Minister Van Ardenne opens Inter-Agency Global Fleet Forum in Amsterdam
28 October 2004 - 10:13 CET
This morning, the Dutch Minister for Development Co-operation, Agnes van Ardenne opened the second Fleet Forum, which takes place in Amsterdam today and tomorrow. Over 60 participants of 32 humanitarian organisations will attend the Fleet Forum. In her speech, the minister said: "if you join forces to deal with matters like maintenance, spare parts and road savety, you will boost efficiency and quality even more."The Fleet Forum is a joint initiative by the International Federation of the Red Cross, the World Food Programme and World Vision International, who together represent a wide humanitarian community of the Red Cross/ Red Crescent movement, the United Nations and the Non Governmental Organisations (NGO's).
Through their partnership with the United Nations World Food programme, the global Mail, Express and Logistics company TNT, co-organises and supports this event.
The objective of the Forum is to bring together technical experts who are directly responsible for vehicle fleet management within humanitarian agencies to discuss common challenges, share best practice, develop appropriate solutions, mobilise expertise and record learning.
Topics that will be covered during these two days are Road Safety, Training, Fleet Management Systems, Transport for development and setting of standards.
Road circumstances are usually very rough in the locations where the humanitarian organisations are operating, resulting in short life cycles of vehicles, equipment and accessories, as well as spare parts and especially, tyres.
Humanitarian transport and vehicle fleet management plays an important strategic support role in provision of development and relief services. Vehicles represent a major proportion of an aid organisation's assets and operational costs. Despite its importance, Fleet management is often lacking recognition when compared with the commercial sector.
Together, the organisations that were represented in the first Fleet Forum in 2003 operate a fleet of over 45,000 vehicles, representing an asset value of over 800 million USD! This number represents the second biggest operational cost factor (after staff costs) in the humanitarian world. Both large and smaller organisations represented use the Fleet Forum as a means to discuss potential to increase their effectiveness and efficiency.
In order to encourage agencies to voice their opinions and share knowledge and experience on road transport operations, a joint initiative was taken by former fleet managers from the International Federation of the Red Cross, the World Food Programme and World Vision International to convene the Fleet Forum, resulting in a first Forum organised in Geneva in October 2003.
The last Fleet Forum in 2003 has resulted in various initiatives where Forum members worked together including combined airlifts to Sudan and Chad, joint research on Fleet Management Systems and the establishment of generic vehicle specifications to allow for joint purchasing synergies.
The Fleet Forum aims to become an institute for humanitarian Fleet Managers. Parallel to this year's Forum, a web site and discussion platform was launched to promote ongoing discussion and knowledge sharing between the participants.
