Speakers

Robin Dickeson was the manager, commercial vehicle affairs for the SMMT after joining in October 2000. He was responsible for the Society’s commercial vehicle affairs, including policy development, media and government contact. He also specifically acted for van, truck, trailer maker and bodybuilder members and for commercial vehicle racking makers, as well as the Society’s commercial vehicle aftermarket and dealer. Robin has also been involved with the UK government's Road Haulage Forum and the Commission for Integrated Transport’s recent van study.

In 2000, Robin started Transport News Brief, the SMMT’s weekly e-mail newsletter. This goes electronically to over 53,000 named subscribers each week. An average of two or more ‘pass on’ readers for each suggests there are around 150,000 readers, making it probably the most widely read news source of its type in the UK.

Robin joined the publicity department of Scammell Lorries Limited in 1968 and has since worked for Daf Trucks, Scania, Leyland Vehicles, Leyland Daf and Renault Trucks in the UK. Most of his work has involved press and public relations, sales promotion and advertising for vans, trucks, trailers and the commercial vehicle aftermarket.

Robin has now left the SMMT and works as a consultant in the automotive industry.

Joe joined BT Fleet as Sales and Marketing Director in April 2011 with a strong remit to build a new sales team and grow external revenues. He worked previously as Sales Director for BT Redcare Group where he generated new sales into existing surveillance markets and was instrumental in creating and growing a new Security Solutions business over the previous three years.

Other senior sales roles in BT included General Manager within BT’s Indirect Channel recruiting and working with over 100 partners in the channel and as General Manager within BT Business where he was responsible for creating new collaborative programmes to serve BT’s SME customers.

Joe’s early career was spent with BT and from the late 1970’s to 1990 he worked in various engineering specialisms including quality assurance, high volume repair and calibration.

Outside of BT, Joe has worked for Danish Group, Great Nordic and was Deputy Managing Director of their UK subsidiary GN Nettest.

Joe is married with four sons and enjoys golf, sports and outdoor activities. In September 2005, Joe and his wife Eve cycled the 966 miles from John O’Groats to Lands End in 18 days raising over £3,000 for charity.

Based in the UK, Martin has over 10 years experience in the development and exploitation of GPS and telematics products and applications.

As Insurance Vertical Development Manager for Trimble, Martin has responsibility for developing Trimble’s offer to the Insurance market building on his expertise within the insurance community in Pay As You Drive insurance (PAYD) and Fleet Telematics.

Before joining Trimble, Martin ran his own specialist consulting business focusing on Telematics and insurance/risk management propositions. He was also an associate partner of PTOLEMUS Consulting Group.

Martin was also Director of Innovation for Masternaut ThreeX Ltd, leading their product management function and launching a range of product innovations including CANbus, RFID/GPS integration, and VisuLive a Business Intelligence platform integrating Vehicle Tracking Scheduling data.

Before Masternaut Martin worked for Norwich Union / Aviva most notably as Head of Operations for the Pay As You Drive Insurance and Fleet Telematics propositions. Martin was responsible for the end to end service delivery from installation through to billing and data management. In his long career at Norwich Union, Martin was at the leading edge of innovation creating a virtual Wealth Management operation, a bespoke traffic and travel innovation and creating the UK’s first 24x7 Total Incident Management operation across Motor, Home and Commercial Insurances. Martin cut his teeth within the claims function at Norwich Union and is passionate about the benefits that Telematics can bring to claims management.

Martin graduated from Lancashire Polytechnic with a degree in Law, holds the prestige FCII and DipM qualifications for the Chartered Insurance Institute and Chartered Institute of Marketing. Martin is a Prince2 qualified practitioner.

Steve has over 20 years experience in the fleet industry, specialising in the management of commercial vehicles. At LeasePlan he advises clients on all services from operations and maintenance, to risk management and Duty of Care. Steve previously held senior roles at Ford and LEX, and also worked with EuroTax to develop a future residual value guide as part of a European wide project for RV forecasting.

Kevin was born in the USA and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business & Marketing from Northeastern University in Boston as well as a diploma in International Economics from the European School of Business in Germany, where he finished his studies. Kevin began his career at Bosch Automotive in Germany before moving to England in 2008 to start with Shell in the development of quality fuel offerings for on- and off-road applications across Europe.

In his current role as the Shell FuelSave Partner account manager Kevin works closely with Shell transport customers in the UK to help better manage fuel and reduce consumption & CO2 by up to 10%.
 

Steve has worked his way up through the ranks at Chevin. After joining in 1993, he swiftly rose from an administrator, right through support, development, sales and on to his present role as project manager. Steve’s first-hand knowledge of each stage of the fleet management process means that as a project manager, responsible for implementing Chevin’s solutions, he is able to deliver top-class products and services, on time and on budget.

Since joining as CEO in 1997, Gavin Whichello took the ex-Exel business from deep in the red to a resulting close £20m turnover in 2010, a substantial improvement on previous years.

His experience includes working in credible public and private technology companies on both sides of the Atlantic, including Ashton-Tate (dBase), Ansa (Paradox), P&P Micro Computers Plc, Norton (Norton Utilities), Borland (Turbo Basic, Quattro Pro) Gupta (SQL Base & SQL Windows) and Winmail, Europe’s leading messaging company of which he was co-founder. More recently Gavin has funded fast growth technology businesses, and taken the lead executive role to aid those in the early stages of development prior to public offering.

An academic at heart, he left the world of study in 1980 where he was a senior lecturer in Computer Science. He went onto found Training International which became one of the largest PC training companies in the UK’, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1987.

