The Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) is experiencing a boom in demand with membership numbers up 15% in the last year.

AFP chair Paul Hollick said awareness is growing of the industry body’s work to tackle core fleet issues

The industry body said it was seeing an increase in members right across the board, including both car and van operators, small and large fleets, and a wide diversity of suppliers.

Paul Hollick, APF chair, attributed the rise to a series of factors that include growing awareness of the organisation and its work, along with surging demand from fleets for electrification knowledge and support.

Hollick explained: “With the AFP now in its fifth year of operation since the merger of industry bodies, ACFO and the ICFM, there is a growing awareness across the sector of the energy that we bring to tackling fleet issues, our role as a voice for the industry, and the high level of practical assistance we provide.

“The latter is especially important as fleets continue on the road to electrification. We seem to be at a point in the process where much of the low-hanging fruit has been gathered and we’re now into more of a process of grind. This is especially the case when it comes to vans, where a range of structural issues persist. Many of our new members are struggling in these areas, and looking for help and advice.”

Hollick spotlighted that training has also been an important driver of membership for the AFP, which was a crucial area given that the industry is suffering from a growing skills shortage.

“We’ve highlighted before that we believe an entire generation of high-level fleet expertise will be lost through retirement in the next few years and this means that training the fleet managers of the future is crucial. We are continuing to grow both the number of people that we train and the variety of courses we offer.”

Hollick added that there was considerable potential for AFP membership to continue to expand, which was likely to be achieved by concentrating on core fleet issues.

“We’re now at around 1,600 members but when you consider the number of businesses that operate vehicles in the UK, there is massive scope for further, ongoing growth, which we believe is likely to continue to happen naturally.

“Our aim is to continue to work to tackle the issues that are facing fleets today, especially with a new government now in place. Our list of concerns for the new administration were detailed in our recently launched Tax and Regulation Manifesto, including resolving the 4.25-tonne electric van situation, obtaining Benefit-in-Kind taxation tables to 2030, and providing more support for the used electric vehicle market.”

AFP membership starts at £99 for individuals and £299 for fleet operator companies. A range of memberships are also available for fleet support providers ranging from £299 to £2,000.

Further details are available from administration@theafp.co.uk or by visiting theafp.co.uk.