Openness of data and dashboard reporting helps GMs and CEOs make better decisions.

This was one of the key take away messages that was conveyed by DC Water Fleet Director Tim Fitzgerald at the inaugural IPWEA Australasian Fleet Conference held last week in Brisbane. Tim focussed on how he saw his role morphing from an operational manager to a communications manager where a key element of his success was converting the complex data associated with fleet and water management for Washington DC into easily understood dashboards that were shared with everyone.

“There is no point in having massive amounts of valuable data if it’s not used and presented in a way that helps others to do their job better,” Tim emphasised. 

Tim explained that once he’d opened up the data black box, he had much greater buy-in from his GM because they could discuss issues using the dashboard as a common language.

His operators also received real time reporting to enable them to do their job better by adjusting work needs and outputs the reflect the data trends. Another added bonus was that he was not locked down to his office desk. The dashboards could be viewed anywhere in the world and this allowed him to monitor, support and to have accountability across his team. 

“IPWEA’s Fleet Conference was a roaring success!”: not our headline – but the one used by Fleet Auto News, the industry’s leading on-line media source that covered the conference. Almost 140 attendees were gushing with their praise for the quality of speakers, the targeted content, and the richness and breadth of topics specifically addressing the fleet sector. It was perhaps best summed up by delegates’ feedback: “this was a genuine fleet conference - presented by the fleet industry for the fleet industry – thanks IPWEA.”

Hearty congratulations are in order to the IPWEA Fleet Council, Fleet Director Ross Moody, and Fleet Manager Robert Wilson for presenting a really meaningful conference.  In case your Fleet Manager didn’t make it to this conference, I announced that we will be holding our next Fleet conference around the same time next year in Sydney. 

I suggest you put a note in your diary now: missing out on this year’s fleet conference might have been unfortunate, but to miss out on next year’s would be remiss.     

Robert Fuller 
CEO, IPWEA Australasia