icfm

ICFM’s 18th Annual National Members’ Conference and Workshop maintains successful formula – demonstrable savings through influencing driver behaviour
New brand identity unveiled
30 November 2011

The Institute of Car Fleet Management’s (ICFM) 18th annual members’ national conference and training workshop held on November 29 at Peugeot UK’s headquarters in Coventry repeated the successful format of the past two years of combining a variety of keynote speakers and free training workshops. The theme of the event was ‘Driver behaviour – the real cost’ with demonstrable savings evidenced throughout the day. Over 100 delegates attended the highly successful event at which the ICFM also unveiled its new brand identity.

Chairman of the ICFM, Roddy Graham declared: “Our decision to once more integrate the best of both worlds, a national conference programme with free practical training workshops, proved a highly popular format. Members and their guests were able to take away new cost saving ideas to immediately apply to their own fleet operation. We also had some highly interesting speakers present and Olympic Silver Medallist, Leon Taylor, proved highly motivational.

“We consistently attract a third of conference attendees as member guests, allowing us to showcase the very high, award-winning standards of the ICFM and how membership will benefit them and their organisations by bringing added value benefits to their fleet role.

“The workshop format demonstrated the professionalism, expertise and enthusiasm of our members. Their pro-active participation resulted in three ‘best practice’ workshops judged of real value by all participants.”

The first workshop of the day considered ‘What can be done immediately to influence driver behaviour in order to increase consideration for other road users?’; the second evaluated ‘What can be done immediately to influence driver behaviour in order to increase commitment to the reduction of fuel costs?’ and the third discussed ‘What can be done immediately to influence driver behaviour to encourage them to adopt more environmentally responsible practices?’ Attendees in each workshop were asked to come up with a list of 15 ideas and rank them in order of priority.

Halving incidents and incident costs
The first keynote speech, focusing on ‘Assessing and Influencing Driver Behaviour’ was delivered by Dr Gerhard Manogg of Imagitech and impressed on attendees the need to engage with and encourage drivers to take responsibility, pride and ownership of their vehicles. By influencing driver behaviour, the number of incidents could be halved with a similar cost reduction per driver in incident cost.

£1m annual fuel bill reduction
Jon Mackney, head of consultancy at Arval, was the next keynote speaker who looked at ‘Driver Behaviour – the Impact on Fuel Costs’. He effectively demonstrated how through detailed fuel cost management impressive cost savings could be made. One client managed to save £1m in annual fuel costs.

Average 29 per cent fuel consumption savings
The third keynote speech, on ‘Driver Behaviour – the Environmental Perspective’ was delivered by Anthony Sale, senior engineer – powertrain at the Millbrook Proving Ground, who provided an insight into how vehicle manufacturer fuel consumption figures are determined. He also gave useful tips, backed by factual evidence, on how to drive economically by reducing engine revs, coasting in gear and accelerating gently. Average fuel consumption savings of 29 per cent were achieved across all drivers tested at the proving ground.

After lunch, motivational speaker Leon Taylor, Olympic Silver Medallist, talked about the application of sports psychology to fleet administration. Elite athletes are being advised of three golden rules: 1) ‘life’s not fair’, 2) ‘the goal posts always move’ and given the first two rules, ‘all you can do is do your best in the circumstances.’ This was followed by the outcomes of the interactive workshops and a Peugeot presentation on exciting new diesel hybrid models by fleet director, Phil Robson.

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