Kevin Griffin: has an enthusiastic and infectious manner
Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog
IT’S NOT often you get an audience with the king. And I was going to see Ford.
Ford, after all, are the leaders in the fleet and business car markets. And I had an audience with the fleet director: Kevin Griffin. King Kev, then.
Actually, the man who leads Ford’s fleet team is the opposite: very friendly and not at all haughty, regal or king-like.
Kevin, like the Ford Fleet programme, is actually highly approachable. As Kevin says, being Ford you have to appeal to a very wide audience, from drivers wanting their smallest city car to van fleets wanting heavy duty Transits that need tachographs. There’s a lot to cover.
But Kevin says he hopes nothing slips through, despite the broad canvas. And that Ford Fleet is quite capable of looking after 10 company cars for a small business as it is 100 cars for a large company fleet.
I was meeting Kevin at the Ford Business Centre, the central nerve centre of Ford Fleet. The previous day I had been interviewing Fred Keen, owner of The Keen Group, a private car hire firm in south London with big ambitions, for Professional Driver magazine. Fred’s company had just bought its first fleet of 10 Ford Galaxys, although when they first spoke to Ford, it had been hard to get someone interested. But then one of the local Ford business representatives had understood what the Keen Group was after and had pushed through the deal.
To test the system, I asked Kevin if he could ‘see’ the Keen Group on the Business Centre system.
Kevin didn’t know about the deal, but sure enough, it worked and the details were all there. “We have the data, which means we can now call them. You need the data to have the conversation,” Kevin tells me. “I’m glad they eventually found the right person to speak to. But that’s sometimes how it is. Understanding what the customer wants is key.”
I asked Kevin what was the appeal of Ford? “I think undoubtedly it’s the range. But we’ve also invested money in the design to make this product look attractive. At Ford we call it ‘kinetic’ design. The cars and vans are also dependable and reliable and while they now have an emotional appeal, they also retain their practicality.”
And, it might be added, are getting more affordable again. Ford recently introduced Blue Tag pricing for its large cars. And one of the main beneficiaries of this are small businesses. Previously Ford had a policy of discounting the price – based on 30 years of supplying company cars in the fleet industry – but while this was of benefit to those companies that got the discounts, it disadvantaged those that didn’t; and the drivers – since benefit-in-kind company car taxation is based on a combination of price and CO2 emissions.
So now Blue Tag pricing means lower list prices, and lower company car tax. “The taxation on the list price, rather than the price paid for the car, is the fundamental driver behind this,” explains Kevin.
It was something Ford needed to address. Let’s hope that Ford can extend this policy throughout the range. It is, says Kevin, a Ford ambition. Let’s hope it becomes an ambition achieved. Because Ford does have real appeal for the small business user. And, as Ford sets the benchmark, other car brands may well follow.
Further information
You can read a fuller interview with Kevin Griffin and how small businesses fit in with Ford Fleet in our special report Ford Fleet is for all.
You can read more about Ford’s Blue Tag pricing here in our news story: Cheaper Ford prices for company car drivers.
