Show is the answer for those 'vulnerable and alone' fleet managers

FLEET managers feel 'uniquely vulnerable and alone' and crucial to their recognition within their companies is knowledge and information, according to new research. And the primary fleet event for obtaining both the broadest spread and the majority of their information is the annual Fleet Show at Birmingham NEC on April 4-6, 2000.

New research published following in-depth interviews with visitors to the 1999 Fleet Show at Birmingham's NEC reveals that fleet chiefs say they are often 'unpopular within their companies' and are disliked by drivers, a cost headache for financial directors and under pressure from the human resources director. As a consequence, they often occupy 'isolated, lonely positions' in a department which is 'out on a limb'.

Simultaneously, the fleet managers surveyed running fleets of under 100 and more than 100 vehicles are not sufficiently recognised by their employers and, as a result, their jobs should be board level because of the often multi-million pound cost involved in running a fleet and because of the fleet's strategic importance to the business.

It is against that background that fleet managers say 'knowledge is power' and with the face of fleet changing and the fleet community under pressure the challenge for fleet chiefs is to be both forward-thinking and flexible.

The annual Fleet Show, which returns to the NEC for the second time, provides fleet managers with their 'own event' with which they can discuss key issues with other fleet chiefs and, in an industry of change, discuss strategy with leading fleet companies - vehicle manufacturers and service suppliers.