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Since Jenner took on the chair there have been few changes to the ACFO board, and she says that is key to the way the association functions.
"We had basically the same group of directors and they understood how to work together. We only meet six times per year and we had to learn how to work together as a group," she explains. "You have to take the time to learn how to work with someone, to make it more structured and aligned to where we see the organisation going."
As far as where Jenner sees her biggest successes, she mentions moving the ACFO awards from nowhere to what she describes as an "industry-recognised event that 250 people want to attend" in three years under her stewardship, but there are others.
"In some respects [there is] being the first woman to be in charge of ACFO, to be recognised as someone that would drive the organisation forward, although I didn't take it as far as I would have liked to have done," she concludes.
Damian James has now taken over as chairman of ACFO having been deputy chairman for the past 12 months.
James, whose day job is head of operations at Bracknell Forest Council, has been an ACFO member for more than a decade and a board member for the past three years, and told BusinessCar at the time of his appointment: "It's an excellent opportunity for me and hopefully for ACFO. As a fleet operator I think I can bring a lot to the organisation.
"The priority is trying to attract more members, particularly people who aren't full-time fleet operators. We're becoming a smaller bunch and there is a myriad of people who have different roles and manage a fleet. I'm keen to contact them."
The rest of the board comprises: deputy chairman Caroline Sandall of Barclays; former chairman Julie Jenner; Phil Redman, fleet manager for IBM UK; John Pryor, car and travel manager for Arcadia Group; and recently elected Richard Baird, head of new business development at Marshall Leasing.
ACFO and BusinessCar worked together on a best practice guide for checking driving licences in the wake of an investigation by this publication into how Government departments monitored their drivers' licences.
BusinessCar uncovered a wide discrepancy in the results, including some departments that weren't even aware they had a requirement to check the documentation of people driving on work business. BusinessCar's freedom of information requests into the licence-checking policies of 21 Government departments found that only one - the DVLA - met the best practice levels expected of fleets.
Following an invitation from the then Labour MP Dr. Stephen Ladyman to ACFO and BusinessCar to discuss the findings, Dr Ladyman invited the fleet operators' organisation to produce a best practice document, which was then issued to each Government department as well as being offered free to all ACFO members. ACFO chairman Julie Jenner and BusinessCar editor Paul Barker presented the guide at the association's 2010 conference.
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