LITTLE CONSENSUS
Hollick believes there is “little consensus” on how a new scheme would work. “The main options appear to be some form of annual road toll per user or vehicle, or toll per mile travelled,” he said.
“However, these are likely to work in conjunction with other forms of charging, such as extended ULEV (ultra-low emission vehicle) zones and even emissions-based parking levies.”
When combined with fleet-specific taxation, such as benefit-in-kind (BIK) taxation of vehicles and approved mileage allowance payments (AMAPs), Hollick told
Fleet News: “It’s potentially a very complicated picture and that is before you even start to ask questions such as how mileage would be monitored and charged.”
Click the thumbs up >Thinking about a fleet in terms of its drivers rather than the number of vehicles it operates is helping Altrad Services run one of the safest operations in the country. The winner of the 2020 Fleet News Safe Fleet Award has seen sustained improvement in driver behaviour resulting in a reduction in incident rates, after shifting its approach to managing its fleet.
The five-strong fleet team, with Matt Hammond at the helm, operates a mixed fleet, consisting of 800 vans, 200 company cars, 95 heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and 200 grey fleet cars.
Safety, argues head of fleet, plant and equipment Hammond, should be at forefront of every fleet manager’s mind. “It’s the most important thing that we do,” he says. “Yes, we’re there to help run a business; yes, we’re there to help control costs, but none of us wants one of our vehicles involved in an incident and, more importantly, none of us wants to see any of our drivers in an incident either.”
Fleet News Awards 2021
Click the thumbs up >Winning a Fleet News Award trophy doesn’t come easy, but the effort is worth every moment when the envelope is opened, and your name is read out.
Winners enjoy a measurable improvement in business performance and credibility, while it can also raise staff motivation, studies show.
It can even give a boost to individual careers, with several former Fleet News Awards winners getting promoted or headhunted for more senior positions. Award winners say it has helped them to acquire new talent and improve client relationships.
Shaun Atton described himself as “proud” and “over the moon” after the group fleet manager collected the most improved fleet of the year trophy for Auto Windscreens at last year’s Fleet News Awards. British Gas head of fleet Steve Winter, who collected the fleet of the year gong, said it was “a great reward for our fleet team”.
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UK – Altrad Services UK, which operates a 1,460 strong vehicle fleet servicing the energy industries has apparently seen drastically improved driver behaviour, slashed incident rates and almost halved costs from fines and repairs following the installation of telematics data technology from Trakm8. Matthew Hammond, Head of Fleet, Plant and Equipment at Altrad Services, said:
“By partnering with Trakm8 we have been able to bear down on occurences in a way that is at once incredibly effective in reducing incidents and has a positive impact on our fleet workforce.