Features
21 May 19

Arno Veenman is Dutch Mobility Manager of the Year

At the 19th edition of the Fleet Mobility Live event in The Netherlands, Arno Veenman won the Mobility Manager of the Year award. Mr Veenman is advisor HR expertise at De Volksbank.

Daan Bieleveld, DSM, jury president said the jury was impressed by the nominations, who all defended very different programmes and policies, focusing on all aspects of mobility.

Mr Veenman implemented a policy focusing on reducing overall CO2 emissions for his company by 50% by 2020. This was a very ambitious target that required important steps. For lease cars, for instance, electric cars were decided to be the default option. Indeed, over the last two years, only 5 non-electric cars were added to the fleet. To date, 95 of the 270 cars in the bank’s fleet are already electric.

“When you try to implement such a major change, it is important to lead by example. That’s why top management was the first to adopt electric vehicles,” commented Mr Veenman.

Jeroen Brink, Advisor mobility, Alliander was another finalist. He agreed the main challenge today is the energy transition.

The third and final finalist, Tamara Gieze, HR & Facility Manager, Arup, said her aim was to make her company’s mobility policy future proof. She did that by introducing more mobility options, including a first-class train pass. Ms Gieze also emphasised it is important to stay agile and flexible.

“A myth I had to fight, was that new staff find lease cars important. That is no longer the case,” said Ms Gieze.

During the closing ceremony, the presenter looked back on the last time he attended Fleet Mobility Live, seven years ago. Things had changed enormously since that time, he reminisced. People were now actually implementing electric cars. A woman was one of the finalists for Mobility Manager of the Year. Rather than an indication of the progress already made, this last statement was a reminder that much more still needs to be done in various fields of fleet and mobility.

Image: finalist Jeroen Brink, winner Arno Veenman, finalist Tamara Gieze

Authored by: Benjamin Uyttebroeck