Rob Wilson – Manager IPWEA FLEET

As I write this I’m sitting in the airport waiting to catch a plane home after our inaugural IPWEA Australasian Fleet Conference in Brisbane 23 – 25 May. We had a great spread of delegates from around the country and even overseas and a great program of knowledgeable presenters. We are also very appreciative of all our sponsors and exhibitors that supported the conference.

While there were a lot of highlights, I think the thing that struck me was the thirst for knowledge. For the delegates, there was a palpable desire to be well informed and equipped to meet the challenges and opportunities they face. From a supplier perspective, they relished the opportunity to learn more about the challenges their customers face and how they can help.

For me the conference presentations and discussions also demonstrated a number of traits that are required in today’s fleet manager. They include;

• Being systematic – having good processes and applying them methodically and diligently
• Being focused – understanding and sharing common objectives with our customers and end users
• Being collaborative - working as a business partner to deliver necessary outcomes, and
• Using technology – strategically in ways that support defined objectives.

For all those that attended – thanks for coming along and we look forward to seeing you next year. For those who couldn’t make it – start planning now for 2018 and we hope to see you there.

See what our delegates, sponsors, exhibitors and FLEET Council had to say about the conference: 

Michael Borg, Fleet Manager Rockhampton Regional Council

This has been fantastic, I’ve been to plenty of fleet conferences before and this is probably at the forefront.

The topics are more related to the actual core work that we do than leasing or some of the other financial stuff that we see at other fleet conferences.

This is more on the technical side and more of the kind of stuff we have to deal with every day.

The dual stream was fantastic, it’s catering to different types of manager. All of the presentations were well-researched and topical.

Peter Harmon

Redlands City Council, Fleet Workshop Supervisor

Absolutely blown away, a lot of thought has obviously gone into it. I’ve been to so many fleet conferences over the years, but this one covered everything and they understand that we look after everything from brush cutters to bulldozers. It was very informative – overall, ten out of ten.

I was very emotional when I read about the awards ceremony, because there is no fleet recognition program anywhere. For up and coming young people, you need to give them a boost to stay, and this is the perfect venue and opportunity to do that, so I’m really impressed by that.

Great networking opportunities, and I could have listened to [keynote speaker] Tim [Fitzgerald] all day, unbelievably awesome. 

Steve Scott
Goondiwindi Regional Council, Co-ordinator Fleet Services,

The section on the grey fleet was really good, it showed you the things you need to look out for in your policies so that you’re actually covered. We can take it back to our council and say this is not just me talking, this is the industry. I found it very informative, I got a lot out of it.

Kurt Lingohr

PoolCar Founder, Platinum Sponsor 

I think it was incredibly well done, it was really good.

[We got in touch with the right people]– FLEET is what they do, they’re at the day-to-day coal face, and they’re the kind of issues that we solve.

In some of the conferences where you’re isolated from the delegates you don’t really know what kind of information they’re hearing, so listening to the presenters gives you a real insight.

David Gladding

Chevin, Conference Supporter Plus 

The speakers were great and very relevant, on point in terms of the subject matter, the topics of conversation were varied enough to make them interesting.

I’m glad we were involved, and I think the association with IPWEA and our brand will do us a lot of good in the longer term.  

The question I’ve been asking myself during this conference is I wonder what would have happened if we weren’t here, because it’s so relevant to fleet and fleet councils. The major player is AusFleet, that’s our big competitors and it would have looked like they were the only one on the market if we weren’t here, so from that perspective it was invaluable. 

Steve Colliver
FLEET Council Chair

I think overall, it’s been a great success. The point of difference is that it’s by the industry, for the industry, and pretty much everyone said that right throughout the conference. The exhibitors are saying that the guys they’ve spoken to are the ones they want to speak to, these are the decision makers here. I think the design of the conference has been really spot-on in terms of hitting the relevant topics of the day, and I think it’s been well-supported by everyone. I’ve been really pleased with it.  

Ross Moody

FLEET Director 

It’s exceeded expectations. I’ve had feedback about the content and the excellent interaction between the delegates and exhibitors.

#FleetPlantManagement