FLEETDRIVE
President’s
Update
Tim Roberts shares why disruption
doesn’t always mean disaster.
WORDS BY DANIEL BRAID
Daniel: The fleet industry has been put
through the wringer in the past few months.
Is there anything of comfort for them in the
short term?
Tim: I think the key for fleet managers to know
is that there will always be an absolute need for
them during this pandemic and beyond. There’s
no doubt about that. The wheels of society rely
on fleet and transport to continue so that’s a
given. But one of the things that I’ve found is that
what seems almost impossible can inevitably
become true, and all organisations need a
strategy that is not only forward thinking for the
next four or five years, but one that considers the
longer term.
Daniel: How exactly does that strategy play
into the effects of COVID-19?
Tim: Well previously, you might have had a goal
to reduce your fleet size and you may have said
something bullish like “we’re going to reduce
our numbers by 10 percent and that’s going to
be great for finance or for the environment”. It’s
difficult to do even in normal circumstances. But
given the accelerated change that’s happened
with COVID-19 now those fleets are looking at
what they are going to do with a vehicle fleet that
all of a sudden only has 10 percent utilisation,
with the other 90 percent of assets grounded.
Daniel: Do you feel like there’s any positive
side effects from this change?
Tim: Perhaps a silver lining side of this
accelerated change is the move to working from
home. Technologies such as Skype, Zoom or
Teams were being used to some extent but it
wasn’t our preference. But in the space of a few
weeks, we’re now fully working from home, we’re
learning remotely, we’ve closed down car pools
and shared vehicles and now we’re becoming
increasingly comfortable with this virtual
technology. I guess there’s not many upsides
to this pandemic, but from a fleet point of view
we’ve accelerated a change that might have
taken a whole lot longer in normal conditions.
Daniel: Will fleet managers continue with
these new habits post-pandemic?
Tim: I always feel as human beings our nature
is that we tend to swing back. We tend to revert
to comfortable behaviours, and face to face
interactions are one of those behaviours that we
ISSUE 24 AUGUST 2020 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU
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