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Joe Weppler / February 20, 2021

How your brain responds to stories – and why they’re crucial for leaders
When you listen to a story, you gain a sense of artificial reality. As experiences are described, you can almost feel them happening to you. That’s why stories make us empathize with the storyteller. This empathy in turn releases feel-good chemicals in your brain, and the more we get, the more trustworthy we view the storyteller.
That is the basic premise of why storytelling is a critical skill for a leader — because the very act of telling a good story makes people trust you more.
Our brains react differently to data. Data doesn’t move us, excite us, or change our behaviour like a good story does. That’s why the best leaders find ways to pair the important data they need to share with exciting stories that make people truly connect with the information. When data and stories are paired in this way, they help build actionable, un-overlookable ideas.

Joe Weppler / February 16, 2021

Growing your Bottom Line by Minimizing Fuel Costs

Anyone whose livelihood depends on them being on the road for extended periods knows the costs associated with being away from home can add up quickly. Food, lodging, and especially fuel are significant expenses. Indeed, fuel is the top variable expense for any fleet — often equating to  more than 75 percent of a fleet’s variable expenses.

A fleet of 500 vehicles, each driving 24,000 miles per year, accumulates 12 million total miles annually. With numbers this large, even a small change can mean big savings. In fact, if they could reduce their bills by a mere quarter of a cent per mile, this fleet would save $30,000 next year.

Due to the volatile nature of fuel prices, getting your costs as low as they can and keeping them there is very important to any trucking company. Here are some ways you can do just that:

Fuel Management Tools and Cards

Understanding your fueling patterns is important and can allow you to properly address your fuel efficiency. Often paired with traditional electronic logging devices, fuel management software can help you track how fuel is purchased, how to schedule your maintenance, and how to plan the most efficient routes. Plus, you can use them to highlight areas of high fuel consumption or difficult track, as well as fight potential theft.

Fuel cards are also excellent tools to stop abuse in its tracks, allowing managers to track fuel purchases and eliminate non-fuel purchases if they need to. They can even be used to specify the types of fuel drivers  can put in their vehicles, cutting fuel costs and saving on maintenance down the line.

Driver Behavior and Practices

There are plenty of ways that a driver can save money on fuel, simply by how they choose to operate the vehicle. Taking advantage of fuel-saving options like cruise control, cutting out unnecessary time spent idling, and reducing top-end speed can all impact your bottom line.

Driver coaching programs can teach your drivers how to avoid jackrabbit starts and anticipate stops in advance. Many companies even provide driver incentive programs to reward those who focus on implementing best practices to cut costs down the line.

Equipment and Proper Maintenance

There are tons of options you can invest in if your goal is to save your fleet cash in the long run. Aerodynamic-focused equipment such as wheel covers, gap reducers, and trailer wings can increase your fuel efficiency at relatively low cost, while a focus on fuel-efficient truck designs, high-efficiency alternators and the latest safety technologies can be more expensive, but even more impactful.

When it comes to regular maintenance, even the simplest checks can help reduce your overall fuel costs. Ensuring you keep accurate tire pressure as well as proper rotation frequency and position on your vehicles reduces the chance of bad tires hurting your fuel economy. Additionally, keeping your air filters clean will both limit exhaust emissions and overall increase your fuel efficiency.

If you’re really looking to save cash on your fuel expenses and you have the time and expertise required, fuel rebates and proper fleet card and service negotiations can grow your bottom line before any of your drivers even turn over the engine. For more information, visit www.schooleymitchell.com/offices to find a Schooley Mitchell representative near you.

Joe Weppler / February 8, 2021

The COVID-19 Impact on Global Energy Consumption

According to the International Energy Agency, electricity demand dropped significantly under lockdown, with the dramatic reduction in services and industry over the course of the COVID-19 outbreak only partially offset by a higher residential use.

Additionally, across all major regions, the power mix saw a shift towards renewables following lockdown measures due to low operating costs and depressed electricity demand. Natural gas remained the leading source of electricity in the United States, but renewables, coal and nuclear power found themselves trading second place amongst themselves as lockdown measures ebbed and flowed and temperature averages shifted across the country.

