Training Course

About the Training Course

This two-day, in-depth, training course is designed to give fleet managers the tools they need to build or expand their alternatively fueled vehicles with confidence.  The lead presenter is Leo Thomason who has more than twenty years experience in the application of alternative fuels for large and small, public and private fleets throughout the world.  Leo is the lead trainer for all AFVi training programs.

“Greening Your Fleet” is a two-day, intensive training course.  Class size is limited to 35 participants so that the learning environment is intimate and there is plenty of time for questions. Each participant will receive a training manual containing hard copies of the complete curriculum, including forms.

During the training sessions the following elements will be covered, with time allowed for Q&A. A case study will be used at various points in the training to further explore the various steps in greening your fleet.

1. Why AFVs for Your Fleet?
   
2. Understanding Your Fleet - Conducting the Vehicle Inventory
   
3. Understanding Your Fleet Part 2 - Vehicle Applications and Operational Characteristics
   
4. Planning Ahead - Projecting Future Vehicle Needs and Purchases
   
5. Evaluating Fleet Fueling Patterns and Needs
   
6. Examining Alternative Fuel Choices and the Vehicles that Use Them
   
7. Federal Incentives Available Today
   
8. Putting it All Together: Choosing AFVs that are Right for Your Fleet
   
9. Creating the AFV Implementation Plan
   
10. Evaluating Results

Here's just a sample of what you will learn and be able to put to work:

• Real or surreal? The business case for greening your fleet.
  
• The right formula for assessing the impact a fuel and a vehicle option can have on your bottom line.
  
• The four different approaches your organization can take in entering the alternative fuel and vehicle market.
  
• How to analyze the variables in answering the question: What’s the right alternative fuel for our fleet today and for the future?
  
• The seven step process for assessing your fleet and whether alternative fuels are right for you.
  
• Who to believe: How to navigate the booming information quagmire surrounding alternative fuels and vehicles.
  
• How to unwind previous vehicle and fuel decisions that just aren’t working.
  
• The five variables to consider in making light-duty and heavy-duty alternative fuel choices.
  
• The seven operational issues you must consider before gauging which alternative fuel will work for you.
  
• How to analyze the five fleet fueling issues that will help dictate your fuel and vehicle choices.
  
• Get the step-by-step process for applying for and securing federal purchase incentives.
  
• How to choose when two options will both seemingly work for your fleet.
  
• Four key evaluation criteria and the tools you need to measure each when you add alternative fuel vehicles to your fleet.

Who Should Attend and Why

You’ll benefit most by attending this training if you are a:

• Fleet manager, purchasing agent or other decision maker in a private or public fleet.
  
• CEO or CFO of a small- to mid-size private fleet.
  
• Fleet decision maker who is being asked to “green your fleet” and are unsure what options to pursue.
  
• Fleet manager who has made alternative fuel vehicle purchases but is unclear whether you have made the right choice.
  
• Fleet manager who wants a framework to guide fuel and vehicle choices that make bottom line sense.
  
• Fleet leasing company representative who needs to understand alternative fuel vehicles and how to guide customers.
  
• Fleet manager who already is involved with alternative fuels and needs to develop a long-term implementation plan.
  
• Industry stakeholder who needs to know the processes fleets use in purchasing vehicles.

Special Benefits of Attending:

Expert seminar leaders...
Leo and Annalloyd Thomason each have over two decades working in the alternative fuel and vehicle industry. They know the subject inside and out and are experienced and accomplished presenters.
A proven matrix for making good decisions...
You will get a decision matrix to use in discerning fact from fiction and in making solid and well considered decisions that are right for your organization.
Fuel and vehicle neutral information...
AFVi is the only fuel neutral organization providing training and conferences in the industry. You benefit by getting factual and unbiased information and analyses. No hype, no promotion of one fuel or vehicle technology over others!
Nuts and bolts, practical information you can put to work...
You will get solid information, strategies and analyses that you can put to work immediately in making decisions for your organization.
The questions to ask and the questions to ignore...
In assessing fuel and vehicle options and in making the business case for alternative fuels.
A road map to traverse the maze of federal purchase incentives...
We’ll help you determine whether federal purchase incentives will work for you and provide the links to help you apply.
A powerful, practical simulation exercise...
You will work through a simulation that will make you fully prepared to go home and apply what you have learned.
Networking...
With other fleet operators from across the country, affording the opportunity to learn how others are addressing alternative fuels and vehicles.
A three-ringed binder training and reference manual...
Complete with forms and checklists that you can use immediately when you return home.

Review of the Previous Sessions

In the last six months, this course was completed in Chicago, Illinois; Mt. Laurel, New Jersey; and in Orange, California. When attendees were asked what they liked best about the training, one simply said, "I learned how to develop my answers on how to green my fleet." Other attendees added that they liked the:

• Overview of fuels and vehicle types and the strategies and options
• Presentation – sound data and open forum
• Maps indicating the locations where alternative fuels are available
• Information on what’s available in my area and my class of vehicles
• Opportunity of sharing real experiences with instructors and other participants
• Format that can be taken back and utilized
• Presentation – it flowed and allowed comprehension
• Detailed information on each AFV option – both the technology and the manufacturers
• Background of the instructors

The companies that sent attendees to this training include:

Airport Express ARI Arvig Communication Systems Bimbo Bakeries USA Bozzuto's Inc. California Water Service Company Casella Waste Systems City of Arcadia City of Corpus Christi City of Costa Mesa City of Dallas City of Kent City of Norfolk City of Oceanside County of Kern Flex Fuel USA

GE Great River Energy Hoffman Beverage Co. Inc. Johnsonville Trucking LLC Lake County Mississippi State University Mount Prospect Public Works Dept Nebraska Public Power District Orange County Sanitation District Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach South Alabama Reg'l Planning Commission Special Transit University of California, Irvine U.S. Food Service University of Alberta