Kate Walker, Marketing and Brand Manager at Fleetcare, Australia’s largest independently owned fleet management and leasing company, spoke to Fleet Auto News’ Caroline Falls for our occasional Women in Fleet interview series. Fleetcare last year won the job as sole provider of fleet management services to the WA Government. Nationally, the company, founded by CEO Nigel Malcolm in 1989, has more than 45,000 vehicles under management.
FAN: Kate, first can you tell us how you arrived in fleet?
WALKER: Good question. I actually fell into it! I had my own marketing consulting firm doing marketing strategy and I had met Nigel through a telematics client. He asked me to assist in developing a strategy for Fleetcare and as we started implementing it, Nigel and I agreed it would be best for me to come on board full time. That was two years ago and one of the best decisions I’ve made.
FAN: What are some of the key contemporary issues in the fleet workplace?
WALKER: The workplace is changing quite a lot. We’re seeing a need for future skills that weren’t even on the table five years ago and the requirement to have a higher level of emotional and digital intelligence is really starting to come through. Fleetcare has adapted our recruitment processes to ensure we have these skill sets. We’re also looking at ways to improve the culture through employee experience. I think that’s been a real shift especially in industries like fleet that are traditionally more male dominated.
FAN: What do you like about working in fleet?
WALKER: It’s really dynamic and it’s really varied. I enjoy getting to hear stories about companies that have done amazing things and I’d say everyday is different.
Fleetcare’s never been one to stick with traditional models and we’re really focussed on bringing the care factor to the fleet industry. We feel we have a duty of care to improve not just the lives of our clients and drivers, but with so many fleet managed vehicles on the roads in Australia we feel there’s a duty of care for us to improve the social, environmental and economic impact of vehicles on Australian roads.
That might mean improving safety, using systems like telematics to improve driver behaviour, or improving utilisation so that there’s less vehicles on the road. There’s a quite a bit that we’re all working towards over the next coming years and it’s an exciting time to be in fleet. The biggest changes we’ll soon start to see is the move towards more electric vehicles and not too far after that, autonomous vehicles! The fleet industry in 5-10 years will be a very, very different beast to what it is today and I’m glad to be part of the journey.
FAN: Do you work with a lot of women or few women?
WALKER: Fleetcare’s executive is more than 50 percent women and has been for quite a while. Overall, Fleetcare also employ more than 50 percent women throughout our national workforce. We’ve always been a really inclusive and supportive workplace with flexible working options as women return to work after kids or need flexible working hours.