He now proudly sits as CEO at Isotrak, which prides itself on up to the minute innovation which saves its customers likes Sainsbury’s, Ada, Tesco as well as some of the UKs largest hauliers Eddie Stobart and Wincanton, £100m a year through maximising efficiencies and slashing fuel bills.

The company is set to meet further customer demands whilst securing new business in all areas increasing growth plans for the year ahead, and with 100% of UK letters tracked by the Isotrak system via the Royal Mail, it is attention to the van and light commercial vehicle market while moving forward with plans to expand into the US whilst it’s UK base continues to grow.

Started my working life as a mechanic and joined local government in 1977. Over 33 years experience with local authority fleet management including 28 years at senior fleet manager level.

Currently fleet manager for St Edmundsbury Borough Council with additional responsibility for fleet management at neighbouring Forest Heath District Council through a shared services partnership agreement. Role includes all aspect of fleet management from procurement, through maintenance to disposal and includes management of the council’s car fleet.

Founder and board manager of the Public Authority Transport Network (PATN) - the UK's largest dedicated professional fleet managers networking group hosted by the Freight Transport Association.

Chair of the Local Government Fleet Strategy Team led by the Cabinet Office Efficiency Reform Group (ERG)

Winner of the Vehicle and Plant Technology Gold Award 2006 and Motorvate Member of the Year 2010.
 

Adrian is well known amongst road safety professionals as director of RoadSafe, a high level independent forum established by the leading companies in the motor and transport industries in Britain to reduce road deaths and injuries by supporting and encouraging partnerships between the motor industry and related companies.

Since establishing RoadSafe in 2002, he has worked to share good road safety knowledge. He is a member of the UK’s ministerial advisory panel on road safety and leads the Department for Transport - backed ‘Driving for Better Business campaign - a business to business network of champions to promote good driving at work practice. His international work has included the establishment of the Global Transport Knowledge Partnership – gTKP, an innovative partnership of global organisations, local policy-makers, experts providing a free source of universal transport knowledge. The development of the Road Safety toolkit in partnership with iRAP and the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility.

He is chairman of the UN Road Safety Collaboration working group on Occupational Road Safety and a well known figure in the international road safety community, as a speaker and through his leadership of the Prince Michael International Road Safety awards scheme.

Bob Saynor manages the Energy Saving Trust’s Smarter Driving Training programme, which provides subsidised driver training for companies’ employees. Bob has previously worked as a Research Associate at Imperial College and as a consultant for a transport consultancy, and has managed a range of other transport projects at the Energy Saving Trust.

Andy Heiron is the Head of the Electric Vehicle Programme for Renault UK. Andy, 44, has held this position since late 2009. He has worked for Renault UK for 22 years holding a number of senior positions in advertising, services and quality, fleet sales and regional management.

The commitment to electric vehicles is a key strategic one for the company with an investment of £3.5 billion and with 1,000 staff engaged in the programme

Enterprise is a major support services company that maintains the infrastructure throughout the UK in the areas of Utilities, Local Government and Central Government. Enterprise currently provides jobs for over 13,000 employees and operatives across 170 sites throughout the UK delivering services to over 15 million people.

Enterprise works at the centre of people’s lives, providing essential daily services. Our teams help people in their homes to access clean water, use the telephone, have a safe gas supply and receive power. We also work in local communities to collect the refuse, clean the streets, resurface the highways and maintain parkland.

John Farrell has overall responsibility for Enterprise Fleet and Plant. This is the internal asset management business that facilitates the provision and on-going management of circa 7,500 vehicles and 23,000 items of plant to Enterprise and its customers. It also includes transportation services as diverse as school meals provision and home to school transportation.

John has over 20 years’ experience in Asset Management and has held senior Board positions and interim roles, including consultation to utilities companies and local government, and Managing Director of an FN50 Vehicle Rental company.
 

James Hookham is Managing Director – Policy and Communications of the Freight Transport Association. 

FTA represents and serves the transport interests of over 14,000 British businesses. James is responsible for the development of FTA membership and policy campaigning and FTA’s extensive range of information and advice services for members. He is a graduate in environmental science from the University of Bradford and holds a Masters degree from the University of Manchester.
 

Alan has nearly 38 years experience in the motor industry. He took a summer job at the tender age of 16 and never left the industry! After a traditional motor trade apprenticeship he joined the Ministry of Defence to repair a selection of the vehicles that soldiers broke. Following a career move to Transport, Alan has had a varied contribution to road safety including type approval, heavy vehicle testing, the MOT scheme, accident investigation, vehicle safety recalls and even a spell as a trade union representative. As part of his current role Alan is VOSA’s policy head for the MOT scheme, based in Bristol, working very closely with officials at the Department for Transport’s head offices in London.

Alan’s a family man who has interests both broad and sometimes risky. Off-roading, motorcycling, shooting and pyrotechnics are all activities in his portfolio. Now approaching his twilight years and realising the limitations that age can bring, Alan has taken up golf and is currently struggling to learn the banjo.
 

Truck salesman, sales manager, dealership general manager.

Export manager and UK sales manager Veeder-Root Tachographs.

Sales manager and marketing director for Romatic Ltd until new ownership by AutoKontrol Ltd in 2001.

Pete currently leads the HSE team responsible for developing and delivering policy and interventions in three topic areas: workplace transport, work-related violence and musculoskeletal disorders.

Pete has worked in HSE since 1991; most of his time has been as a Health and Safety Inspector, working in London and the North West. He has inspected a range of industries including manufacturing, agriculture and construction. He has also worked in the policy environment, covering domestic and European topics.