Catherine Parker from CSIRO has won the Fleet Manager of the Year Award in Sydney at the 2016 AFMA Fleet Awards last night.
CSIRO’s National Fleet Manager Catherine Parker was resourceful and impressive in transforming the incredibly diverse research body’s Australia-wide fleet and unifying a fleet management system across nearly 60 national work sites.
“Without my team’s support we would’t have been able to achieve what we have in the last two years,” Cathy said. “If someone had asked me growing up what I wanted to be, I don’t think I’d have said a fleet manager,” she joked, “but I’m so glad that I’ve found myself in this space. I love what I do, I love coming to work. It’s tremendous to see so many in the industry here tonight to celebrate”.
Ms Parker led the development of a brand new fleet policy to replace CSIRO’s decade-old Motor Vehicle policy. She unified 18 different data streams and approaches and re-developed the organisation’s asset register on top of establishing a strong supplier network. Under Ms Parker’s leadership, CSIRO acquired 10 Nissan Leaf fully-electric vehicles for their fleet.
AFMA‘s judging committee regarded Catherine Parker’s efforts as an example to other fleet managers, no matter how big or small their fleet, of how to apply their skills to the role to achieve the best outcome.
“It’s been great to support the Fleet Manager of the Year Award and Catherine’s done some great things,” said Johnathan Dexter, national sales manager for Viva Energy Australia. “We got behind the award because it’s a fleet management accolade we feel encourages best practice not only from a business perspective, but also at a passionate personal level, striving to get the best results”.
Fleet managers, supplier figures and affiliated business people filled the Doltone House venue. AFMA Executive Director Mace Hartley was ecstatic with the like-minded turnout.
“It’s great that people are putting first their drivers, their staff and the world around us,” Hartley said. “While doing all this, we want to acknowledge how their actions are also benefiting their business. Seeing all these organisations and their people come together is a promising sight”.
The Fleet Manager of the Year Award is given based on overall strategy, new thinking and execution, and comparative results, drawing on a fleet manager’s skills and tenacity to solve their fleet problems, relative to the complexity and difficulty of the task.
