Hello, my name is Will Reeves and I’m the new Commercial Vehicle & Bus and Coach Section Manager at SMMT, taking over from Nigel Base, who has retired after 11 years in the job.
I’ve worked in the industry for the last 18 years, beginning at the Society of Operations Engineers with responsibility for technician training and workshop standards, before moving to Logistics UK, where I helped to develop relationships with vehicle manufactures and component suppliers to raise their profile in the logistics industry.
I’m joining SMMT at a pivotal moment for the automotive industry, including commercial and passenger carrying vehicles.
One of my favourite quotes that captures the significance of this is, “there needs to be the same amount of innovation over the next 120 months as there has been over the past 120 years”.
Indeed, the next decade will see a scale of innovation not seen since the Space Race, and while this is clearly an exceptional challenge with great consequences, it can be achieved with collaboration from the whole industry.
We all need to work together for us to accelerate to Net Zero, directly including vehicle manufacturers, operators, specialist parts suppliers, power suppliers, planning authorities, civil engineers, mathematicians, training providers, government bodies, and trade associations – which is where I come in – as well as the many sectors of Britain’s economy that are closely aligned to UK Automotive and must undergo industry-wide decarbonisation too.
I’m looking forward to working with the CV and bus and coach sectors as they develop their new technologies to meet their specific challenges, and helping SMMT with its crucial work to promote the industry to stakeholders and the British public.
This will involve editorial pieces for Transport News Brief which, as I’m sure you know, discusses the latest news, topics and companies in the CV and bus and coach space.
So, join me every Thursday at 4pm as I touch on the headline news coming each week – the industry promises to have a very exciting and interesting period ahead.
Will Reeves, SMMT Commercial Vehicle & Bus and Coach Section Manager
