BVRLA: Ready to make some noise
Date:
08 August 2013
One of Keaney's first priorities is to increase the association's volume, making sure the views of its members are expressed.
"It's important we make our voices heard [with the Government] on the likes of road safety, green issues and taxation," he says. "For example, it's great news for the industry that there's £1bn of extra investment in low-carbon vehicles and transport infrastructure and it's important to have an understanding of the BVRLA views in these initiatives."
He continues: "This has been an extremely successful organisation, there's no doubt of that. What John Lewis has done with the team has been first rate and I'm fortunate to inherit a strong and stable organisation. There is an opportunity for us to continue the work behind the scenes. There is a good structure in place with policy and legal and now is the opportunity to move onto another level."
Part of that is the commencement of a drive behind the scenes to improve the data analysis of the rental and leasing sector to illustrate its importance. "What has held us back is getting good data," states Keaney, saying that a report commissioned by the association and written by Oxford Economics in May was a good start. It showed the UK car and van sector of the rental and leasing industry contributes around £14bn per year to the economy and supports more than 183,000 jobs.
"The report is a solid piece of work that lays down a platform as to how important the sector is and our members are to the growth of the UK economy, and it has given us background data on fleet numbers, but we need more data," says Keaney. "I'd like to be able to say our segment has the ability to be a barometer - for example, if daily rental is up, what does that mean for UK PLC and the growth agenda?"
Keaney, though, is aware of the challenges that could be involved.
"We clearly have to be sensitive to members," he says, revealing that the dialogue to see what data could be made available is only just opening up.
"There is lots of data out there that isn't as trusted as ours," he adds. "They want simple, efficient, trustworthy data and the most important thing is to launch something credible from day one."
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