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The 2018 AfMA Fleet Conference and Exhibition is set to see a variety of fleet professionals and industry experts take their place at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on May 17-18.

In the lead-up AfMA is profiling some of the speakers who will be sharing with us during the conference. We look forward to these new and returning speakers sharing their knowledge and insights to benefit the fleet profession as a whole.

  • Caroline Perry, NZ Director, Brake
  • Bruce Whitehead, Director, Mock Court International
  • Geoff Thomas, Managing Director, Murcotts Driving Excellence
  • Stuart McGregor, Detective Inspector at Road Crime Investigations | Victoria Police

Are you a returning or first-time speaker? Why have you decided to speak?

Caroline: I’m a first-time speaker and wanted to share some of Brake’s experience, as a road safety charity, of working with organisations to reduce their road risk and improve road safety in their workplace and their community. I’m also looking forward to the opportunity to network with everyone attending the conference.

Bruce: First-time speaker. Most people do not have the experience and learnings derived from going to Court and running a simulated safety prosecution is a great way to share key insights.

Geoff: I’m a returning speaker. Obviously I’m coming back as a response to the invitation from AFMA and because of our close association with AFMA over many years sharing similar aspirations for more effective and safe fleet management.

Stuart: I am privileged to have been invited to speak at this year’s conference after having addressed the 2017 Melbourne and Perth conferences. I, like other presenters, see the conference as an opportunity to engage with those tasked with balancing functionality with safety when managing large fleets.  Hopefully I can bring road safety to front of mind when considering the make-up of the fleet and deliver an understanding of how a safety focus can deliver a more productive fleet.

What is the single most important message you hope to provide to delegates during your session?

C: I’m aiming to demonstrate why embedding road safety into your corporate social responsibility programme, and your workplace culture, is important, and show how doing so can benefit your staff, organisation and the wider community.

B: My most important message would be that once you get to Court you have already lost and that understanding the reasons for the dislocation between procedures and actual work practices can quickly compress your compliance risk.

G: I’m a returning speaker. Obviously I’m coming back as a response to the invitation from AFMA and because of our close association with AFMA over many years sharing similar aspirations for more effective and safe fleet management.

S: The human and economic costs of road trauma impact organisations and their effectiveness.  Safer vehicles, routes and speeds will reduce collisions and transport costs thereby increasing productivity and profitability. Speed is the single greatest contributor to road trauma and every time we increase our speed we increase the likelihood of a collision and injury to our staff.  My presentation will deliver the evidence that low level speeding is a killer and provide fleet managers with the knowledge that managing the speed of their fleet will assist them to deliver a reliable service.

From your own perspective, what is the greatest issue facing fleet managers in 2018?

C: Safety. We’re increasingly connected as a society and often feel pressured to work faster and longer, stay in constant contact and keep innovating to stay ahead of the competition. But that can have an adverse effect on safety if we’re not careful.

B: In the compliance space – complexity. We risk becoming the most informed society to ever die of ignorance!

G: Employers need to distinguish between the administrative processes of fleet management and the practical and systems actions needed to ensure safe fleets. Example being recognition of the difference between reporting incidents and claims and analysing the causal/contributory factors leading to those incidents.

S: In 2017, Victoria alone suffered 258 fatalities and over 5000 serious injuries on our roads.  Every one of these statistics is a person whose injury or death irreversibly impacted family, friends and work colleagues.  Pressure placed on fleet managers to deliver mobility platforms and meet organisational expectations can cloud reality and impose ineffective fleet management models.  Increasing the safety aspects of our fleet will decrease the number of collisions and injuries to our people. Fleet managers are in the unique position of influencing both fleet productivity and the level of road trauma.

Tickets are now available for the AfMA 2018 Fleet Conference & Exhibition on May 17-18. For more details please click here or call the AfMA Office on 03 9866 6056