Flotte! 2026: What Two Days at the Trade Show Reveal About the Fleet Industry

Blue and neon yellow—impossible to miss. Our booth at the “Flotte!” trade show in Düsseldorf wasn’t just visually striking; above all, it was packed. Over the course of two days, fleet managers, existing customers, partners, and industry experts stopped by, asked questions, watched a live demo of the platform, and wanted to learn more. What became clear during the event can’t be summed up in a single slide. That’s why we’re sharing this more detailed recap.

Anyone attending a trade show like Flotte! gets an honest picture of where the industry actually stands. Not what’s in the presentations, but what fleet managers are really concerned about. And this year, it was clear: the gap between what’s technically possible and what’s actually happening in day-to-day fleet operations is still wide.

Whether it’s a small fleet with a few combustion-engine vehicles or a large mixed fleet with a hundred vehicles: the pain points were surprisingly similar. Many still manage their fleets using Excel, juggle various siloed solutions, and spend too much time on manual data maintenance. This is exactly where modern fleet management software makes all the difference. The most common questions at our booth? Live data from the vehicle. Driver’s license checks. Digital logbooks. Our answer was always: Yes. And we demonstrated it live right there.

One topic made what was likely its first real appearance at this event: home charging in a corporate context. As soon as the conversation turned to electric mobility, Fleet Plug@Home took center stage. Many fleet managers know that their employees charge electric vehicles at home, but how can this be billed accurately, transparently, and in a way that’s easy to track—without a major administrative burden?

Our answer: using live data directly from the vehicle, without the need for a wallbox. For many, this was a real surprise. For us, it’s already a reality. In keeping with this, we also had a little surprise for our booth visitors: a charging cable as a giveaway, so that energy can literally flow at home, too.

At AZOWO, AI in fleet management isn’t just a topic for the future—it’s a concrete focus of our development. The idea behind it: to automate routine tasks so that fleet managers spend less time on manual data entry and have more capacity for what really matters—strategic decisions and the continuous optimization of the fleet.

At Flotte!, we were able to showcase two components of this: our AI document management system and a first live look at Flippy, our digital assistant, which is currently still under development. The term “AI” has long since become established in the industry, but in some places, the concrete picture of what it means in day-to-day fleet operations was still missing. We were able to provide that at Flotte!

In addition to the discussions, there was plenty to discover at the booth. On the right was the vision wall with yellow lines representing energy flows: vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-home, home charging, and bidirectional charging. A visual statement that we’re not just thinking about today, but have our sights set on the future of mobility. And our magazine AZOWO Insights 2.0 as a conversation starter: 30 pages featuring customer case studies, a product overview, visions for the future, and topics related to electric mobility and AI in fleet management. This allows readers to explore in depth what couldn’t be discussed thoroughly at the booth.

Visiting a trade show is about more than just acquiring new customers. We really felt that at Flotte! Existing customers stopped by, not because they had an appointment, but just because. Smaller issues that usually end up in email exchanges were discussed right at the booth. We shared updates. And it felt a bit like our NEXT Day, where personal interaction takes center stage.

The same was true for our partners. As an all-in-one platform for fleet management, a strong partner network is not just a nice-to-have for us. At Flotte!, we were able to make this concept physically visible, including together with ryd, our booth neighbor. Direct interaction on-site, away from video calls, has a whole different value. A trade show like Flotte! is the perfect setting for that.

Two days, many discussions, clear insights. Die Flotte! has shown where the industry stands and confirmed that modern fleet management is no longer an option, but a necessity. See you next year.