Sixt around the globe.”

WHAT MAKES SIXT A TRUE GLOBAL PLAYER AS A MOBILITY SERVICE PROVIDER? The Sixt brand is represented on all continents in more than 120 countries by its own organisations and highperformance franchisees. We are a premium service provider through and through. This is reflected in our vehicles, our services and our products. Our fleet consists almost exclusively of highquality equipped vehicles from renowned manufacturers such as BMW or Mercedes.

And an equally important point: Our employees all share the special Sixt DNA, which means they give everything every day and are ready to go the extra mile.

We question everything we do with the aim of becoming even better, and in this way work constantly on new products and services for the benefit of our customers.

This makes us the innovation leader in the industry. All this distinguishes us.

YOU ARE ALSO VERY COMMITTED TO SOCIAL ISSUES. SOCIAL COMMITMENT AND MOBILITY - HOW DOES THAT FIT? In fact, it goes very well together. Sixt is so successful that we want to give something back. We take our social responsibility very seriously. That’s why I founded the Regine Sixt Children’s Aid Foundation ‘Drying Little Tears’ many years ago.

Today it is the official CSR programme of Sixt SE. Through our presence in more than 120 countries with around 12,000 committed employees (in corporate and franchise countries), we have a worldwide network of aid at our disposal. It enables us to support children where help is most needed. I am very grateful for this opportunity and very proud of it. Our foundation currently supports more than 130 projects and initiatives in around 60 countries around the world.

THE CORE BUSINESS OF SIXT IS CAR RENTAL. ARE YOU NOT AFRAID OF COMPETITION FROM OFFERS SUCH AS UBER? No, such offers serve a completely different demand than Sixt does. Our goal is to offer a comprehensive and demand-oriented mobility. Besides that: competition stimulates business!

WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS BESIDES CAR RENTAL DO YOU OFFER? Car rental is basically just one element in a complex mobility mix for people.

Other components include leasing, car sharing and chauffeured services. At Sixt, customers receive mobility from a few minutes to several years - in fact from a single source. That is what we have ahead of all our global competitors. Whether for private or business customers, we offer a wide range of products that are tailored to the special requirements of our customers. Just to name a few examples: These include the transfer service mydriver for convenient airport transfers, the car rental flat rate Sixt unlimited for frequent travellers or the mobility budget called MaaS, which companies can use as a benefit for their employees or as an alternative to the classic company car.

WHAT ROLE DOES DIGITISATION PLAY IN YOUR BUSINESS? Digitisation is changing the needs of people in almost every area of life. They are increasingly using their smartphones to organise their everyday lives and are used to being able to reach everything with just one click - mobility is no exception. As a service provider, it is our aim to meet the requirements of our customers in the best possible way. This applies from booking to rental and collection of the vehicle to uncomplicated and, above all, secure payment.

In addition, efficient fleet management and the right analysis of customer needs are indispensable for our success. We understood this at a very early stage and used software for rentals when many had just heard of computers. So we have always been digital - and still are. Today, we see ourselves not only as a service provider, but also as an IT company. We develop our software ourselves and we are also Big Data.

HOW IMPORTANT ARE PARTNERSHIPS AND STARTUPS FOR FURTHER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT? Strong partnerships are important for success at every level of life - whether private or professional. If you have the same goals, demands, standards and can achieve more together, there are many things in favour. Irrespective of whether we are talking about marketing, franchising

“We take social responsibility very seriously. That's why I founded the Regine Sixt Children's Aid Foundation ‘Drying Little Tears’”

or the travel industry, we expect one thing above all from every partnership: successful cooperation that creates added value for our customers.

WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR YOUR COMPANY? WHERE IS THE JOURNEY FOR SIXT TO GO?

Which mobility mode do you personally prefer?

We still have a lot to do. Sixt has been the clear market leader in Germany for several decades and is also one of the leading international providers of mobility services. We want to expand this success and continue to conquer the world. To this end, we are currently working on an integrated mobility solution that combines all the services and products of the global Sixt Group and makes them flexibly accessible. Our goal is to provide people with the right vehicle to suit their current needs and occasion. In short: We shape the mobility of the future!

It’s really wonderful to have so many means of transportation to choose from these days especially for people like me who travel so much of the world and are almost always on the move.

I love great cars, comfortable and high quality as we have them in our fleet. There is so much to see in the world, so many beautiful landscapes, so many interesting sights and cultures. Exploring them in sunny weather and an open top in a chic convertible is something very special.

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Anti-fraud tips 01.

