The majority of fleets are reporting that their acquisition strategies are being stimulated by solid organic business growth, with most forecasting an increase or continuation of the same order volume in model-year 2019.
June 26, 2018
One of the perennial reasons given for order-to-delivery (OTD) delays is rail constraints. This has been an ongoing issue in the U.S., but, now, with the dramatic expansion of automotive production south of the border, rail constraints in Mexico will begin to play a greater role in fleet OTD discussions.
September 6, 2016
Each year, we compile a listing of the nation's Top 300 commercial fleets. This gives us an opportunity to get a pulse on the state of the commercial fleet market. Every fleet in the Top 300 commercial fleet listing has its own fleet strategy and challenges; some unique, but most are common to a number of fleets. Here is my “lightning round” summary of the top trends and operational considerations influencing the management of the nation’s largest commercial fleets.
March 30, 2016
One challenge for both the 2015- and 2014-MY has been the increased volume of fleet vehicles going to upfitters, which has resulted in capacity constraints. With the increasing demand and growth of the commercial truck and van segments – particularly among utilities and service industries – the percentage of upfitted vehicles is growing. Upfitters are feeling the pressure of increased demand.
September 17, 2015
Railroad backlogs impacted ship-thru units requiring upfitted equipment in the 2015-MY. Not only is there a rail-car shortage, but there were also logistical delays in loading and unloading rail cars due to the higher volume of high-roof vehicles. The limited number of rail cars that can accommodate the larger, high-roof vans created a backlog at assembly plants and caused delays in shipping to and from upfitters.
September 17, 2015
The good news is the management of quality holds by OEMs has improved tremendously in the 2014-MY. However, much more still needs to be done. As has been the case for the past several model-years, lengthening OEM quality holds continue to adversely impact fleet order-to-delivery (OTD) times by incurring added costs due to missed residual timing, repair costs to older vehicles still in service, and rental expenses
September 17, 2014
Fleet order-to-delivery (OTD) has been brutal this model-year due to severe weather conditions, which exacerbated rail congestion, creating huge backlogs of vehicles needing to be shipped. However, some are beginning to believe the rail congestion experienced this winter is more of a symptom of a systemic infrastructure weakness and not solely the consequence of severe weather. Here's why they think so.
June 10, 2014
The railroad industry is the primary long-distance shipper of automobiles from assembly plants to dealers, which represents almost 9 percent of total rail freight. However, the auto industry is not the only railroad customer, and it competes with other shippers for scarce rail resources. Such is the case with petroleum companies shipping crude oil by rail, which is putting heavy demand on finite rail resources. What impact will this have on fleet OTD?
April 17, 2014
All OEMs have been proactive in providing order-to-delivery (OTD) status updates on fleet vehicles in transit. In addition, fleet management companies have launched a multitude of enhancements to their abilities to track OTD for ordered fleet units. However, there is still much more that can be done.
September 24, 2013
Upfitters are feeling the pressure from the increase in the number of upfitted vehicles requiring a ship-thru, which is overwhelming some installers and body builders. Also, many upfitter-related OTD issues are the result of OEM quality holds. Oftentimes, upfitted units are held at the body company due to limited storage space at the assembly plants caused by quality hold backlogs. This prevents the release of upfitted units into OEM traffic for final delivery via ship-thru/freight re-entry.
September 20, 2012
Fleet vehicles are vulnerable to order-to-delivery (OTD) delays because most fleet orders are concentrated among a handful of models. There are four components to the OTD cycle: ordering, scheduling, production, and delivery.The weak link is the delivery component. For the past 10 years, the nationwide rail car shortage has been a factor in fleet delivery delays. This promises to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Here's why.
April 26, 2011
Multiple factors increased fleet order-to-delivery times, such as quality holds, massive recalls, the Cash for Clunkers program, GM & Chrysler’s emergence from bankruptcy, and the decision to build to demand, not to capacity. This data is based on a survey, which tracked deliveries of 159,349 new vehicles in the 2010 model-year, representing 86 models.
September 29, 2010
With the 2009 model-year behind us and 2010 model-year ordering in progress, how will 2010-MY order-to-delivery times (OTD) fare? Some foresee the 2010 model-year being a challenging one for OTD (not as challenging as 2009-MY, however), but one that could result in longer than normal delivery times.
October 23, 2009
The multitude of factors buffeting order-to-delivery (OTD) times for commercial fleets during the 2009 model-year were breathtaking and historic. To say the 2009 model-year was a difficult year for new-vehicle deliveries would be an extreme understatement.
September 29, 2009
The dramatic decrease in sales has prompted automakers to make significant adjustments to production schedules. A number of fleets are affected by the unanticipated, longer-than-normal, plant shutdowns. These fleet managers expect order-and-delivery (OTD) times to increase in 2009 due to revised production schedules. These fleet managers say the extended plant shutdown schedules, for all intents and purposes, shortens the 2009 model-year, which early-order cut-off dates will only aggravate.
December 23, 2008