Benefits of Change in the Management of Fleet Services

BENEFITS OF CHANGE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF FLEET SERVICES

Ross Pitt Mount Isa City Council

Acknowledgement of Country

I acknowledge the Yuwibara People, the aboriginal Owners of the land on which this event is taking place. I acknowledge the Kalkadoon people who are the traditional owners of the Mount Isa region, where I live and work and my own people of Mapoon and the Torres Strait Islands. I pay my respects to our Elders past, present and emerging. I recognise their Connection to Country and their role in caring for and maintaining Country over thousands of years. May their strength and wisdom be with us today.

Biography

My name is Ross Pitt and I am the Manager of Works and Operations for Mount Isa City Council (MICC). My Departments are Urban Construction and Maintenance, Rural Construction and Maintenance, Parks and Gardens, Council’s Concrete Batch Plant, Fleet Services and Workshop. I commenced with MICC in June 2021 and enjoy the working environment and the team dynamics. I have been involved in Civil Construction for over 30 years and started as a labourer and worked my way up as a plant operator, leading hand, supervisor and manager as well as a private contractor with my own fleet. Most of my career has been in the private sector and I enjoy the challenge of bringing skills learned into local government and increasing my own. I am fortunate to have a strong team of supervisors.

Fun Facts

I am a keen fisherman, and I was previously a Project Manager for Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council on the tip of Cape York, which is a fisherman’s paradise, a bit different to Mount Isa. However, I am keen to catch a barramundi from Lake Moondarra, just a matter of time and it’s not that far to Karumba… apparently.

Another fun fact is I was born on the 29th of February, so I only get a birthday every 4 years. You guess how old I am be nice…

I have operated all types of heavy equipment in some high risk environments and managed horses and cattle all with no fear. However, I am a bit nervous about public speaking but here goes.

Abstract:

Historically, Council has managed Fleet services in a way that no longer suits Council’s business model, and the time has come for a change. In April 2021 an external party undertook an audit of Council’s fleet management practices, and some serious inefficiencies were brought to management’s attention. One of the key issues found with fleet services was the decentralised management of the Council fleet. This meant that Departments would regularly hire and purchase small plant and equipment without considering existing internal fleet options which could significantly reduce the required budget. Lack of communication and integration between Departments was a major factor of these inefficiencies.

On commencement, I undertook the task of centralising Fleet Services and to their credit, the Departmental Managers and Supervisors were eager to adopt this process. The ownership and drive of Council’s Fleet supervisor, Nico Deysel to implement this business improvement has been key to the successful transition to centralisation.

Fleet Services are now incorporating Vehicle Management Systems (VMS) which ensures our staff are in contact at all times. We are also implementing in vehicle communication systems that ensure satellite communication abilities for our remote work crews. The follow-on effect from the centralisation of fleet services has allowed a more detailed fleet management and replacement program to be adopted.

This process is allowing the acquisition of modern, safer plant more fit for purpose and reliable light vehicles thus giving Council the means to keep works occurring with less down time. The process is allowing Council to expand its fleet as there is greater asset utilisation data collected which leads to a better understanding of what is required . Furthermore, it opens up the opportunity to increase employment which also has a positive effect on the community. The future benefits for MICC and the community will be felt well into the future.

The dedication required to implement a change in the management of a Department that is so integral to Council operations is supported by all Departments, this is the only way it will be a success. I am proud to be a part of a team that is proactive and dedicated to

continuing with the changes that I have made.

I am currently developing a new Fleet Management Policy which is on target for a final review in June 2022.

Getting Started

When I commenced with Mount Isa City Council in June 2021 as the Manager of Works and Operations, one of the first documents I received was an internal audit report undertaken in April 2021, at Council’s request. (Pacifica Pty Ltd, 2021). This report delves deeply into Council’s fleet management practise and sets up a risk matrix, that is both informative and practical.

Using the information gleaned from this report, I immediately started looking into how the management of the fleet was being undertaken, its utilisation and the plant and equipment procurement process. I quickly established that one of the biggest issues, was that Council Departments were requisitioning items of plant from hire companies and contractors without informing the Fleet supervisor. This included transport of equipment which contributed to job costing issues and budget forecasting. The Departmental Managers were not in breach of a policy as there was not any policy nor procedure to follow. The effect from this practise was a drop in utilisation of Council’s own plant and equipment as it was sitting idle, which was giving false determination of internal hire rates, therefore creating deficiencies in Council Fleet Management.

Centralising Fleet Operations

The first step was to create fleet centralisation. This process has the potential to lower services costs by performing the greater amount of servicing and preventative maintenance through the workshop. Cutting down on the external service providers will give a substantial maintenance budget back to the workshop. This can be allocated towards the hire of more tradesman, technicians, equipment and most importantly training apprentices. There will be occasion where the workshop will not have the available resources to service a particular item of plant, then the Fleet Supervisor will make the decision to use a contractor and a Service Level Agreement (SLA ) will be put in place. This also includes warranty based servicing on new items of plant and vehicles. As an example, before I commenced there was in excess of $300,000 fleet maintenance performed by an external service provider over a 12 month period to one Department . The main causal factors were lack of communication between the Workshop and the Department and no SLA in place.

