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The start point for the best source of fleet information |
Their decisions, actions and words shape the way the business car market behaves. Here, we reveal the 50 most powerful people in the fleet industry
The loss of the GM account for Vauxhall Leasing, Saab Contract Hire and Chevrolet Lease to ALD has seen Masterlease drop out of the top 20. Tatlock has stated Masterlease now wants to concentrate on big business, rather than SMEs, so the next 12 months will be interesting for the firm.
The split from Chrysler has done little to dent the fleet Durrant controls, losing only 1000 vehicles, or 2%. Impressive.
King continues his slick and media-friendly approach to pressuring the Government on motoring issues on motorists' behalf.
McLean-Tooke took over from Liz O'Donnell at the start of this year and has already had positive meetings with AFCO as she seeks to advance HMRC's policies and how they will impact upon the business car sector.
Tilbrook manages a top-10 leasing firm and ING's recent growth sees him enter the top 20 of the Power List this year.
Graham is not only the head of the fleet manager's training body, the ICFM, he is also operations director of independent fleet management and leasing firm LeaseDrive Velo and is never short of an opinion, which is why he's a BusinessCar blogger.
Following Rich Green's departure at the height of the banking crisis, John Jenkins has taken over GE's fleet, and runs more than 54,000 vehicles.
Allen enters the top 20 thanks to ALD gaining the GM businesses of Vauxhall Leasing, Saab Contract Hire and Chevrolet Lease after the manufacturer parted company with Masterlease.
Adonis may not be an elected minister but he is the Government's lead voice on transport.
With a 60,000-vehicle fleet, Europcar, including its National Car Rental and Alamo subsidiaries, is the UK's largest car rental firm, which Cotterill runs. The recession and its knock-on effects in terms of the higher cost of acquiring vehicles as manufacturers back away from less profitable deals has meant tough times for the market, and how they deal with that will be crucial to business car fleets.
Last year's most powerful person in fleet has slipped out of the top 10. The PM has been less influential in terms of UK fleet this year as his attention was pulled between the expenses scandal, international issues, and a struggle to stay in control of his party ahead of the inevitable election next year.
Moorhouse runs the UK's largest daily rental firm, with a fleet of more than 65,000 vehicles, almost all of which are vans. The financial crisis hit the firm hard, reporting a £195m loss for the year to the end of April, but the next 12 months look more promising. Northgate is also in the process of launching a unit aimed at the public sector.
Lewis is head of the organisation representing the leasing industry.
Torre not only runs one of the largest leasing firms in the UK but also heads the largest fuel card company, which survived a dispute with BP last year, when the fuel company threatened to stop accepting Arval cards, though an agreement was eventually struck.
There's a new owner for the CarCost system this year, with KeeResources acquiring the business from administration after previous owner McKenzie Myers hit trouble. Jowsey is one of the RV experts behind KwikCarCost, which offers the incredibly detailed whole-life costs data trusted by BusinessCar for our test drive data.
More reserved than his friendly rival Ward (see No.8), but his opinions count to those who live and die by their cars' residual values.
Ward has unrivalled contacts within car makers' fleet departments. The Yorkshireman may be controversial at times, but all fleet bosses listen to him because he has a wealth of experience and always tells it straight. Early access to new models a couple of years before launch means he can help manufacturers adapt their cars for the UK market before helping Cap decide on the predicted residual values.
The national newspapers expected Darling to lose his job in the Cabinet reshuffle, but he stayed in place and is still the man in charge of UK taxation. At least until the next general election.
Darling's 2008 Budget was not the biggest in terms of fleet impact, although it did introduce the new capital allowance regulations that turned 160g/km into an important fleet figure, as well as announcing the scrappage scheme that has turned around retail fortunes for car manufacturers, if doing little for the business car community. He also introduced another fuel duty rise at the beginning of this month.
Howkins' position in the BusinessCar Power List is unchanged from last year, but GM sales have fallen significantly, seeing chief rival Griffin of Ford leapfrog him to fifth. The sales drop comes despite a new upper medium car in the form of the Insignia and the fact that Howkins not only controls Vauxhall's fleet sales, but also Saab and Chevrolet. However, Saab's uncertain future means the brand's business registrations have dropped off a cliff in 2009. Uncertainty over parent form GM Europe's future haven't helped and many leasing companies are marking all GM product RVs down at the moment, making the US firm's product less attractive to fleets.
Given that the fleet car market was down more than 30% in the first six months of this year, Ford's drop of only 13% is something Griffin, the company's fleet operations director, can be proud of. It's also the reason he's up from seventh. A new Fiesta and Ka have helped, too, while Ford as a business has escaped the majority of the financial turmoil that has hit GM and Chrysler in the US.
Jenner rises one place in the BusinessCar Power List, reflecting her hard work as the head of ACFO. The GE Key Solutions manager has the ear of many of the major players in this list and her past three years as chairman has seen ACFO rise in status, particularly within the parts of Whitehall that matter to fleets - HMRC and HM Treasury. The past year has seen Jenner tackle difficult decisions within ACFO including reducing the number of meetings to cut costs, but offset by a new website to improve member dialogue.
There was a change at the head of the UK's third-biggest leasing company in February, with Stuart Houlston coming in to replace previous incumbent Rob Bailey. Bailey was promoted to the position of regional MD for Lombard Vehicle Management parent Royal Bank of Scotland after three years running LVM, and was replaced by Houlston who moved up from his position as head of customer service to take control of the leasing firm with in excess of 100,000 vehicles on its books. He joined Lombard in 2003 from Dell, where he was European IT director.
Brennan now runs the UK's number two leasing firm following the merger of rivals Lex and Autolease, although Leaseplan has passed Autolease anyway. This second place could work in Brennan's favour, with the chance to pick up business from fleets not wanting to stay with the new number one. The main Leaseplan operation looks after major corporate business, while it has three sister brands that specialise in other areas of the business. The Network branch serves small businesses through a network of approved brokers, Fleetline is dedicated to medium-sized businesses, while Automotive Leasing is the only recognised brand in public sector leasing.
It's straight in at number one for new entry Oldfield who has the ultimate control over Lex Autolease, the leasing firm formed when Lex's parent bank HBOS was taken over by Lloyds TSB, owner of Autolease.
Oldfield is the man the former number two in the Power List, Nigel Stead, reports to, and also who the former number three, Jon Walden, briefly reported to. BusinessCar sources say that while Stead is still the MD of Lex Autolease, it's Oldfield who has the higher profile with staff within the business both at the former Lex division and at Autolease.
Oldfield was appointed managing director of Lloyds Banking Group asset finance division in January 2009 having led the same division at LTSB since December 2006.
He also controls market-leading businesses in personal hire purchase, fleet and stocking finance, personal and retail finance, and truck and trailer contract hire.
Prior to asset finance, Oldfield spent four years as managing director of LTSB's offshore banking, providing retail banking and investment services to personal and corporate customers globally.
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