Fleet profile


with fleet responsibility working in HR, finance and procurement roles and the fast-emerging mobility function.


Today, with around 1,000 members, the AFP aims to support the fleet industry by offering stakeholders a single point of membership and access to the combined activities of these two leading industry bodies under the new AFP identity.


Making the case for electric An ongoing challenge for the organisation is ensuring the education of the current and next generation of fleet professionals, providing guidance and clarity around what the next steps are within fleet and dealing with the government to improve the ability to run fleets nationally in the UK.


Hollick says the extremely low benefit-in- kind (BIK) tax implications for company cars has led to a clear change of behaviour within the UK marketplace. “Money drives behaviour and BIK tax was previously changed to 0%, increased to 1% and then 2%, meaning that the demand was suddenly there. People saying they don’t want an EV because of issues with the range changed overnight as soon as the tax tables changed,” he says.


Hollick explains that most of the work the organisation is doing right now is helping fleets with an inevitable switch to electric. “As we reach the countdown to the ban of new internal combustion car sales in 2030, arguably, if you’re a company car driver you’d be nuts not to have an electric vehicle,” he says. “These tax benefits are not going to last forever. Most leasing companies and most of our members are seeing more EVs ordered than ICE vehicles now.”


Hollick says he will wait in eagerness to see what the tax tables post-2024/2025 mean for the electric vehicle landscape in the long term, but right now, it’s not a simple case of supply equals demand as there is a shortage of electric vehicle availability. A transition to pure electric fleets becomes far more difficult when there’s not enough vehicles, or none of the right vehicles in the market. “Electrifying cars isn’t really the problem, it’s electrifying vans that is the real problem in the UK as there’s just not enough availability. With the semiconductor issue going on across the globe, wait times for cars and vans in particular are acute and some vehicles are not arriving until the middle of next year now,” Hollick says.


However, Hollick explains that there is high demand across Europe for electric vans and OEMs are trying to upscale their manufacturing sites to keep up with it, so slowly but surely vans should follow the lead of cars in the UK marketplace.


Leading the charge


Just as we aren’t sure how long the BIK tax subsidies will last, Hollick notes that there is a finite pot of money when it comes to charging infrastructure.


“Government grants for new electric cars and vans keeps reducing, as does the amount of money going into installing charge posts. Drivers now only get a subsidy for these if they


www.businesscar.co.uk | March 2022 | 17


live in a flat, showing that as we get through the adopter phase and into the mass market, the government isn’t supporting the uptake of EVs as much as before.”


Hollick believes this initiative towards kerbside charging is an issue because it becomes a societal problem. “It’s become the case that better paid staff have driveways to put home charging units in and the less well paid generally speaking aren’t going to be able to necessarily afford running and leasing a new


ten-year-old banger they have on their drive. Similarly, this move saves the fleet money on national insurance.


“What this means, however, is a clear need for a fleet manager. Whereas before, employees would take the cash and drive their own car, now the company car fleet needs proper management,” says Hollick.


While mileage has been going down, fleet sizes are going up, and with it comes challenges for fleet managers. “Regardless whether the


“Most of our members are seeing more EVs ordered than ICE vehicles now.”


EV and putting a charge point in too. Kerbside charging will be more expensive per kWh than home consumption too, so that means cost per mile is more expensive if you don’t have a driveway.”


The future of the fleet manager Despite Covid meaning cars were doing fewer miles, another trend has come around also due to the change in the tax tables, says Hollick. “What we’ve seen recently is that everyone who had a cash allowance previously wants to come back into a company car scheme. The benefit for employees is that they can tap into a really cheap new zero-carbon vehicle, which would be a sure upgrade from what might be a


fleet outsources some of its activities to external organisations or not, the fleet manager role becomes far more strategic than ever before – they need to understand the core concepts about how they’re buying and how they create competitive tension. Being a fleet manager is not really about how a vehicle runs anymore- an EV only has 50 moving parts compared to over 1,000 on an ICE vehicle,” Hollick explains.


Shared mobility


Alongside the talk within the industry about the transition to electrification, there is also another, perhaps equally important development underway – that of evolving from fleet to mobility strategies.


“To some extent, the pandemic has created a pause in this process because many mobility


Left: Paul Hollick, chairman of the Association of Fleet Professsionals (AFP).


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