This involved all departments requesting plant and equipment allocations through the workshop, as well as reporting back what they had and how long it was to be utilised. The utilisation of Council Fleet immediately began to increase and the benefits of having correct utilisation information allowed accurate calculation of internal hire rates and thus improved forecasting of project costs resulting in better value for the community. This also allowed the accurate determination of external rates for private works and benchmark rates for Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) used when applying for emergency works and Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement (DRFA) projects.

Updating the Fleet

Now that the benefits of centralisation are being felt, it is time to look at the fleet and assess its useable life. The development of the Fleet Management Policy is an important part of this process. The Internal Audit Report (Pacifica Pty Ltd, 2021) has been instrumental in the development of this policy as well as the Plant and Vehicle Management Manual (Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia Limited, 2019). Council have not had the resources to do an in depth review of its fleet for quite some time. Many items of plant, vehicles and equipment had outlived their useful lives. This was contributing to copious amounts of downtime, due to ongoing repairs caused by age of equipment and high environmental operational risk. One of Council’s common problems in Mount Isa on aged equipment is overheating due to the region’s average temperatures, causing needless hire of equipment replacing Council’s own fleet. This was not a desired outcome, so I commenced full assessments of existing fleet items and determined what has to be replaced as well as what the actual fleet requirements are, based on end user feedback from the work crews. This opened up the opportunity to increase the capabilities of Council fleet by not just replacing existing items but purchasing items of plant that we have not had before. Once Council started the procurement process, it was then faced with shortages of available equipment and supply chain issues due to COVID-19 and events occurring overseas. Local buy and Vendor panel are valuable tools in the acquisition process as they allow us to determine what is available in Australia and what we can acquire sooner rather than later, while still following the Local Government Act 2009 and Local Government Regulations 2012.

Monitoring Our Fleet and Our People

Getting the right plant, vehicles and equipment is only one component of successful fleet management. The Fleet Supervisor and Operations Manager require the means to continually monitor the fleet to ensure it remains in good health. While this can be accomplished to some degree by the standard pre-start checks, I decided we needed to delve deeper.

Council had already commenced the utilisation of a basic GPS monitoring system. This system was monitoring speeds and routes. However, we now have the opportunity to install extra modules that will monitor the service requirements of the vehicles and plant notifying the workshop of potential issues and upcoming service scheduling. This technology is particularly useful for the Rural Construction crew which can be working over 100kms away from the workshop. The Fleet Supervisor is alerted to issues with the plant and vehicles, and Council now has the potential to plan the service and send the maintenance team out to remote locations with the service kits and equipment required.

Fleet Services is also in the process of implementing updated satellite communications which allows a standard smartphone the capability for voice calls anywhere the satellite communication device has connection. This system is far more reliable than a standard sat phone and allows multiple users at once. The system gives the remote crews the ability to communicate with their families, upload time sheets and project photos and send photos of part numbers for blown hoses and worn parts so the workshop can come prepared in event of a breakdown. The increased capability of our Vehicle Monitoring System (VMS) helps ensure the safe operation of the fleet and together with the satellite communications most importantly, the safety of our staff.

Ongoing Improvements from the Change in Fleet Management

In the 10 months since these the changes in fleet management commenced, the following objectives have been realised and will continue to improve upon in the long term. These objectives will also become a basis for the development of achievable KPIs, which are as follows: • Utilisation of Council’s plant has increased giving more accurate internal hire rates and allowing money to be spent on the projects and not on external hire, achieving better value for the community. As well as the accurate determination of QRA and DRFA benchmark treatment rates.

• Service and maintenance costs have dropped as more planned services and preventative maintenance is being undertaken by the workshop.

• The reduction in maintenance costs is allowing for the budget to be allocated elsewhere such as additional staff, training and more servicing equipment to be purchased.

• Fleet updating is contributing to less downtime, lower operating costs and the increase of workforce capabilities, and therefore, more accurate budget forecasting.

• The fleet monitoring and communication systems also contributing to less downtime and a higher level of safety in the field.

• The increase of Council’s capabilities by having equipment fit for purpose to take on larger projects, as the region has always had difficulty in procuring contractors

• Opportunity to train more operators on new industry standard equipment.

• The creation and application of Service Level Agreements with external maintenance service providers to ensure best value for money scenarios and establish requirements in the service and maintenance programs

• The opportunity for all other

Departments such as Water and Sewer and Waste Disposal to have access to equipment that will increase their capabilities. All Departments can see the benefit of the centralisation process and all support it. The Fleet Workshop Supervisor and his team are a core part of this process. I am confident that the change in the management of fleet services will have a positive influence on Mount Isa City Council well into the future, allowing continuing growth and improvement. I believe that my management of Council’s plant, vehicles and equipment will also improve as I continue to increase my knowledge of fleet management.

Acknowledgements

Nico Deysel – Workshop Fleet Supervisor and the MICC Workshop Team for their dedication on getting onboard with me and giving me something to write about

CEO – David Keenan and Director of Infrastructure Services - Renee Wallace for their support and trust in my knowledge and abilities and providing me with the resources to incorporate the change in fleet management and commence the fleet centralisation process

All of the MICC Departmental Managers, Supervisors and work crews that are following the new Fleet Management practises and thus ensuring their success.

IPWEAQ for the knowledge I am gaining through ongoing Fleet Management training.

References

• Pacifica Pty Ltd. (2021).

Internal Audit Report – Plant

Management Practises Review.

• Institute of Public Works

Engineering Australasia

Limited. (2019). Plant and

Vehicle Management Manual