South Africa’s fleet management landscape has entered a defining new chapter with the official debut of the Association of Fleet Professionals South Africa (AFP-SA), which launched its inaugural event on Thursday through a high-impact virtual panel discussion that brought together some of the country’s most influential voices in the sector.
Positioned as the first professional body of its kind dedicated exclusively to fleet management in South Africa, AFP-SA opened its account with a webinar titled AFP: The conversation starts here, a statement that quickly proved fitting as the discussion unfolded into a wide-ranging exploration of the pressures, disruptions, and opportunities reshaping the industry.
AFP President Eugene Herbert described the session as setting a clear tone of urgency and substance, drawing fleet managers, service providers, and automotive specialists into a focused exchange on the realities facing South African fleets. He noted that the engagement signalled strong appetite for a dedicated platform where professionals in the sector can connect, learn, and be represented in a structured way for the first time.
At the heart of the discussion were three defining forces currently shaping fleet operations in the country. The first was the sustained pressure of fuel costs, which continues to weigh heavily on operational budgets and demands constant strategic attention from fleet operators navigating an unpredictable energy environment.
The second theme explored the rapid emergence of new original equipment manufacturers entering the market, a shift that is actively reshaping competitive dynamics, procurement strategies, and long-term planning across the automotive value chain.
These challenges were further contextualised within South Africa’s broader and more complex transition toward new energy vehicles, where infrastructure constraints, cost considerations, and operational realities intersect to create a uniquely challenging pathway for fleet electrification and decarbonisation.
The panel brought together a cross-section of industry authority to interrogate these issues from multiple vantage points. Thembinkosi Pantsi, CEO and Founder of the Tedcar Motor Group and National Vice-Chairperson of NADA, contributed both policy-level insight and dealership-grounded experience, offering a dual perspective on how macroeconomic pressures translate into day-to-day commercial realities.
Hideki “Dex” Machida, Automotive Sector Leader at KPMG and a key driver of the firm’s Mobility 2030 research, introduced a data-led perspective anchored in total cost of ownership modelling, comparing battery electric vehicles and internal combustion engines through real-world performance and cost scenarios, while also drawing on practical exposure to EV adoption trends.
Jacques Greeff, Chief Operations Officer at Optix Group, shifted the focus toward operational execution, examining how fleet technologies, fuel management systems, and emerging AI-driven tools are being deployed in practice, alongside a candid assessment of their current limitations in complex operating environments.
The event also marked an important organisational milestone for AFP-SA itself, as newly appointed General Manager Nigel Webb formally introduced the association’s purpose, structure, and early-stage value proposition. His presentation outlined AFP-SA’s intention to support fleet professionals through education, structured engagement, and industry development initiatives, while also highlighting the critical role fleets play in sustaining broader economic activity.
Webb emphasised that the organisation is not simply reflecting the current state of the industry, but actively shaping its future trajectory. In his view, AFP-SA is designed to support the evolution of fleet professionals into more strategic, data-driven, and future-ready decision-makers, equipped to navigate the sector’s accelerating transformation.
As the inaugural webinar concluded, it left behind a clear signal: AFP-SA is positioning itself not merely as an observer of industry change, but as an active catalyst within it, seeking to unify a fragmented professional landscape while equipping its members for the complexities ahead.
