Pictured: Thilo von Ulmenstein, Managing Partner of fleetcompetence europe GmbH
For the fifth year, the International Fleet Meeting took place as part of the Geneva International Motor Show. Participants were hosted by top-class speakers including Michael Müller, Senior Director Head of Mobility & Facilities, Daiichi Sankyo Europe GmbH, and Marc A. Odinius, Managing Director, Dataforce GmbH. An exciting panel discussion and opportunities for informal networking rounded off the event.
March 8th, the second media day of the motor show, was dedicated to the fleet sector where 250 fleet managers and representatives of the automotive, leasing and service industries from all over the world met at the International Fleet Meeting. The two co-organizers, fleetcompetenceeurope GmbH and the Swiss fleet magazine aboutFLEET, offerred the international fleet industry ia unique, English-speaking platform.
In his presentation, Michael Müller introduced Daiichi Sankyo’s new mobility concept. With this concept, the pharmaceutical company is breaking new ground: for example, employees receive a so-called mobility budget. This allows the combination of different forms of mobility, which, according to Müller, benefits both the companies and the environment, as well as the employees. The employees are free to choose the mobility budget or, alternatively, to continue driving a company car. He noted that about 25 percent of Daiichi Sankyo employees are not using company vehicles
Then, Marc A. Odinius gave an exciting insight into the trends of the European fleet market. According to the latest Dataforce statistics, SUVs are in vogue with companies, alternative-powered company vehicles are also on the upswing, while diesel will continue to lose market share. Addtionally, mobility behavior (e.g. utilization of vehicles) is facing fundamental changes in order to ensure mobility in the future, according to Odinius.
The subsequent panel discussion moderated by Thilo von Ulmenstein, Managing Partner of fleetcompetence europe GmbH, was joined by Hervé Girardot, Head of Arval Consulting & Corporate Vehicle Observatory, as well as Stuart Donnelly, Senior Director – Group International Sales Northern Europe & USA at Sixt. As per a representative survey of 3000 fleet managers, according to Girardot, the majority of respondents said they were open to alternative fleet vehicles. However, only two percent of fleet manager would give up their own company vehicle. Müller countered that this was because of a lack of alternatives. If mobility options were going to turn out more attractive in the future, more employees would give up a vehicle voluntarily. On this, Donnelly pointed out that not using a car is not least dependent on the topography and the culture of each particular country. The panel discussion was followed up by questions from the audience before the fifth International Fleet Meeting came to a successful end with food, drinks, and a lot of networking.
The International Fleet Meeting 2018 was supported by the gold sponsors Arval and Alphabet as well as the silver sponsors Chevin, FleetLogistics, fleet.tech, Hertz, Sixt Leasing, Socar, Traxall, and Volkswagen Financial Services AG. Additionally, the IFM was able to count on the media partnership with Aegfa, Autoflotte, China Automotive Review, FleetEurope, Fleet Magazine, Fleet Management Weekly, Fleet&Mobility, Flotila, Flottes Automobiles, FLOTTE&Wirtschaft, International Fleet World, Menadzer Floty, and Mission Fleet.
Mark Your Calendars: 6th International Fleet Meeting Geneva: March 6, 2019
www.internationalfleetmeeting.com.
