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Driving personal development at the 2019 Fleet Conference

By intouch * posted 10-04-2019 09:08

  

Focusing on strategy, resources and performance, the third IPWEA Australasian Fleet Conference was the largest yet, with more than 200 attendees and a jam-packed exhibition hall.


IMG_0089.jpgFleet professionals converged on the Brisbane Royal International Convention Centre from 25–27 March to learn from a top line-up of expert speakers, network with their peers and check out the latest the industry has to offer.

The conference was supported by the best of the industy, with Platinum Sponsor Hino, Gold Sponsor Volvo, Silver Sponsor Isuzu Trucks, Premium Sponsor Teletrac Navman, Bronze Sponsors Hidrive and Wex, IPWEA Platinum Partner Komatsu and Media Partner Fleet Auto News.

We caught up with delegate Jess Hodges from Roadtek, who said she was keen to attend the next conference and would recommend it to her colleagues.

“I’ve really enjoyed it – it’s been great meeting a lot of the suppliers and making new contacts with people in the fleet management industry. I found the risky business session, where Duncan [Ferguson, Co-Founder and CEO of FleetRisk] spoke about insurance issues in the industry and how to help manage those issues. I deal directly with insurance claims so I found that related directly to myself,” she said.

“Meeting with some of the suppliers that we deal with, making new contacts in the industry and meeting some of the female fleet managers was really beneficial for me.”

IMG_0437.jpgFor Bradley Foan from Tenterfield Shire Council, receiving guidance on issues around Chain of Responsibility (COR) was the one of the conference highlights.

“The session that probably impacted me the most was the one on COR, last year there was a bit on COR as well, but this one the industry’s had a little over 12 months to work out where our failings are. That was beneficial and Dean Gutteridge’s [Fleet Manager, Gold Coast City Council] presentation on operator competencies and the way he’s going about that was also beneficial. I’ll take that to our safety officer – as far as inductions from a fleet perspective we’ve probably covered off on it okay, but in line with COR we’ve noticed a fairly big gap in making sure our drivers are actually healthy. We have a responsibility under COR to make sure our truck drivers aren’t likely to have a heart attack on us while they’re driving,” he said.

“We need to document and show we’re on top of that. That’s something we need to action and now I can pretty much deliver that to my WH&S risk manager.”

IPWEA FLEET Manager Robert Wilson said the practical nature of this year’s program had hit the spot for delegates.

“We’ve had increased numbers again this year – total attendees up around 200, which is fantastic. IMG_0360.jpgThere are a lot of great presentations and a lot of presentations that relate to fleet management issues, especially a number of case studies. As we’ve seen from the interaction with the audience and the speakers, they’ve been really well received. People are picking up on some of the main ones, where they can take the information back to their own workshop,” he said.

“We tailored the program to focus on issues we know fleet managers are facing today and that’s really hit the spot, especially risk management, compliance-type factors. We had a session on managing the human factors in risk and another on managing the many COR factors, so they’ve been really important sessions and ones that have been really well received.”

This was echoed by Thomas Brayley, Manager Plant and Fleet at Logan City Council and IPWEA FLEET Council member.

“This year’s conference was fantastic, it’s lead on nicely from last year’s conference. Topics were structured well and really in tune with the daily problems that all of the fleet management and fleet professionals are facing. We also had some fantastic presentations on chain of responsibility, which is really relevant in this day and age. We lead into culture and leadership because that’s the way the new age government is going – very much into enhancing leadership qualities and we’re really promoting those to change the culture in the workforce,” he said.

IPWEA Executive Officer Ross Moody thanked the industry for its support of the event.

IMG_0316.jpg“We’ve had great growth in terms of delegates, in terms of sponsors and exhibitors – we’ve been overwhelmed with exhibitors and completely filled our space,” he said.

The next Conference will again be held at the Brisbane Royal International Convention Centre, 16–18 March, 2020.

“I just encourage people to come along – it’s not only the sessions we present that can deliver really good information, it’s also talking to other fleet managers, finding and talking to people who are going through the same things that they’re doing,” Wilson said.

Check out photos from the conference here. 

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