To eliminate these behaviors, several US states have passed laws banning all handheld cell phone use for all drivers, and many more states have banned text messaging.  There’s a federal ban on all texting by federal employees driving government-owned vehicles.  [For a summary on the impact of cell phone use while driving, see PHH’s white paper (US Only).]

But since laws don’t appear to be enough to stop this behavior, there’s an emergence of technologies that will stop it for us – technology that literally restricts or disables cell phones in moving vehicles.  Apparently, we’ll acknowledge that it’s risky behavior, but we’re not so willing to personally refrain from it ourselves.  Are we actually willing to pay for a technology that disables our cell phones, when we can simply choose to turn them off before turning on the ignition?  It puts forth the conundrum: What price are you willing to pay to stay connected and “be productive” vs. protecting the safety of your drivers and mitigating the risk to your company?

• Macroeconomic updates from PHH – read what our experts are saying about US and Canadian fuel prices, interest rates and economic growth
• Case study – Carrier cuts emissions with telematics
• Case study – R.J. Reynolds savings from deferred replacement
• Webinar – Decisive telematics action steps for fleets in 2010

In our online Resource Center, you’ll also find useful tools like fleet calculators, data sheets, webinar archives, videos and up-to-date industry news. Check back often to stay current on trends and news from the fleet industry and PHH.

Are these resources helpful to you and your business?  Let us know your thoughts by via the comments tool below.

• Before the first flakes starting falling, business continuity planning was well underway. The BCP team met regularly by teleconference to discuss updates from each business unit focused on work volumes, connectivity capabilities, key events and challenges.
• We recognized even before the snow hit that we needed to dramatically increase our virtual private network (VPN) capabilities to allow personnel to work remotely. PHH’s Desktop Services created significant bandwidth, configuring 35% more remote connections three days before the first blizzard hit. This ability for our critical employees to work from the safety of their homes was the key to maintaining all our service levels. Despite the challenges, we maintained our statistics for time to answer across all the call centers.
• We overcame intermittent and localized power outages through work sharing and having folks volunteer to pick up the slack.
• All of our call centers worked together to maintain coverage during the snow emergency. Even PHH employees in sunny, snow-free Canada and Ft. Lauderdale jumped in to help – a unified effort that resulted in minimal impact to our clients.
• Other key areas of the business – from Account Consultants, IT and Client Technology Services to Tax, Title and Ordering – did an outstanding job of communicating, working together, resolving unforeseen challenges, and delivering the consistent, quality customer service our clients expect.

 A number of clients have told their account teams how impressed they were that we remained open and operational – “business as usual” – during this historical snowstorm. As Tom Keilty, our Chief Operating Officer said in an email to all employees last Friday, “Your dedication and commitment to client service is truly what makes PHH a world class service company.”

So, hopefully we’re finished with the snow this season. We will gladly resign our title as the Snowiest City in the US for the hope of an early spring!

Let us know how your company weathered the storm – all “Snowmageddon” stories are welcome!

On Thursday, January 21, we were excited to host an event where PHH clients, employees and supplier partners came together for a day of risk and safety awareness.

The event, hosted by PHH, took place at ICAR Motorsport Complex in Mirabel, Quebec, a professional racing and training facility. A day-long circuit took our guests through various winter driving safety presentations and exercises. Clients discussed PHH's risk and safety products, visited presentations from our supplier partners that showcased their products’ safety features, and heard about PHH's a la carte products for risk and safety. The highlight was the in-car, professional winter driving exercises that allowed participants to learn and practice safe braking and emergency lane-changing on a safe, icy track. Drivers also practiced over-steering and under-steering correction on a skid circle and took different vehicles through an icy slalom course to compare traction and safety features.

Even the media had a great time! Montreal’s 6 o’clock news was there to cover the event. Click here to see the video.

PHH offers a full range of risk and safety services, geared to fit our clients’ needs.  For more information, visit the Risk Management section of our website.

The monthly driver charge-back is two-fold. First, to make sure the driver's tax liability is covered and secondly, to help offset your fleet expenses.

Your goal is to reach an equitable amount that benefits both the driver and the company. To do this, you'll need to look at your drivers' average percentage of personal use.

For example:

If the average percent of personal use per year is 10% and the average number of personal miles driven per year is 2,400 (24,000 x 10%) the taxable benefit amount would be calculated as follows:

24,000 miles per year with 10% personal use = 2,400 personal miles

Gas Benefit 2,400 x .055 = $132.00

ALV Benefit $5350.00 x 10 = $535.00

Total taxable benefit = $667.00

Deduct the driver's monthly contribution ($75.00 x 12 months) = $900.00

Net reportable benefit of ($667.00 - $900.00) = -$233.00 

Note: this is a credit amount so the driver's taxable benefit is $0.00. The IRS says that the company can keep the difference to offset fleet expenses. 

In today’s environment, companies really should be charging for Personal Use. Most importantly, the amount charged should be at a rate that fairly compensates the company.