Fleet briefs: AFP recruitment drive, Aston Barclay contract win and new virtual in-vehicle driver training

Fleet recruitment drive for Association of Fleet Professionals

The Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) says its keen to attract as many new members as possible.

Highlighting a packed calendar of events for 2021, Paul Hollick, chair of the fleet representative and training body, says the AFP is focussing on recruiting more fleets to its ranks.

He said: “It’s going to be a very challenging year for fleets who will be dealing with the ongoing pandemic, Brexit and electric vehicle deployment, just for starters.

“We’ll be putting considerable effort into supporting individual fleet managers.

“Since the AFP was formed in March, most of our recruitment activity has been aimed at attracting corporate members and we’re very pleased with how successful that has been.

“Now, however, we’re looking more at fleet managers who are working out in the field and are promoting the benefits of what the AFP can do for them. This is an important area for the organisation and we are keen to attract as many members as possible.”

Further details on the AFP’s 2021 calendar of events are available from the AFP administration hub on administration@theafp.co.uk.

Hollick added: “We’re also very pleased to announce our first full training programme. Helping people working in the fleet industry to gain new skills is a crucial part of our mission and we are already seeing people sign up for some of these modules.”

New virtual in-vehicle driver training

TTC Group’s Business Driver fleet risk management subsidiary has developed a new virtual in-vehicle driver training course.

Using dashcam technology for live, two-way interaction, the one-to-one driver coaching is designed to determine the driver’s risk areas for the category of vehicle they drive.

Live dashcam footage is transmitted in real time back to a remote based Business Driver trainer who then analyses, coaches and supports a driver during any given live on-road situation. The driver can also provide commentary or ask questions regarding their observations.

TTC Group acquired Business Driver Fleet Risk Management in May 2019.

Solus remarketing contract renewed with Aston Barclay

Fairfield BMW will continue to use Aston Barclay to remarket its part exchanges from three locations through Aston Barclay’s Chelmsford weekly dealer sale on a Wednesday.

The company has long been a proponent of selling upstream through the digital channels on offer and has trialled Aston Barclay’s appraisal app to get vehicles for sale before they have been collected, reducing the overall time to sell.

“We’re very pleased to continue working together providing quality used vehicles to the strong following of buyers we’ve built for the team,” said Martin Potter, Aston Barclay’s MD, customer.

Fairfield BMW represents BMW and Mini brands, along with a nearly new and used site in Billericay.

Drive Software Solutions reports ODO growth

Drive Software Solutions has announced a near trebling of vehicles on its ODO fleet management platform since April 2020.

Growth has been driven by increased demand from three key customer segments: delivery companies; leasing brokers; and the automotive sector (OEMs, Dealers, Brokers).

ODO, says Drive, enables suppliers to evolve their business models quickly to adapt to what is a rapidly changing market.

Select Car Leasing’s corporate implementation manager, Paul Defoe, said: “We are really impressed with the ODO software. It allows you to save a lot of time when running your fleet and all the data is easily visible, accessible, and simple to extract.

“Gone are the days of recording everything on a spreadsheet. It also provides a full solution for compliance checking and monitoring for extra piece of mind.”

Robert Gorby, chief commercial officer for Drive Software Solutions, added: “We’re delighted with the growth we’ve seen so far this year.”

New fines module added to 1link Hire Network

A new fines module – designed to handle the charging of driver fines on short-term rental back to the fleet customer – has been added by Epyx to its 1link Hire Network platform.

Daily rental companies can create a new fine within 1link Hire Network by completing all the relevant details within the module together with associated documents and invoice details.

This is then submitted directly to the fleet customer or any appropriate intermediary, where it can be seen on screen within a single view and either approved manually or set up for automatic approval if it meets a series of pre-agreed rules.

An event history provides a clear audit trail for the entire process and fines invoices can also be extracted into sales and purchase exports for use in accounting systems, it said.

Debbie Fox, commercial director at Epyx, said: “The fines module is designed to remove much of this pain for everyone involved in the process, creating an infrastructure through which fines can be handled quickly and with the minimum of fuss.”

Sofico reports growing success in UK

Sofico is seeing growing success in the UK, with an increasing number of implementations for its Miles fleet and mobility management system.

It also reports a doubling in size of its UK workforce and its office space, after it set up a new regional office in the UK two years ago.

In the UK, Miles’ customers now include six leading leasing companies and funders.

Sofico Services UK country head, Roger Smith (pictured), said: “We have achieved self-sufficiency now in the UK, with growing staff numbers, increased resources and a number of exciting new projects ongoing with new and existing clients.”

The UK success story is part of a strategy developed by Sofico in recent years to establish a local presence in its key markets so that customers can be better supported through local, native-speaking staff familiar with the market and its culture.

“As a result, we are able to optimise Miles for the UK and offer improvements to meet UK-driven changes pro-actively,” added Roger Smith.

This local office approach has seen the opening of European offices in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, along with other locations including Mexico, Japan and Australia.

Airmax Remote launches vehicle battery health service

Vehicle telematics and data services provider, Airmax Remote, has launched a battery health service to alert fleet managers and drivers when a vehicle’s battery is low.

Secondary notifications for critical battery health are delivered when there is a significant risk of the engine not starting.

Part of Airmax Remote’s wider SMR offering, the new dataset will be made available within latest version release and rolled out to existing customers on a phased release.

Dave Hill, head of engineering at Airmax Remote, said: “This is a complimentary dataset to those we already provide to monitor the overall health of a vehicle, and can pass on the benefits to our customers.”