ARVAL PHH chief operating officer David Bird is taking over day-to-day responsibility for fleet, fuel and purchasing card operations following Jeremy Hay's decision to leave the company to set up a consultancy business. Bird took over on Monday and says it is 'business as usual' at the company with the remainder of the senior management team unchanged.

This includes Graham Rixon (director of operations), Barry Chaplin (director of fleet), Martin Hender (director of fuel) and Vincent St Claire (director of car hire, mini-lease and key fleets), as well as Penny Hadfield, who recently joined the company as commercial director. Hay, managing director of ARVAL PHH with responsibility for the company's fleet and fuel business, reported into Bird and will remain with the company until August with increased focus on human resources issues.

Bird has 16 years' experience in fleet and started with the Swindon-based company where he was latterly financial controller before moving to a similar post with LeasePlan. He then became financial director at LeasePlan subsidiary Automotive Leasing before returning to ARVAL PHH six years ago as financial director, becoming chief operating officer two years ago.

Hay, also a former LeasePlan employee, joined the UK's largest fleet management company four years ago becoming managing director two years ago. This year ARVAL PHH has seen strong business growth and year-to-date claims to have added 6,000 units to expand its funded business to over 85,000 vehicles in the UK, with over 330,000 more vehicles under fleet management. The fuel business has also seen a record first quarter in 2001.