INTERVIEW FEATURE
Tracey Munford (front row, fourth from right) with APCOA colleagues prior to climbing the Yorkshire Three Peaks
Tracey Munford is not a woman to shirk a challenge. So her recent promotion to head of enforcement services at one of the biggest parking operators in the UK comes as no surprise to those who know her. The fact that the promotion also makes Munford one of just a handful of women at senior level in the private parking sector is of no relevance to her whatsoever: ‘I don’t think being a woman has made any difference in my career. I believe that being the best person for the job is the most important thing.’
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That said, Munford is breaking new ground within APCOA, where she is the highest-ranked female in the company. She
www.britishparking.co.uk
s someone who regularly hikes for miles in all weathers over the roughest of terrains,
has succeeded Graham Morphew, who has now been promoted to managing director of the company. During the interview, I pushed the fact that the parking profession was so male-dominated and it might be difficult for a woman to make her way up the promotional ladder. Munford was having none of it. For her, it is simply a question of being the right person for the job, and when it comes to the differences between men and women, she is staunchly gender-blind. To accentuate her argument, she points out that, although parking is a profession that remains male dominated, within APCOA there are several women at all levels of the company. ‘One of my regional managers is also female and several of our contract and assistant contract managers are also female. As I said, it has to be the best person for the job, male or female.’ As I pushed Munford on the question of gender equality within the profession her only concession that things might be different for women was a trivial one: ‘I do sometimes have a quiet laugh that there is never a queue for the ladies toilets in such a male dominated industry.’
Transfer of skills Prior to joining APCOA, Munford was working in local authority leisure services, where she developed an acute awareness of the need for good customer service. This is a knowledge that has translated across to running a parking service, where contracts are won and lost on the quality of customer care and understanding the clients’ needs. It was something that attracted her to APCOA when she joined the company in 2009 as the regional manager for enforcement
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As I said, it has to be the best person for the
job, male or female
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