Origin Energy has backed the Fleet News Group Awards program as a Foundation Sponsor because it understands first-hand how much work sits behind a successful fleet transition.
For Chau Le, General Manager, E-mobility at Origin Energy and Chair of the Electric Vehicle Council, recognising fleet excellence is important because the organisations leading the transition are doing far more than simply buying electric vehicles.
They are building business cases, coordinating internal stakeholders, managing charging infrastructure, educating drivers and changing long-established fleet processes.
“We recognise all of the effort and challenges that are required in bringing together a very disparate group of stakeholders, putting that business case in place, managing all of the change, all of the stakeholder engagement,” Le said.
That experience is familiar to Origin because its involvement in fleet electrification began with the transition of its own vehicles.
What started as an internal fleet challenge has since developed into work with other organisations trying to understand how EVs can be introduced across their operations.
For Le, that makes the Fleet News Group Awards an opportunity to recognise the organisations that have done the difficult early work and created a pathway others can follow.
Fleet transition takes more than choosing a vehicle
A fleet electrification program can quickly expand beyond the traditional responsibilities of a fleet manager.
Sustainability teams may set emissions targets. Fleet teams need to identify suitable vehicles and build the whole-of-life cost case. Facilities teams can become involved in workplace and depot charging. HR and people-and-culture teams may need to deal with home charging and reimbursement, while drivers need education and support as they move into unfamiliar vehicles.
“It’s a lot of stakeholders in an EV transition,” Le said.
That complexity is one of the reasons Origin believes organisations successfully managing the transition deserve recognition.
It can require leadership across multiple parts of the organisation, particularly when an EV program moves from a small trial into a broader replacement strategy.
Le said organisations tend to make faster progress when there is senior support behind the transition.
For Fleet News Group Awards judges, that broader management challenge is an important part of fleet excellence.
A successful transition is not just measured by the number of electric vehicles purchased. It is also about the systems, processes and leadership required to make those vehicles work operationally.
Early adopters are creating the blueprint
Origin’s support for the Awards also reflects the role early fleet adopters have played in developing solutions for the wider market.
Le said organisations that started their transition early have already worked through many of the problems that newer adopters are now confronting.
“All of the learnings and insights that the early adopters have had to go through have then created solutions for everyone else in the fleet space,” she said.
That gives fleet awards a broader industry role.
Recognising leading organisations does more than reward their individual achievements. It provides examples for other fleet operators that are still considering how to begin.
Those examples can help answer practical questions around vehicle suitability, charging, total cost of ownership, driver engagement and internal governance.
They also show other organisations that the transition can be achieved.
Le said that confidence is particularly important as more fleets move beyond small EV trials and into larger-scale replacement programs.
Some Origin customers that began the transition several years ago are now moving much further.
“They’re at the point now where they are switching 100% of their fleet over. So it’s not just a trial or a pilot of one or two vehicles anymore,” she said.
Fleet has an outsized role in the EV transition
Le also sees fleet as critical to Australia’s broader EV transition because of the scale of vehicle purchasing undertaken by organisations.
She said fleet represents around half of new vehicle sales, but its share of EV purchases remains much lower.
That means fleet has significant potential to influence the pace of EV adoption.
“Fleet represents 50% of all new car sales. We need fleet to be 50% of all EV sales, and we’re not there yet,” Le said.
For Origin, recognising organisations that are moving early can help demonstrate what is achievable and encourage more fleets to begin planning their own transition.
“We think it’s very important to recognise their effort, their leadership in this space,” Le said.
That is particularly important as many organisations work towards emissions reduction targets later this decade.
Fleet replacement cycles can extend for four or five years, meaning vehicles being ordered today may still be operating beyond 2030.
The fleets making progress now are therefore not just reacting to current vehicle technology. They are aligning procurement decisions with longer-term organisational targets.
Recognising the work behind the result
Origin’s Foundation Sponsorship of the Fleet News Group Awards reflects a simple idea: good fleet management should be recognised because it can influence the rest of the industry.
The organisations leading the transition are often solving problems before there is an established template.
They are testing vehicles, developing charging strategies, creating new policies and convincing internal stakeholders to change the way fleets have operated for decades.
That work can be difficult to see from outside the organisation, but it creates knowledge that others can use.
For Le, that is one of the strongest reasons to recognise fleet leaders.
The award may acknowledge the organisation receiving it, but the lessons created by those early adopters can ultimately help the entire fleet industry move forward.
