Institute for Car Fleet Management chairman Roddy Graham used the association’s annual conference earlier this month to call for all sectors of the fleet market to engage in training their staff in order to increase professionalism across the industry.
“Ideally, what we need is a properly trained and qualified fleet industry,” he told delegates during his opening address.
“Think how much more successful your business could be if all of your sales, account management, technical support teams, customer service teams etc. were well trained and grounded on a wide range of fleet management issues.”
As well as appealing to service suppliers to engage in ICFM training, Graham also used the organisation’s 20th anniversary conference to renew his calls for more recognition of the need for fleet management to be seen as a profession.
“Today’s fleet manager is also very likely to have other responsibilities such as procurement, HR, facilities and finance as well as managing the fleet activities,” he said.
“Availability of soundly focused and externally accredited training and education, with modules covering most if not all of these areas, has never been more important.”
The ICFM has, according to Graham, seen “more and more” frontline HR people participating in its courses.
“Our industry has recently endured probably the worst recession in living memory and has emerged strong,” concluded Graham.
“We continue to see change in our industry landscape and accepted work practices. We need to embrace these changes with pride and passion and move it from strength to strength.”
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