Members of the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) have helped the organisation become the “most significant” professional voice in the fleet sector just three years after it was first launched, chair Paul Hollick told delegates at the organisation’s annual conference yesterday.

The conference, which took place at The British Motor Museum, Gaydon, Warwick, focused on practical advice for fleets facing a range of current issues.

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Sessions took the form of panel discussions with leading fleet managers chaired by AFP board members. These covered topics including handling supply matters, dealing with the rising costs of leasing and rental, managing an aged fleet, reimbursing drivers of electric vehicles, and optimising van fleets while gearing up for electrification

Kicking off the day, Mina introduced its new Charge Pass – a card used for centralising business payments for rapid charging – Chargelink, and Tarrifintel, a program for monitoring tariffed charging.

Mina also introduced UtilitiPay which contains a multi-EV mode for monitoring personal or business use of an EV. Likewise, Mina’s Onefleet also provides business subscriptions for home and public charging.

Session one focused on supply chain issues arising from Ukraine, Covid and post-Brexit import regulations.

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In the following session on the rising cost of leasing and rental, Sarah Wellstead of Hoare Lea recommended salary sacrifice schemes, noting Octopus as ‘the best scheme’ available. Fleet consultant Steve Winter suggested recycling parts to lower costs.  

There was also a live training exercise designed to show how to engage stakeholders with future fleet policy.

The event was also used as an opportunity to present certificates to fleet managers who had completed AFP Academy training courses, with Dean Smith of Rydon being named the AFP’s Strategic Award Winner for outstanding work during his Fleet Vehicle Management course.

Paul Hollick also paid tribute to the AFP’s first training manager, Steve Hook, who died earlier this year. Steve had worked with the ICFM since 1992, retiring in 2021.

On managing an ageing fleet, OCS Group’s Neale Copeland recommended mapping vehicle usage and investing in data analytics to better tailor fleets to meet customer needs.

Ashley Tate, CEO at the conference’s headline sponsor Mina, said: “The conference was a fantastic day and genuinely one of, if not the best, fleet events that I’ve attended since starting our company.”

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