The start of a new year

So the start of a new year, which is typically the time for auto industry observers to reflect on the year before and use dodgy crystal balls to figure out what’s going to happen in the next 12 months.

We’ll cover off some of the vital statistics in the News and Briefs sections, but on this page, I’d like to give you some food for thought based on some observations made over the Christmas break.

I didn’t spend as much time on the roads as I normally would over the 2018/19 break, but I was still mindful of some drivers doing some strange (and dangerous) things.

Some of those things and the vehicles/companies I’ve already forgotten, but there are a handful out there who I won’t forget and whom I will likely warn people about.

They’re the drivers of branded company vehicles, and while its true that branded vehicles are an advertisement for a business, I’m sure most will recognise that not all advertising encourages willing customers. Similarly, badly driven sign-written vehicles also prejudice potential customers.

It’s not my intent to name and shame here, however. Rather I would like to address the consideration of driver behaviour, particularly to company’s using their fit-for-purpose, tool-of-trade, sign-written vehicles as mobile billboards.

NZ Company Vehicle can and does give you an idea of what to expect of your business’ choice of vehicles. We can also tell you to ensure your drivers receive training, but an area we haven’t mentioned is that you should be monitoring their driving attitudes.

Along with determining the validity of appropriate licenses and doing those subtle background checks on driving history – making the correct judgement call on how well your driver’s behaviour is going to reflect on your company is almost as critical to the ongoing success of your business.

A good clue is to do periodic inspections of the vehicles – which should be getting done as a matter of course, especially if the vehicles are being leased – and checking for little areas of damage, single line scratches which could indicate keying from irate road users, damaged mirror housings, and cracked tail or indicator lights.

If these are found, you might want to look at that driver’s habits on the road. Are they the angels you want representing your company/brand? Or do they go from perfect employee, to employee from the Dark Side when they get behind the wheel?

OK, enough naughty naughty, let’s give you a little bit of a lift to start the year. On page 22 of this edition, we have done a product review on a wireless tyre pressure monitoring system/dash camera combination.

TPMS systems are an expensive feature on modern vehicles and yet they are actually mandated by law in the US, which is to say, you can’t sell a vehicle without ‘em, because of the damage and costs of catastrophic tyre pressure failures.

You can see how this new system works in the review, and – you might think about the potential savings a TPMS system could make to your vehicles. Then you might want to read the report from publisher Cathy Parker.

In her article, she mentions three ADAS safety alerts. Name two of them by email, fax, Snail mail or carrier pigeon (details on the facing page) and you’ll be in the draw to win. We’ll announce the lucky subscriber in the April/may edition.

For now though, there’s plenty of reading to be done and plenty of vehicles to review, so I’ll leave you to it until next time.

Sean Willmot