Profit is theme for CM's 1980 Conference
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BOOKINGS are now being accepted for the 1980 Fleet Management Conference. The date is October 9; the place is The Royal Lancaster, London; and the fee £40 + vat, which includes registration, manuals, coffee, cocktails, lunch and tea.
This is a one-day conference from 9.30am till 4.30pm. There are four papers on the theme of Profit. Previous delegates to FCM should have received their advance booking forms — general registration is now open.
Sir Dan Pettit, lately chairman of National Freight Corporation, is the conference chairman. He knows the industry and the industry knows him. Under his chairmanship the programme coheres, but keeps strictly to its allotted time. He encourages and stimulates that most essential conference ingredient — open discussion.
The speakers are all road transport men who are specialists in their own particular fields. Delegates will receive a synopsis of their papers in advance and an invitation to submit a written question on the papers.
Following the presentation of each paper there will be about 25 minutes for questions and discussion.
In addition to the papers we have an item of added interest. British Road Services recently introduced Datafreight to their range of services. In its simplest form the service provides backload information for its member customers — that means operators who have joined the scheme.
On October 9 delegates to FMC will be able to see the system at work, get more detailed information and join the scheme. But that is the bonus.
The business of the day starts off with a paper presented by Ron Cater who was for a time CM's assistant technical editor and is now Volvo's sales development manager in the UK. Ron is one of the most highly skilled "driver convertors'' in the country. He says "Even the most experienced driver can improve on his fuel consumption".
Ron will present his theory and then take a driver on the road for about 200 miles. At the end of the Conference he will report on the fuel savings the driver achieves after two hours' "conversion". Ron's paper is Driving for Profit. We break for coffee after this, and no doubt the discussion will go on.
"Does the industry really get the management it requires or is it the one it deserves?" asks Mr Paige. He will present a paper to help find the answer. After lunch A. J. P. (Tony) Wilding, former CM technical editor and chief engineer of FTA and,, more recently, erstwhile product manager of Fiat, UK, presents his paper. Tony knows how to build a specification for a vehicle better than most. "Too many operators underspecify either through ignorance or by intent, to save money," he argues. He will demonstrate how to avoid the pitfalls of underspecification. Buying for Profit is the title of Tony's presentation.
In the second paper after lunch Nick Buckley. Renault Truck's (UK) marketing director, will look at the prospect of a European vehicle. With fewer manufacturers, less models and more rationalisation "Will the operator profit from a smaller vehicle manufacturing market?"' We have asked Nick Buckley to provide the answers in a paper entitled Profit from Rationalisation.
At 4.30pm we break for tea, informal discussion and departure.
We are submitting the programme to the RTITB for consideration for a training grant.
Registration forms should be returned to the conference organiser, Christine Jones, but do not send the fee — we will supply a vat invoice.