In general, across the planet, the IEA found that electricity usage typically fell by up to 20% for each month a nation’s lockdown persisted, and overall electricity demand faced a slump unparalleled since the Great Depression.

As different nations employed different lockdown methods and regulations, their energy consumption rates followed suit. France, India, Spain, the UK and the north-western United States saw their consumption fall by nearly 15% during lockdown periods. In China, the first nation to implement lockdown regulations, energy usage dropped 6.5% in the first quarter. At the height of its outbreak, Italy saw electricity demand drop as much as 75% at times.

One positive of the pandemic could be the dramatic rise of renewable energy, which is now accounting for a record amount of overall energy usage. According to the IEA, this rise could be partially attributed to the fact that you can’t simply shut off a solar or wind farm in the same way that you can turn off a gas-fed power station. This rise in renewables and an overall reduction in industry saw global CO2 emissions reduced by more than 5% in the first quarter of 2020, which increased to nearly 8% by December. This drop in emissions is not only the largest drop ever recorded, but the largest relative drop since the second world war.

The COVID-19 crisis has added a brand new layer of uncertainty to the energy industry, and the resilience of investments will continue to be tested in the coming years. The pandemic will continue to trigger behaviour changes at home and in the workplace and the market will continue to adjust to shifts — for example, the drop in aviation transport and its recovery efforts.

On top of all that, government policy and response to the pandemic, as well as the focus of stimulus spending, will continue to have a major impact on the industry.

One thing is certain — turmoil in the energy industry means that now is the perfect time to analyze your energy bills and usage to best prepare for the future.

Joe Weppler / February 6, 2021

Finding Small Breakthroughs in Bad Ideas

When we’re sick and tired of the drawing board, it can be tempting to tell ourselves that all the good ideas have been taken. As far as scapegoats go, it’s a strong one – or it would be, if it were true.

While it’s fair to say that niches can be oversaturated and innovation can be difficult, the truth is that there is no such thing as a perfect idea. There is nothing that can’t be improved, somewhere or somehow, no matter how much time or money has been spent workshopping the concept.

That’s why, instead of deciding that there’s no possible way to make a contribution, you should instead embrace your bad ideas and identify the small breakthroughs that come with them.

Imagine your favourite novel. Do you think that, within that novel, you could find a single sentence to rewrite that would make it better? How about a whole paragraph?

It’s easy to say no – after all, the book was likely written by a professional author, edited by a professional editor, and proofed and re-proofed several times before being published. But then again, nothing is perfect. Given enough time, a different perspective, or one of a host of many other parameters, you could probably find a sentence in that book that you could improve.

This is innovation in its rawest form – the reason being that it’s much easier to tweak something than it is to make something new. In fact, most ideas that solve a new problem are usually a combination of existing ideas – many of which might seem bad to begin with on their own.

By focusing on the lessons that bad ideas teach us, we use them as stepping stones to find our path towards the outcomes we’re seeking. There are several ways to help us do this.

Think of ideas as strategies, not solutions: Reframe the idea in your mind as your current, best strategy for dealing with a problem. The next iteration might be drastic or barely noticeable – but never final.

Resist the urge to reset: The next time you run into an issue that seems like the death of your idea, challenge yourself to push just a little further than you normally would. Even if you can’t find a solution, you might find an adjacent thought worth your time.

Watch and Listen: A so-called final decision should not turn you deaf and blind to the alternatives. The information that comes along after a decision could result in the next great version of your idea – but only if you keep your ears open.

Of course, in business, we often don’t have the time to make a bad idea good. Big, established companies are obsessive in their pursuit of finding good ideas to develop, and will quickly abandon what is deemed as a bad idea in order to save on resources. However, entrepreneurs often approach ideas and initiatives differently. They’re more willing to work the problem, often for much longer than a large company would find acceptable.

By seeing bad ideas not as a waste of time, but instead as a tool for discovering greater opportunities and learning important lessons, you might just find that small breakthrough that leads to your next great idea.