Congratulations to the winners of the 2015 IPWEA Fleet Service Achievement Awards.
The awards, which are presented every two years, celebrate initiative and performance in fleet management and aim to raise the profile of fleet managers in public works.
Winners were named as Michael Borg from Rockhampton Regional Council in Queensland, Richard Chatterton from Hobart City Council in Tasmania, Tony Bizzai from Town of Gawler in South Australia, Niven Carr from Town of Victoria Park in Western Australia and Stephen Croxon from Griffith City Council in New South Wales.
Croxon has been involved in fleet management for a long time and was nominated by colleagues at Griffith City Council after implementing some major changes in the council.
“The award means a lot to me both personally and professionally,” he said.
“I was pleasantly surprised that I received it, as to me it means recognition for years of study, workplace change, embracing new technology and bringing Council fleet management in line with best practice where possible.”
The winners were chosen from nominated candidates within each of IPWEA’s Systems Plus locations.
Winners will be presented with a framed certificate and acknowledged at the opening session of IPWEA’s conference in Rotorua next June.
*** Read our Q&A below with Fleet Award winner Stephen Croxon ***
Q&A
Stephen Croxon
Manager of Fleet & Supply Services
Q. How did you get into fleet management?
I started off as an apprentice mechanic with another Council and worked my way up to Workshop Foreman.
Over the years I have always studied to improve myself, so I did a computer course and then got involved in some plant tender evaluations. The Council that I was working for at the time had a major restructure which included a new position of Fleet and Trade Services, which I applied for and was successful [in getting].
I then did further study and obtained a Certificate in Business from the University of Southern Queensland. Since then I have moved to a larger Council being Griffith City Council and completed more courses to keep my knowledge up to date, and I believe you are never to old to learn.
Q. Would you recommend the career to others? Why?
I would be happy to recommend being a Fleet Manager to others. The career of Fleet Manager is diverse which makes it interesting as I could be investigating the purchase of large landfill compactor one minute and the next minute looking at a WHS issue with a brush cutter.
Fleet Management also involves having a good general knowledge of various different areas, including financial/accounting, mechanical services, administration, contract management, WHS, environmental to name just a few.
It is the variation and being able to respond with appropriate solutions that make the job so interesting. At the end of the day it all boils down to being able to provide adequate fleet to carry out our duties at the best cost advantage to our rate payers and community.
Q. What have been your biggest challenges in fleet over the past year?
One of our biggest challenges has been competing for capital funds with other departments of Council. To overcome this a cost benefit analysis has been done with some plant items to look at the effects of retaining equipment for longer periods. As an example, we recently extended the retention periods of utilities from three to five years.
Another challenge is keeping up with technology and new regulations in relation to fleet. We overcome this by attending the Plant and Vehicle Management workshops that are held by IPWEA each year.
We also undertook a benchmarking exercise over the last year with a number of fleet items to determine if our workshop is competitive with outside contractors – the final result being that we are on average 20-30 per cent cheaper. This exercise took a lot of time to prepare and report on, however it is well worth it and we are continuing to benchmark our services with outside contractors.