It’s fairly common in business, psychology and elsewhere to incentivize the type of behavior one desires. Within the beverage industry, sales and marketing departments rely on numerous incentive programs, both internally with staff and externally with retailers.

The old TV commercial where the oil filter technician said “You can pay me now or pay me later,” implies that saving a little money up-front might cost much more in the long run.

Although SKU counts are expanding and other market forces are impacting logistical strategies, beverage distributors are increasingly looking at equipment changes to gain a competitive edge.

At the beginning of a new year, it’s customary to look forward and imagine the future. In keeping with that tradition, let’s fast-forward five years into the future to look at the challenges and opportunities that managers will face with their 2020 fleets.

Beverage Industry recently conducted its second-annual fleet survey to get an updated picture of the size and makeup of current delivery fleets as well as operational concerns and strategies.

With the commercial truck market showing continued signs of strength in the past year, several manufacturers brought new models to market for 2015.

Even the smallest beverage distributors in today’s marketplace have a vastly expanded range of products to market. Thus, they’re increasingly turning to fleet vehicles — large and small — to promote many smaller and newer brands with eye-catching mobile graphics.

Just a few decades ago, beverage fleet managers worked with a well-established and generally predictable set of equipment-related variables to arrive at a total fleet operating cost that could be factored in to the wholesale product prices charged by a distributor.

In spite of generally positive performance out on the road, diesel-electric hybrid drivetrains have had less than stellar success in the North American truck market. So much so that Eaton Corp., a manufacturer of hybrid components, has recently announced that it will discontinue offering hybrid drivetrains in North America.

Nearly all maintenance advice typically is aimed at one type of part or one specific procedure. Unfortunately, this results in many maintenance operations “not being able to see the forest through the trees.”