ACFO to expand membership base

ACFO, the UK’s largest organisation representing fleet decision-makers is to actively recruit HR, finance and procurement professionals - many of whom now have responsibility for corporate fleet operations.

The increasing impact of tax and legislative changes impacting on the day-to-day running of fleet operations means, says ACFO, that best practice decision-making impacting on operating efficiency and effectiveness and cost reduction is becoming ever-more complex.The economic downturn has resulted in some fleet managers losing their jobs due to a combination of redundancy, company closures and business takeovers. As a result, the management of some fleet operations has been inherited by non-professional and, in many cases, part-time fleet managers, all lacking experience of operational issues.

This has all the potential to lead to cost increases, as the whole issue of employee mobility is becoming ever more complex. There are, for example, major differences in the tax treatment of cars (and vans) against salary or allowances.

Additionally, health and safety/duty of care and cost control need to be considered and understood within the business, to ensure that the solutions put in place are appropriate to the circumstances of each fleet operator.

The annual ACFO conference and AGM

At this week’s annual ACFO Conference and AGM attended by more than 100 members and affiliated organisations, the cross-section of delegates with a range of different job titles across fleet, procurement, HR and finance underlined the breadth of reach being achieved by the organisation.

ACFO chairman Julie Jenner said: “ACFO has been successful in recruiting people to its ranks who don’t have full-time fleet responsibility, but we believe there are many more organisations that could benefit from membership.

“There are fewer people being employed within companies with the title of fleet manager, but that does not mean that the company car is dying. What we have seen in recent years and will continue to see, are the outsourcing of some fleet manager roles. As a result, internal management of the fleet function is being taken over by individuals in other departments and from other disciplines. That is proving a rich recruitment ground as they are looking to increase their limited fleet knowledge by joining ACFO.”

ACFO active forum

As well as providing an active forum for fleet decision-makers, to discuss and promote best practice in fleet management, ACFO continues to represent the legitimate interests of vehicle fleet operators, to a range of organisations and bodies including vehicle manufacturers, service company suppliers and government departments and agencies, including HM Treasury, HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Transport.

In the last 12 months, that representation has been focused on meetings with HM Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs on taking members’ views on capital allowance reforms, which came into effect on April 1, to the heart of government.

Julie told the AGM and Conference sponsored by Peugeot Motor Company and held at their Conference Centre in Coventry: “These tax changes were the biggest to affect the industry for more than 10 years and required a detailed and clear understanding of the new rules to determine how fleets would be affected and what the overall impact would be.

“I believe ACFO led the way in identifying the exact nature of these changes, draft legislation was read, re-read and commented on, consultations were responded to, and numerous meetings were held over a 12-month period to ensure that our members’ views were represented and to understand what the full significance of these changes would be.

“ACFO continues to be heard at all levels; we increase our presence and influence, and we enjoy major successes.”

ACFO launches new site - with defect reporting

In a bid to help recruitment and further improve communications with members a new ACFO web site has been launched.

www.acfo.org

Visiting www.acfo.org gives members access to a wide range of information including regional meeting data, Q&A entries to key fleet issues and library documents. In addition, industry news from ACFO’s weekly NewsFeed coverage and documents and templates relating to managing occupational road risk best and producing driver handbooks are available.

A new feature on the site is ‘defect reporting’, which is intended to gather member feedback on problems experienced with fleet vehicles, so that the whole membership can see any trends which might be present in the models being used or being considered for allocation policies.

Julie said: “The new site provides members with more value for money than ever before and is designed to complement and extend the networking and information exchange associated with the regional branch meetings. While these remain an essential and valuable part of the ACFO proposition, we have recognised in the design of the new site the need to support members who cannot regularly attend their local events.”

At the AGM Liz Hollands, fleet manager at DTZ, and John Pryor, group car fleet and travel manager, Arcadia and BHS Group, were both re-elected to the six-strong ACFO board of directors.

The conference heard from three expert speakers:

• Gerard Forlin, an expert in health and safety law, who analysed the impact of the latest legislation, including the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act and the Health and Safety (Offences) Act on companies, senior employees and business drivers.

• Kevin Gaskell, who has enjoyed a lengthy motor industry career and was recently appointed chairman of motoring.co.uk in addition to being president of the EurotaxGlass’s Group. The former UK head of Porsche, BMW and Lamborghini, Mr Gaskell provided an overview of the marketplace and highlighted key issues impacting on the profitability of motor manufacturers in the current recession.

• David Rawlings, director of Business Car Finance and Vertiva, was previously an automotive consultant at tax experts Deloitte. He highlighted how fleet decision-makers could make a number of ‘quick wins’ to cut operating costs. These included eliminating the private use of company-funded fuel, reducing vehicle mileage, promoting salary sacrifice scheme and reforming company car policies around low emission company cars typically emitting160 g/km of CO2 or less.