EROAD’s most interactive Fleet Day event impresses attendees in Christchurch

In February, EROAD held its first South Island Fleet Day event, at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand in Christchurch. The event featured an interactive multi-brand vehicle exhibition with complementary test drives available on the museum’s runway, as well as over 13 speaker sessions and over 35 exhibiting companies.

EROAD Fleet Day is an annual fleet management conference that combines traditional conference elements with multi-brand vehicle displays and interactive experiences. The event is now in its ninth consecutive year, and has grown in size every year. Due to growth in popularity, EROAD put on an additional Fleet Day event in Christchurch in February.

Transport industry professionals, exhibitors, and experts discussed the latest trends, opportunities, and challenges, with a focus on three crucial aspects of modern fleet management: Safety, Efficiency, and Sustainability. Below are a few key takeaways from the event.

Lessons from a rally champion: Focus, distraction and fatigue

For professional rally driver, Harry Bates , keynote speaker at Fleet Day Christchurch, the art of safety on our roads comes down to managing three key elements: focus, distraction and fatigue. As Harry says, “the most dangerous thing we do each and every day, is getting into our car and driving.” To make our roads safer, it comes down to focusing on human behaviour – learning to focus on the road and those around you, reducing or not responding to distractions and recognising your signs of fatigue. These are life-saving behaviours in the world of motorsport, and are things anyone can improve, it just takes discipline.

Building collaborative industry partnerships: Downer and NZ Police

Josh Hedley from Downer New Zealand and Brian Yanko from NZ Police highlighted the immense value of fleet businesses collaborating with non-competitive partners. By sharing knowledge and learning from each others’ successes and failures, Josh and Brian have been able to adopt or rule out fleet changes more quickly and cost effectively than would have been possible without their partnership. Through partnerships like theirs, they believe more organisations can uncover innovative solutions to common challenges faster than they would alone, ultimately benefiting the entire industry.

The evolution of NZ fleet market with alternative fuel technologies

An upward trend in electric vehicle registration and declining prices indicate a tough used vehicle market. Shane Prince, General Manager of Turners Auto Retail Division said fleet maintenance is crucial to extract more value from vehicles. Richard Edwards, Director & Managing Editor of Auto Media Group Limited also shared an expert view on EV and PHEV models in the market that are fit for fleets.

TransNet NZ’s Glenn Inkster and Thundergrid’s Jonny Parker emphasised that a key component for anyone those transitioning to electric vehicles is to have the right charging plan and infrastructure in place, whether that’s installing chargers in the workplace or in employees’ homes to provide the ability to charge overnight.

While fast ‘convenient’ chargers work like today’s gas stations (albeit slower than filling up), it is a more expensive way to charge and less efficient.
The range available in modern EVs means most people will get the range they need by making sure the vehicle is fully charged before they set off – which is a behavioural change as much as a technology one.

Impact of technology on insurance

Modern vehicle safety technology like lane departure warning and forward collision warning can have a big impact on reducing accidents, but drivers need to know how it works to use it effectively.

During a recent survey, NZI discovered many drivers and fleet managers don’t fully understand the new technology, and 72% of drivers say they’ve had no driver training.

Andrew Greatbatch said fleet businesses should consider ongoing driver training to keep drivers upskilled on new technologies as well as driving behaviours.

Decarbonising heavy transport

Transport needs to decarbonise if we’re to meet our country’s emission reduction targets. However, in a recent MoT survey, only 4% of fleet operators said big improvements could be made for improving fuel efficiency.

Dom Kalasih, Interim CEO of Ia Ara Aotearoa said there are many other ways to decarbonise heavy fleets, beyond fuel usage, including efficient tyres at the right pressure, addivated fuel, retrofitting drag-reducing devices as well as route optimising software.

Marc Sibbald, Director of IPWEA Fleet also emphasised the importance of setting the foundation in fleet management including monitoring whole-of-life costs of fleets.

Conclusion

Events like EROAD Fleet Day enable fleet professionals to come together and discover the latest advances in vehicles and fleet management technology, and importantly, to connect and learn from each other. The event was a resounding success, leaving more than 450 fleet management professionals inspired and motivated to drive positive change in their operations.
EROAD would like to thank all of our sponsors and exhibitors for helping make the event a huge success.

If you enjoyed Fleet Day Christchurch, or you missed out, you might be interested in Fleet Day Hamilton on 7 August 2024. Register your interest now.