365 Assistance has joined the inaugural Fleet News Group Awards program as a Foundation Sponsor, backing an initiative designed to recognise the growing breadth of skills required to manage modern fleets.
Ian Slater, Chief Commercial Officer at 365 Assistance, said fleet management had evolved well beyond vehicle purchasing, maintenance and operating costs.
“Modern fleet management, in our view, is no longer just about the management of vehicles,” Slater said. “It is about management of risk, cost, productivity and compliance, and looking at how you build sustainability across all of those things.
“It is really about business outcomes as opposed to just the vehicle.”
Slater said fleet managers are dealing with familiar pressures such as fuel-price volatility and vehicle acquisition costs, while also managing newer demands including driver safety, fatigue, regulatory compliance, Chain of Responsibility obligations, ESG reporting, electrification and a growing volume of fleet data.
Technology has also changed the role. Rather than simply collecting information from telematics, maintenance systems and other platforms, fleet teams now need to turn that data into meaningful insights that support better decisions.
“It is no longer about just collecting data,” Slater said. “It is around how you extract really actionable insights from that data and make it integrate across all your multiple systems.”
He said the next phase of fleet management will include greater use of artificial intelligence to analyse data faster and help fleet operators identify risks, opportunities and operational improvements.
“For us, it was really a no-brainer to be involved because we want to be part of recognising people that are doing these excellent activities and becoming part of fleet excellence,” Slater said.
Roadside assistance as a continuity tool
While 365 Assistance operates behind the brands of its business-to-business clients, Slater said its role goes beyond responding to a breakdown.
The company focuses on operating as an extension of the customer’s business, with roadside assistance becoming a key part of driver safety, business continuity and total cost of ownership.
“Roadside assistance plays such a key role in fleets,” Slater said. “It is the fleets that do not just judge it on the cost of roadside; they look at the value that it brings and what it does.”
For fleet operators, the central objective is reducing vehicle downtime and returning vehicles to service as quickly as possible. But Slater said the quality of the response also matters for driver wellbeing, particularly when a driver is stranded at the roadside or outside normal operating hours.
“It is not just how fleets manage the vehicles well, it is how quickly they can recover from disruptions,” he said.
365 Assistance has invested in AI capabilities to help interpret roadside and vehicle data, with Slater saying analysis that once took teams weeks can now be completed in much shorter timeframes.
That capability can help customers identify patterns, improve response planning and support their transition to new vehicle and fleet technologies.
Recognising different forms of excellence
The Fleet News Group Awards will recognise excellence across areas including fleet safety, sustainability and technology, alongside the overall Fleet of the Year award.
Slater said the category structure gives organisations the opportunity to showcase leadership in a specific area, while also recognising the fleet operators that have built capability across the full range of modern fleet-management responsibilities.
“It is a real opportunity to showcase how the fleet industry is evolving,” he said.
The awards program will also include vehicle categories covering Fleet Vehicle of the Year, Fleet EV of the Year, Fleet Light Commercial Vehicle of the Year, Fleet Light Duty Truck of the Year, Fleet Heavy Duty Truck of the Year and Novated Lease Vehicle of the Year.
Winners will be announced at the Fleet News Group Awards event in Sydney on 14 October 2026.