Fuel cards stop drivers claiming for food and drink via generic receipts.

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Cards can be restricted to specific fuels, filling stations and business hours.

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DISRUPTION

Say ‘No’ to fuel card fraud The biggest daily cost to fleets is the most vulnerable to abuse and fraud. Fuel purchases are expensive and relatively easy to exploit by unscrupulous drivers, unless fleets operate tight controls and monitor their spends closely.

Strategies to ensure that the only fuel for which a company pays is used solely for business journeys typically take two forms.

Firstly, the use of dedicated fuel cards helps to avoid the risk of drivers claiming expenses for the same receipt twice. It can also restrict purchases according to company policy – some fleets allow drivers to buy AdBlue, for example – so that a fuel receipt doesn’t also include food and drinks.

With microchips and PINs, fuel cards are as secure as credit cards, with extra security options available. Fleet managers can restrict the type of fuel a card can buy, where a card can be used, what time it can be used (i.e. in business hours only), and how much can be spent on a daily basis.

Cards can be cancelled instantly, too, at the first sign of abuse.

COMMON SENSE A number of card companies, including Shell and Edenred, have anti-fraud teams that are constantly on the lookout for suspicious transactions, as a first line of defence against fraud.

The second strategy for control stems from the analysis of fuel card data. By comparing individual driver spend with mileages, fleet managers can identify discrepancies that may be a sign of abuse.

Some drivers may, for example, fill up fuel canisters for use in other vehicles, boats or lawnmowers, or exaggerate the length of their business journeys when claiming mileage, warns Edenred.

Analysis of a driver’s fuel spend and mileage can identify anomalies of poor fuel consumption, which may be an indication of abuse.

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Look out for exaggerated business mileages. Check distances with telematics data and beware of mileage claims that always end in zero.

05.

Tech for connected cars will automatically track mileages and ensure only registered vehicles can refuel, but the allocation of business and private mileages still needs scrutiny.

TMC looks out for ‘rounding’ in expense claims – drivers whose journey distances always end in zero, which is often a clue to inflated claims.

New technology will make it more difficult for drivers to abuse fuel spend. In the US, Mastercard has developed a system that sees fuel pumps automatically recognise connected cars, reading their mileage and registration plate, and sending the invoice directly to the fleet, so only genuine vehicles can refuel on their company account. In markets like Turkey, Israel and some Gulf States, technology combining vehicle recognition with customer recognition has been in place for years.

Thanks to today’s tech and connectivity development it will not take much to make the vehicle itself the payment device, making fuel card fraud obsolete.

TRAVEL

Chatbots are hot. By 2020, 85% of online customer interactions will be automated. The travel industry in particular is being transformed by these smart, artificial conversationalists.

What’s the appeal of chatbots for the travel industry?

Hello, how may I help you?

Hello. You can start by telling me a bit more about yourself.

I’m a chatbot – a computer programme designed to simulate human conversation via instant messaging.

What can you do?

Anything from simple queries – do an online search, find a deal – to more complex tasks: send money to friends, make a doctor’s appointment. Because I’m automated, I reduce cost, improve access and increase efficiency.

Won’t customers always prefer a human?

And wait forever for a ‘live’ operator? I don’t think so. Millennials especially love me: they get to interact with their favourite brands and enjoy the convenience of selfservice, all on mobile-friendly platforms, in an informal conversational tone. Up to 55% of millennials say chatbots have improved their perception of brands.

Why are chatbots booming now?

The turning point was late 2015, when Facebook opened its Messenger platform to developers. More than 100,000 companies now use it to host chatbots, including travel companies such as Booking.com, Uber and Hyatt. Meanwhile, Skyscanner, Expedia and other travel brands have launched their own chatbots.

It’s an easy way to communicate standard information to huge numbers of customers. KLM already delivers 15% of its boarding passes via Messenger, for example.

How else can you improve travel management?

Us chatbots can help you check in for flights, call a taxi, make a plane reservation. I have colleagues who create travel checklists, provide weather and traffic updates, even ensure that you know the correct medication for your destination.

Are you cheaper?

We sure can be. Some travel chatbots will alert you if the price of your current flight or hotel booking drops, helping you to secure a refund.

So, what’s next?

We both streamline and personalise the user experience; that’s why we’re the future of brand communication. As artificial intelligence and natural language processing improve, you’ll be able to voice-order travel in a few simple steps – as if we were a ‘live’ personal assistant.

Thanks for your time!

No trouble at all. Anything else I can help you with?

