The finalists in the 2026 Fleet News Group Fleet of the Year Award demonstrate three very different approaches to fleet management excellence.
Blacktown City Council, Ausgrid and Parkes Shire Council operate fleets with different asset profiles, geographic challenges and service requirements, but each has shown a high level of maturity in the way it manages safety, whole-of-life costs, technology, maintenance, utilisation and sustainability.
The finalists were selected after interviews with the judging panel, where each organisation was asked to demonstrate the systems, policies, data and evidence behind its fleet management practices.
Now the decision moves to the industry. Fleet and automotive professionals can vote for the organisation they believe deserves to be named Fleet of the Year.
Blacktown City Council
Blacktown City Council manages approximately 2,000 registered fleet assets supporting one of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing local government areas.
Its fleet includes around 600 heavy vehicles, approximately 400 passenger and light commercial vehicles, and specialist waste and street-cleaning equipment that can operate for 16 or 17 hours a day.
For Blacktown, fleet reliability directly affects community services.
A waste truck may complete around 1,200 bin lifts a day, which means even a small number of unavailable vehicles can create an immediate operational problem.
The council has responded by strengthening preventative maintenance, introducing a structured 13-week servicing cycle and combining internal and external inspections.
The City Fleet team says this has helped reduce daily defect lists from around 17 pages to approximately six or seven individual items.
Blacktown is also undergoing a rapid transition to lower-emission vehicles.
At the time of its finalist interview, 43 per cent of the fleet was hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fully electric, compared with around five per cent two years earlier.
Importantly, the council has combined that transition with driver engagement, operational trials and duty-cycle analysis rather than treating electrification as a simple procurement exercise.
Specialist roles in analytics, technical projects, innovation and zero-emission planning are also helping Blacktown build a more future-ready fleet team.
Ausgrid
Ausgrid manages one of the most complex operational fleets among the finalists.
Supporting electricity distribution to more than four million customers, the organisation operates approximately 1,600 vehicles and another 700 items of plant and equipment.
The fleet includes passenger vehicles and utes, but also elevated work platforms, pole borers, prime movers, cable-handling equipment, specialist off-road vehicles and boats used to access parts of the network.
Ausgrid’s CEO-endorsed fleet strategy is built around four pillars: safe to work, fit for purpose, value for money and electrification.
That strategy reflects the unusual challenge faced by the fleet team.
Ausgrid must optimise utilisation and control costs while still maintaining enough specialist equipment to respond when storms or network incidents create sudden demand.
Its fleet systems are supported by SAP, digital maintenance platforms, telematics and Power BI dashboards, providing visibility across procurement, servicing, incidents, fuel use and disposal.
Driver safety is also a strong focus.
Telematics data is being used to create driver scores, with reporting provided to drivers and supervisors. Higher-risk results can trigger intervention, while the organisation is moving towards more targeted driver training.
Ausgrid is also pushing fleet electrification beyond passenger cars. Most of its passenger fleet has already been electrified, while electric vans and trucks have been introduced and heavier applications are being tested.
Charging infrastructure is being developed across depots, substations and employees’ homes to support the next stage of that transition.
Parkes Shire Council
Parkes Shire Council proves that advanced fleet management is not limited to large metropolitan organisations.
The council manages approximately 550 major fleet assets across around 5,000 square kilometres, with a fleet valued at approximately $18 million.
Its assets range from light vehicles and trucks to graders, plant, trailers and specialist equipment supporting rural roads, parks, waste, water and other community services.
Distance and service support are significant considerations.
A breakdown may occur more than 100 kilometres from the main workshop, while access to specialist technicians can be more limited than in a metropolitan area.
That has encouraged Parkes to place a strong emphasis on planning, whole-of-life costs and local support when making purchasing decisions.
The council operates a rolling 10-year replacement program supported by TechnologyOne dashboards that track utilisation, recovery rates, maintenance costs and whole-of-life performance.
For some trucks, the fleet team is analysing actual operating cost down to dollars per kilometre.
Parkes has also invested heavily in workshop planning and digital maintenance.
Service schedules are generated in advance, parts are prepared against work orders, technicians use tablets to complete inspections, and photographs, timestamps and test results become part of the asset record.
Telematics is being used in several practical ways.
The council has reduced idling across monitored assets, uses driver scorecards to identify risky behaviour and has even developed a system that uses G-force events from fleet vehicles to help identify potential potholes across the road network.
Parkes is also starting its transition to electric vehicles while continuing to reduce emissions from the existing fleet through improved utilisation and lower idle time.
Three different fleets, one award
There is no single model for Fleet of the Year.
Blacktown City Council is demonstrating how a large urban council fleet can improve reliability while rapidly adopting new technology.
Ausgrid is showing how sophisticated fleet systems, safety management and electrification can support a highly specialised essential-service fleet.
Parkes Shire Council is demonstrating that a regional organisation can use data, technology and strong lifecycle planning to achieve high levels of fleet management maturity.
All three finalists have built their fleet operations around evidence, governance and continuous improvement.
Now it is up to the industry to decide which organisation deserves to take home the award.
Cast your vote
Voting is now open for the 2026 Fleet News Group Awards.
Vote for Blacktown City Council, Ausgrid or Parkes Shire Council in the Fleet of the Year category.
The winner will be announced at the Fleet News Group Awards Night in Sydney on 14 October 2026. Fleet and automotive industry professionals can also register their interest to attend the event.
