Flash Floods and Fleets:
How Can Fleets Manage These Disasters?
WORDS BY ANTONINA JOSON
Flash floods are a common but significantly hazardous disaster to navigate. For fleets, a misguided response could spell disaster for an entire organisation, whether it’ s in the safety of the team or the maintenance of the vehicles. Delays, damages, and health risks are abounded during a flood, but not impossible to deal with.
While nature remains unpredictable and out of control, there are certainly ways where fleets can mitigate the effects in case of a flood. The process seems daunting, but less overwhelming when tackled in 3 stages: before, during, and after.
Preparation is Key
The weather forecast is your best friend in this scenario. Keep an eye on weather reports or any news about upcoming storms, monsoons, and even just heavy rain. Bad weather is no one’ s friend and will only bring problems if faced head-on with no preparation. It’ s recommended to continuously monitor the weather until local weather authorities give a clear indication that it is safe.
The most important bit of preparation a fleet can have is a response plan, specifically, a flood response plan. This plan will outline what your fleet needs before, during, and after a natural disaster. While each fleet will have unique needs for their own response plan, there’ s a few general guidelines to follow:
• Gather the necessary team members and thoroughly review possible scenarios for your fleet in case of a disaster.
• Designate roles per team members and possible safety routes, even for personnel who are not on the road.
• Create a protocol per scenario and be as meticulous as you can while researching situations and solutions. It’ s important to consider your fleet’ s headquarters as well, especially if it is in an easily flooded area.
• Structure a safety plan around what you’ ve researched. Make sure you’ ve assessed possible risks exhaustively.
• Invest in disaster training for you and your team. Make sure disaster training is done at least once a year.
• Create a communication plan to be used during emergencies.
• Source and supply generators and other back-up supplies for your vehicles and facilities.
• Include post-disaster protocol in your response plan. Set aside a budget and construct a plan in case of damaged assets.
Cancel If You Can
If cancellation is possible for your fleet’ s journey during a projected storm, do so already. Forcing your fleet to still make the drive when bad weather is imminent will only result in damages to vehicles, increased costs, further delays, and safety risks for drivers. If the trip must be made, you can also re-route vehicles to avoid areas with bad weather at the cost of time.
30 ISSUE 53 JUNE 2025 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU