FOUR fleet managers collectively responsible for an annual spend of more than £11 million lined up at the Fleet Motor Show as the first winners of coveted places on the trailblazing £50,000 RAC Scholarship Awards Scheme. The training initiative, run in conjunction with the Institute of Car Fleet Management, was launched last year and offers the fleet industry's highest recognised professional qualification with the aim of expanding, elevating and overhauling the traditional role of the fleet manager in business to a fully professional level.

From a competitive field of almost 50 fleet managers, shortlisted to nine final qualifiers, the successful four for the 1998/99 training scheme were: Ron Dickson, fleet manager, at Glasgow-based Wallace, Cameron & Co; Richard Flint, fleet controller at Durham Police; Dianne Rees, business services manager, at Buckinghamshire-based Leo Pharmaceuticals and Mike Simmons, fleet controller at Newbury-based Vodafone.

The RAC's scheme will initially run over three years and sponsor two consecutive 16-month training programmes, leading to an RAC Scholarship Award, an ICFM Diploma in Car Fleet Management and probable election as an ICFM Fellow. All contenders were asked to show line management support in their submissions.