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Why travel chatbots are hot

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S T R AT E GY

WLTP: dealing fleets a difficult hand What started with good intentions, namely to achieve more realistic official fuel efficiency and CO2 figures, is reshuffling the cards so vigorously that things are getting quite complicated. The impact for business drivers and fleets is now materialising – and requires careful analysis.

WLTP stands for Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) and replaces the outdated NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) in the EU for type-approving new vehicles. NEDC stems from the 1980s and was based on a purely theoretical driving profile. WLTP uses real driving data and was developed as a global test cycle, so pollutant and CO2 emissions as well as fuel consumption values would be comparable worldwide.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD The good thing about WLTP is that thanks to the much more realistic testing conditions – a greater range of driving situations, longer test distances, higher speeds, stronger acceleration – the calculated fuel consumption and emissions are far more accurate. In short: the gap between lab and road is much smaller than with NEDC.

The bad thing is that it causes confusion – and a splitting headache for the member states’ legislators. A limited number of existing models keep their (advantageous) NEDC CO2 rating, whereas new models have a (higher) WLTP value. That would lead to unfair competition, which is why Europe has developed a solution called CO2MPAS.

STEP 01 1.09.2017

WLTP REPLACES NEDC FOR

NEW TYPE APPROVALS

STEP 02 1.09.2018

NEW TYPE-APPROVALS

1.01.2019

ALL NEW MODELS SOLD

STEP 04 1.09.2019

NEDC RUN-OUT (STOCK) VEHICLES CAN NO LONGER BE SOLD

CORRELATED NEDC VALUE CORRELATED NEDC VALUE*

TAXATION EXISTING TYPE APPROVALS

STEP 03

WLTP VALUE**

TRUE NEDC VALUE

*Exception: run-out stock: true NEDC value **The actual introduction date depends on the member state

CO2MPAS: THE SOLUTION To avoid a tax increase for end customers when they buy a WLTP-certified car, the EU has created a back-translation tool called CO2MPAS. WLTP values are converted to a so-called correlated NEDC value (a.k.a. NEDC 2.0), which is to be used for comparative and taxation purposes.

This way, there should be no competitive disadvantage and consumers can compare newer (WLTP) cars with older (NEDC) cars on an equal basis. The CO2MPAS method was intended as a transitional measure between 1 September 2017 and 1 January 2019.

As from 1 January 2019, CO2MPAS should no longer be used and car makers should only communicate WLTP values. By then, member states should indeed have adapted their tax system to the higher WLTP values as to avoid extra taxes for the owner of the vehicle.

That was the master plan. However, reality shows that member states are introducing WLTP taxation at different speeds.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE SOLUTION

TIME TO OVERHAUL YOUR POLICY

Thanks to WLTP and the ‘correlated NEDC’, the same car can have two different NEDC values, depending on when it was produced. A car built in June 2018, for instance, can still have an old NEDC certification, whereas a car manufactured in July 2018 could already have made the switch to WLTP and therefore have a (higher) correlated NEDC value.

There is more to the story. It’s perfectly possible that on certain markets, a car that fit your budget yesterday will fall off the list tomorrow, when it switches to ‘NEDC correlated’ – only to perhaps re-enter the list when legislation makes the transition to WLTP values and new CO2 bands are introduced.

Indeed, depending on the order and production date, a car can fit an employee’s budget or not. Making things even more complicated is the fact that car makers today cannot always confirm the CO2 rating of the car ordered. Moreover, WLTP is causing serious bottlenecks for OEMs, which are struggling to get all their cars type-approved in time.

That explains why registrations have been falling since September 2018. Only car makers that were well-prepared for WLTP are able to continue selling and registering cars.

That makes it very difficult for companies to pursue a long-term Europe-wide strategy. Should you stick to your current CO2 categories and adapt your car policy once the WLTP taxation is in place, or also take an intermediate step taking into account ‘NEDC correlated’?

A careful analysis of your current fleet should paint a clear picture of what to expect in terms of cost increase if you would keep on ordering the same cars over the next year. Perhaps the time has come to overhaul your entire fleet vision and look beyond CO2 emissions. Also, you may want to consider alternative powertrains like CNG, hybrid and electric. They could offer a relatively lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) thanks to WLTP.

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DISRUPTION

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Start me up Considering the success of Tesla, Uber and Blablacar, the impact of start-ups on the mobility scene can no longer be ignored.

As these three companies have since grown up, other start-ups are stepping up as well, eager to change the game.

