After four years and more than 300 enrolments, the successful IPWEA Fleet Management Certificate course will be updated.
The update will include a variety of new material and refreshments to the existing material, as well as the changes in relevant legislation that have occurred in the past four years.
One of new additions to the course is service-level agreements (SLAs). SLAs in fleet establish a commitment between maintenance providers, end users and fleet managers. It’s an important area for fleet managers to focus on.
We’ve found that fleet managers who have an SLA in place are experiencing better performance from their service providers. Currently, there are not many fleet managers in public works using these agreements. They tend to commission work without solid, pre-determined performance requirements. A common complaint is that turnaround times are too long and that creates costly downtime. With a service-level agreement in place, all parties acknowledge their roles and are more committed to the agreed turnaround time.
The updated Fleet Management Certificate course will pick up on the changes in the 2012 IPWEA best practice Plant & Vehicle Management Manual. The course isn’t high-level, it focuses on the basic starting points every fleet manager must observe to achieve best practice.
A significant change will be the likely introduction of a time limit on completion of assessments. Currently, some participants are taking far too long to complete the course – some are not even getting started. They can keep putting it off because they have an unlimited time to complete the course.
This is not in anyone’s interest.
The national Systems Plus fleet managers panel will review the update when they meet in Melbourne in February. The new version is expected to be available soon after.
People already enrolled in the current certificate will be unaffected and should continue to complete their assessments.