CHAIRMAN of the Institute of Car Fleet Management Paul Hollick is calling for the institute’s fleet manager qualifications to be the essential industry qualifications required of a fleet decision-maker.
2020 vision of ICFM chairman:
- ICFM qualification de facto stamp of approval
- 1000+ membership base – currently over 750
- Launch corporate membership programme
Speaking at ICFM’s Fleet 2020 conference today, he said: “These qualifications will be the de facto stamp of approval that you can do the job and we want to make fleet management a fully recognised vocation.
“Employers will then search out these qualifications when employing a new fleet manager just like they would do for an accountant, an architect or a lawyer.”
Mr Hollick was addressing the ICFM conference at the Williams Conference Centre at Grove, Oxfordshire, hosted by headline sponsor PPG, the world- leading coatings and speciality products and services company.
In 2015, ICFM membership has increased by five per cent to over 750 members and the membership base is changing. For the first year ever, there has been a change in gender split among students coming through ICFM courses – 51 per cent of students in 2015 were female (up seven per cent on 2014).
Looking ahead, his listed aims were:
- Reach the magic 1,000 plus membership base
- Improve our footprint with other industry bodies – ACFO, FTA, BVRLA
- Bring further freshness to our training
- As a training and development body, we will work harder on the development topic – bringing more opportunities for our members to stay abreast of new topics and initiatives within fleet and mobility
- Make the ICFM more accessible to new members and those in support service roles to our industry.
Paul Hollick continued: “We wish to continue to further improve ties with other industry bodies; we are redesigning the ICFM website and will improve member communication interfaces, we will continue to develop more CPD topics and freshen up our training, work with fleet industry suppliers to help support their education programmes and, importantly, launch a Corporate Membership Programme.
“And above all, we will continue to improve our reputation within the industry. We must be relevant and continue to raise industry standards.”
Co-sponsoring the ICFM conference for a fourth successive year is FMG, the UK’s leading independent provider of fleet incident management and specialist vehicle recovery services. Secondary sponsors are Alphabet, Arval, BCA, Jaama, Rightsure and Thrifty.
Guest speakers at Fleet 2020 are Sally Gunnell OBE, former British track and field athlete who won a Gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and Charley Boorman, TV presenter, travel writer and actor.
