AfMA Presents 2015 Fleet Awards

During its annual fleet awards night in early September, the Australasian Fleet Management Association (AfMA) announced the fleet manager of the year, fleet environment award, and fleet safety award.

David Stevenson, corporate procurement manager for RCR Tomlinson was named fleet manager of the year. Wendy Meesen, transport coordinator, Security and Transport Group, Campus Services Division at Deakin University, received the fleet environment award. The Country Fire Authority (CFA) - Victoria received the fleet safety award.

Stevenson shepherded the RCR fleet to grow overnight from 350 vehicles to more than 1,700. when the company acquired Norfolk Group in 2013. He implemented strong fleet procurement and operatonal management strategies to reconcile the management of the two fleets. Among Stevenson's achievements during the consolidation was the removal of 262 vehicles, saving AUS$2.1 million in operationl expenditure. Further, ongoing consolidation of vehicle manufacturers has generated more than AUS$3 million in additional savings. Removal of excess and aged vehicles together with the other initiatives have reduced the accident rate from 9.2 to 8.07 per 100 veichels, and the fleet's footprint has become greener, according to AfMA.

Meesen has implemented a number of strategies to improve Deakin University's carbon footprint and improve its environmental performance, including reducing non-essential vehicle usage, improving fleet untilization, moving to smaller and greener fit-for-purpose vehicles, reducing fuel usage per year, and reducing overall fleet size. Deakin's fleet has been reduced by 21.7 percent over the past two years, kilometers per year traveled have been reduced by 17.32 percent, and CO₂  emissions by 12.78 percent, according to AfMA.

CFA is a volunteer firefighting organzation, which operates more than 3,000 passenger, light commercial, and specialized vehicles has 60,000 members, 98 percent of whom are volunteers. After losing five firefighters in 1998, the organization developed a crew protection system "safety cell" to protect crews in the event of a burn over. Since 2006 all tanker appliances have been fitted with this new system. During the 2009 Black Saturday Fires, there were eight tanker burn overs reported resulted in no serious injuries--though the vehicles were a total loss. After these fires, 1,064 fire appliances built prior to 2006 were retrofitted with the safety cells. Other Australian fire organizations have also adopted this system. Since 2009, there have been 19 tanker burn overs with no serious injuries reported, according to AfMA. The award was accepted by Euan Ferguson, AFSM, CFA chief officer.