The Fleet Industry Advisory Group launched in May 2014, aiming to help those newer to the industry learn from experienced fleet professionals. It describes itself as a peer-to-peer mentoring organisation, keen to build relationships between industry players and improve the business for everyone.
The organisation launched with a white paper entitled Perfect Purchasing and a workshop on procurement, held at the Arnold Clark Group’s training academy in Wolverhampton.
“We never thought about positioning as such, we thought about what we wanted it to do,” says FIAG founding member Geoffrey Bray, who also founded Fleet Services Group (now ARI Fleet) in 1987. “It’s not a training body or banging on doors trying to get people to listen to its point of view; the mission is to try and get a cascade of knowledge.”
The founding members have a combined total of hundreds of years of fleet industry experience across fleet managers and fleet management, safety, legal and risk experts, and the membership total has passed the 50 mark. Membership is corporate rather than individual, so different employees can come along to different meetings, and costs £350 per year.
The plan is to grow “by introduction,” as Bray describes it, with members bringing along contacts or friends once they have experienced the benefits themselves. But he says quality of membership is the big benefit, and that’s more important than increasing numbers.
“A lot of people carry the responsibility for fleet and, with the greatest respect, in many instances they are floundering and will follow what happened before like lemmings,” says Bray. “There’s no blank page of why you need vehicles, what vehicles you need and how they are used.”
He says there are cases of companies being merged where the first person to go is the fleet manager, “because they’re not bringing anything to the party”.
“Go back to basics with simple questions. Kids have that question ‘why?’ and as a parent you struggle to answer,” Bray continues. “You’ve got 200 company cars. Why? Why have you got company cars, why have you chosen the finance route, why have you chosen that policy, how do you treat [vehicle] abuse and driving offences?
“The traditional fleet manager is now rare and with their passing, companies have lost the knowledge and skill necessary to deliver a cost-effective fleet operation,” he declares. “There is a real need to reintroduce into fleet management individuals with clear understanding and the necessary skill and knowledge to deliver professional fleet management.”
Managing your drivers, rather than just ignoring or ducking the issue, is important and Bray describes loose car policies as “a rot that affects the whole business”, while cash-for-car policies are “just abdicating responsibility”.
“Ticking a box is one thing, spot-checking is another and I’m a firm believer in that,” he continues. “If you know drivers are not doing checks, find another way of doing it; don’t just abdicate responsibility. Find another way to make sure there isn’t a hole in the dyke.”
“If you have responsibility for fleets, where do you go to get help and advice?” he continues. “You want to be with someone where you can build a relationship and ask questions, and if they don’t have an answer they will know someone who would, and that’s what we’re trying to achieve.”
The small elephant in the room is car fleet operators’ association ACFO, especially when Bray says FIAG’s big benefit is access to unbiased support and advice.
“A lot of people say that’s what ACFO does, and I’m certainly not a critic of ACFO – we were a supporter with FSG,” he says. “In those days it was supplier dominated and you’re not going to get an opinion if it’s 60% supplier.”
Bray says that while supplier sponsorship and support will be welcomed, the hard-sell will not. “FIAG is not selling anything other than know-how and advice,” he continues. “Does ACFO do what we’re doing? They’ll probably say they do but it’s not for me to comment. I know with two or three fleet managers round a table with someone that wants to learn, they’ll take away so much.”
The next event for the organisation is its second workshop on Wednesday 12 November, this time on telematics, again at Arnold Clark’s training academy in Wolverhampton.
Sometimes, it pays to be a PRAT
FIAG founding member Geoffrey Bray is keen to point out that the Fleet Industry Advisory Group is a “genuine not-for-profit,” and any surplus will be going to the Hope For Tomorrow charity that brings cancer treatment to rural areas.
In 2007 Hope for Tomorrow launched the world’s first mobile chemotherapy unit in conjunction with the NHS, and now operates four units across Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Kent. At the end of last year it had administered 6000 treatments saving an estimated 240,000 miles of travel for cancer sufferers. Patrons include Sir Stirling Moss, Martin Brundle, Ross Brawn and Gloria Hunniford.
FIAG has created what it calls The Grand Order of PRAT – The Pennington Ridiculous Award Trophy – as a fund-raising initiative. Named after cartoonist Jack Pennington, who drew calendars featuring FSG’s staff and clients before succumbing to cancer in 2006, the trophy goes to whoever raises the most funds for Hope For Tomorrow. FIAG intends to hold a fund-raising event early next year.
