The Australasian Fleet Management Association capped off day one of its annual fleet conference and exhibition with the announcement of the winners of the 2023 Fleet Awards on May 24.
New South Wales-based Essential Energy was the winner of the 2023 Fleet Safety Award sponsored by Teletrac Navman and Innovation Group which was accepted by Fleet Manager Michael Mills on behalf of the company.
Mills administers a fleet of more than 3500 vehicles across the state, and says the company wanted to invest in an in vehicle monitoring system (Nova Systems) to keep staff and the public safe and make sure people get home alive every working day.
New Zealand based company Waste Management won the 2023 Fleet Environment award sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company Australia and Mix Telematics, and the 2023 Fleet Manager of the Year award sponsored by BP Pulse and Geotab went to Waste Management’s head of fleet Jitesh Singh.
AfMA executive director Mace Hartley says Waste Management is the first such organisation to win two consecutive awards in the same year.
Waste Management’s head of safety and risk Guy Smith accepted the Fleet Environment award on behalf of the company.
Smith says electrifying the fleet of refuse trucks is a big source of pride for Waste Management, but that the company is quietly walking the walk towards Net Zero.
“The electrification project is a very important part of our circular economy,” Smith says.
In January 2023 Waste Management announced that the electric fleet had reached a significant milestone – 1,000,000 electric kilometres.
The company says this represented the equivalent saving of 375,000 litres of diesel and stopped 1,109 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
At that time Waste Management reported it had 28 electric trucks on the roads of New Zealand and planned to expand this by a further 23 trucks in 2023.
Waste Management’s head of fleet Jitesh Singh says he was honoured to receive the 2023 Fleet Manager of the Year award from AfMA.
Singh says that he and his dedicated team see alternative fuels as the future and have created safer vehicles and a more efficient operation. He also thanked the company’s executive team for its support of the electric truck project.
Singh says it’s invaluable having a specialist EV Innovation Hub at Waste Management’s Auckland HQ to convert diesel vehicles to electric.
“It lets us convert specialist refuse collection trucks, such as LEVs and dual controlled side loaders, which are not available to buy. We’ve converted 13 trucks since moving to the Auckland HQ in late 2019, with a lot more to come.”
Singh also mentions that the average age of the current Waste Management Truck fleet has halved from 14 years old to seven years old.
