Last night in Brisbane, the 2022 IPWEA Fleet Conference was officially opened by David Jenkins, CEO at IPWEA, and despite the significant weather event impacting Brisbane and southern Queensland, Fleet Managers were driving with umbrellas and raincoats ready to learn and gather insights so they can lead their organisations out of the pandemic with confidence.
There was a buzz amongst the audience with the excitement of meeting people face to face again. Networking events provide opportunities to share stories and problems that aren’t resolved as quickly via Zoom or Teams. It also creates connections so you can call someone when the next challenge arises.
The conference theme is “Leading Fleet Management through change” which was highlighted by Jenkins in his opening remarks.
Thomas Brayley, IPWEA Fleet Council Chair, also welcomed the delegates and reminded the audience of the significant changes we had all experienced since the last time every was together – floods, fires, global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, inflation and a war in Europe.
Breehan Allen from Summit Fleet Leasing and Management was the keynote speaker at the opening session and provided a summary of the key challenges facing Fleet Managers in 2022.
Cost increases and vehicles delays were the top two challenges which are linked to several areas elements when managing a fleet of cars, trucks and yellow equipment.
The perfect storm of rising prices, reducing discounts and increased expenditure on older assets will place pressures on fleet budgets and potentially create chaos for years to come because organisations will be forced to abandon strategic plans in favour of the right decision in the current environment.
Allen encouraged the audience to extend their planning horizon with the help of data to avoid short term decision making and not to abandon key fleet principle such as Total Cost of Ownership (TOC) models when purchasing vehicles.
It was a great presentation to set the scene for the next two days.
