The Association of Fleet Professionals Webinar held its first-ever webinar today, revealing the members and adopted aims of three new committees and also exploring the effects of Covid-19 on the industry.

AFP chair Paul Hollick said the new committees will provide the basis for forums that will very quickly become crucial to thinking and action in the fleet sector

Part of a total line-up of seven committees, the new committees cover Future Roads, Risk and Compliance, and Future Mobility Steering and join the Electric Vehicle, Low Carbon and Alternative Fuels, and LCV committees, details of which have already been announced.

Held yesterday (15 July) and hosted by Julie Summerell of TR Fleet, the webinar announced that the Risk, Compliance and Health Committee will focus on relevant issues concerning occupational travel risk including driver health and well-being, and corporate compliance. This will include managing the coronavirus crisis.

It will be chaired by Martin Evans of Jaama, while co-chair is Marie Jarrold of British Car Auctions. Members include Colin Knight of Amazon, Matt Hammond of Altrad, Tony Murphy of Murphy Plant, Ted Sakyi of Euro Car Parts, Mark Cartwright of Highways Agency, Eric Bristow of Schindler and Ryan Coles of Aviva. In addition, it will also feature David Brown of ADT, Emma Loveday of Drivetec, Alison Moriarty of Driive and Dr Lisa Dorn of Cranfield University.

The Future Mobility Steering Group will cover changes in the mobility landscape, as well as driving and shaping the future of mobility as it evolves. It aims to explore usage rather than ownership models and utilise areas such as big data, total cost of mobility, mobility as a service (MaaS), travel and payments.

It will be led by Paul Hollick of the AFP and co-chaired by James Pestell of the AFP. Other members will include Peter Millchard of the AFP, Wayne Warburton of Siemens, David Oliver of Specsavers, Mandi Nicol of Schnieder Electric, Lorna McAtear of National Grid, Andy Leedham of Astra Zenica, Debbie Floyde of Bauer, Simon Gray of SSE,  Madeline Webster of Fleet Logistics, David Bushnell of Alphabet, Oz Choudray of Enterprise, Harvey Perkins of HRUX and Joe Carierra of MSD.

The Future Roads Committee will be explore topics including smart motorways, new roads and planning road layouts, Low Emissions Zones, power provision from road use, route planning and optimisation, road charging and tolls, alternative vehicles, urbanisation, parking, and the integration of technology.

It will be chaired by Debbie Floyd of Bauer, co-chaired by Julie Summerell of TR Fleet, and include Nigel Grainger of Plumbase, Colin Jones of Cancer Research, Mark Cartwright of Highways Agency, Sean Murphy of Keltbray and Colin Hutt of Clarion.

Paul Hollick, AFP chair, said: “We’re really pleased to have attracted fleet professionals of such a high calibre to these final three of our committees. They cover some absolutely crucial areas of car and van management where some important new ideas are emerging.

“One of the key aims in forming the AFP earlier this year by merging ACFO and the ICFM was to create a platform from which the fleet sector could speak with one voice on important topics, and these committees are an important part of that process.”

The webinar, the first major event since the AFP was formed earlier this year, also explored the effects of Covid-19 on the industry and speakers included AFP deputy chair Stewart Lightbody, analysing how the virus has affected the sector, alongside a corresponding fleet manager view from Paul Brown of Stericycle.