Discover the winners The Smart Mobility Start-up of the Year Award is part of the Fleet Europe Awards, the number 1 celebration of best practices and innovation in the international fleet and mobility industry.

Discover the winners on www.fleeteurope.com

The fast-evolving mobility market requires out-of-the-box and fast-thinking solutions.

Even though big OEMs have their own R&D units to figure it out, they have started seeing the added value of working with start-ups or even pulling them entirely on board to keep up with the pace of the changing market.

Autonomous driving, smart and shared mobility, electrification and connectivity are the main drivers behind these changes. Moreover, all these changes are driven by technology; hence owning or managing these technologies gives companies a headstart.

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM Of course, the traditional automotive players may be investing and researching in these fields, but so are new players like tech companies and start-ups.

This did not happen out of sight of the OEMs. In order to maintain their position and boost their own technology, many OEMs not only invest in their R&D department, but also in the start-up scene. Some have their own start-up programmes, like the BMW Garage, or InMotion Ventures of Jaguar Land Rover.

CAR AS A SERVICE Especially when it comes to ‘car as a service’, research of Wavestone on the mobility start-up scene points out that carmakers are aware that it’s better to get involved than get overruled. Therefore,

many of them invest or acquire start-ups and gain new technologies and expertise, such as fleet management, which was not included in their core business before. An example is the acquisition of Sidecar by GM, which eventually resulted in its own car-sharing service Maven.

The changing mobility ecosystem requires a changing market, and after the success stories of Tesla, Uber and Blablacar it has become clear that start-ups can and will have the fast, out-of-the-box answers this evolving sector requires, whether in cooperation with the traditional players or not.

Some of the most promising start-ups in fleet and mobility are nominated for this year’s Smart Mobility Start-up Award.

They might be the next disrupters in our mobility market. Have a look at the finalists on the opposite page.

By combining curbside management with parking management, Appyparking wants ‘to make parking forgettable’.

The Parking Platform provides a digital infrastructure layer over the existing road network and offers a Platform as a Service for local governments and car park operators to manage their curbside and assets.

Bestmile provides a platform allowing the intelligent operation and optimisation of autonomous vehicle fleets, regardless of their brand or type.

Bestmile’s premise is that the future of mobility is in what autonomous vehicles can offer when they are operated and managed in an integrated ecosystem.

CARFIT developed AI powered proprietary algorithms, which use vibration signals from car sensors to anticipate the maintenance needs of wearing parts, such as tires, wheels, shocks and brakes and sends insights to the car owner and car dealer/service- making car maintenance predictable, timely and safer.

Clicars.com eliminates in-person visits to car dealerships through digitalisation and trust. Becoming the Amazon of the car market, is what the ambition of Clicars looks most similar to, considering retail stores, apart from the pilot project in Barcelona where a digital store is set up; it is one central storage for cars.

Commuty digitalises parking management, optimizes parking costs and organises employees home-work trips. Commuty claims to be able to reduce corporate parking costs by 50%.

Not only can the company reduce costs in the search of parkings, but they can reduce the number of parking spots needed as well.

Ecomobix is an end-to-end enterprise solution for carsharing, ridesharing, and eventually autonomous ridehailing.

Providing a full technology stack for those entering the shared mobility space.

“Become the number 1 digital platform for car damage repair handle in Europe,” is the goal of Fixico. The online platform digitises and streamlines the car damage repair handling process. Fixico is used to quickly obtain, compare and select the best offers for car damage repairs. Fixico is currently operating a network of 1,500 top-quality repair shops.

GoTo Powers the Next Generation of Car Sharing. GoTo is the leading white label software that allows mobility operators to launch & operate multiple car sharing business models on a single platform.

The increasing traffic and environmental restrictions call for electrified fleets, but how do you convert your fleet utmost efficient into an electric one? Konetik offers the answers by providing an ‘automated EV feasibility assessment service’.

Collecting data is one thing, converting them into useful information is another.

That is where mobility players can make the difference according to Motion-S. A telematics platform enables insurance customers to offer dynamic pricing, select the good risks and reduce the loss ratio significantly.

Improve driver safety is the mission of Nauto. An AI powered device captures data on driver distraction, because more than 70% of all collision events in fleets are caused by distracted drivers.

Moreover, a real-time coaching feature of the device provides a distracting alert, preventing collisions.

To process and provide the data to players in the mobility market in a useful and comprehensive way, Otonomo serves as a third-party cloud data platform. By collecting data, processing them, and enriching them, Otonomo wants to maximize the value of the data.

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