The Association of Fleet Professionals is adopting new ways to disseminate the work of its committees, creating deeper insights to aid fleet strategies.
Paul Hollick, chair at the AFP, said the seven committees undertake a lot of excellent work in terms of discussions on how to handle new challenges and spread best practice.
The new plans will see these findings turned into documents and actions that can be used by members as part of their fleet strategies and have a wider impact on vehicle operator thinking, right up to government level.
Hollick explained: “What we are planning, over time, is to adopt a range of methods that will allow more dissemination of their work. That means increasingly frequent creation of white papers, short guides and policy statements, as well as a range of objective-based projects that provide new options and guidance for fleets.”
The AFP said committee members, who give their time freely, deserve a significant amount of credit for their work and added that the new plans would build on this, creating more output that will be useful to members and potentially reach a wider influence.
There will also be some changes to the AFP’s committee structures. The Electric Vehicle, Low Carbon and Alternative Fuels committee will now be called Decarbonisation. Meanwhile, Light Commercial Vehicles will become simply Commercial Vehicles, recognising that some fleet operators want to discuss topics affecting commercial vehicles above 3.5 tonnes.
The other five committees – Mega Fleets, Risk and Compliance, Future Mobility, Diversity and Leadership, and Shared Charging groups – will all continue as before.
Additional changes are planned that affect how the committees operate, with a core group of fleet managers sitting permanently on each and, except for Mega Fleets, other AFP fleet operator members free to take part as they wish.
Hollick said: “We believe this will create a more fluid approach that will encourage more inclusive discussions across the committees and allow more fleet managers to make their voices heard within the AFP.”
He pointed to the Shared Charging committee as a good example of what can be achieved in terms of AFP projects.
“We launched this committee at the start of the year and within a few months, we are looking to launch a platform that allows fleets with excess charging capacity to offer it online to fleets that need access to chargers. It’s an exciting development that has genuine utility for electric vehicle operators.
“Not all AFP committees have such a direct remit as shared charging, which was formed to assess the viability of a project of this kind, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to all work in the same way.
“However, there’s certainly further scope to create a greater connect between the expertise of the committees and its impact on a wider audience, we believe.”
More details about the AFP’s committees and their activities can be obtained by contacting [email protected].
