Spotless/Downer Group have been awarded the 2021 Fleet Safety Award at AfMA’s Annual Networking Dinner & Fleet Awards Ceremony.
The organisation was awarded the honour in front of more than 400 people who gathered at the Crown Palladium, Melbourne on May 20 to network and recognise outstanding fleet achievements from the past twelve months.
For the Spotless/Downer Group team, the result is recognition for continued work to standardise the fleet and implement the use of telematics to deliver significant improvement in driver behaviour.
“Our most successful outcome has been standardisation of the fleet and all the safety advantages that go with that,” Spotless’ Fleet Coordinator Matthew Ogilvie said.
“We’ve been able to grab real data that has significantly changed our fleet going forward and we’ve been able to introduce a zero-harm culture that has been implemented from our executive team down.”
Beyond the improvement in overall driver behaviour and safety for Matthew and his team the implementations have also resulted in significant financial savings across the organisation.
Spotless/Downer Group has been able to reduce its fuel spend by seven per cent across its fleet and improve tyre life by around 14 per cent.
“These savings have been significant when we are operating between 600-700 vehicles,” Matthew said.
“We now have drivers that are regularly driving their day to day in a much safer manner, and it’s allowed us to install a good driver program and tailor that with some driver education on the other end of that.”
Matthew urged other organisations that are thinking about standardising their vehicles to make the effort because it really can make a huge difference to their fleet operations.
“It does come at a cost and you will need support from your executive team – however the rewards are great,” Matthew said.
“You end up with some cost savings along the way and a much safer fleet so that everybody gets home at the end of the day.”
You can watch the Spotless/Downer Group journey below: