Fleet Day keeps going up a gear

Road Safety Advisor Jenny Davis at our Fleet Day site

From “around 30 or 40 people” to over 800 attendees, EROAD Fleet Day continues to grow and evolve, supporting the fleet industry as it tackles safety, efficiency and environmental challenges.

Waikato Regional Council’s Road Safety Advisor Jenny Davis, who has worked on the annual event since its early days "with limited resources", looks forward to it every year because of its potential to make driving safer.

The council held the first Fleet Day at Lake Karāpiro in 2012 to address the high rates of fleet vehicle crashes in the Waikato. Police data at the time revealed a significant number of crashes involved fleet vehicles. The event brought fleet managers and health and safety personnel together to collaborate and create solutions. Jenny was part of the first event and says the aim was for attendees to return to their organisations and make changes that reduce crash incidents and harm.

Jenny says partnering with EROAD in 2018 proved a major catalyst for Fleet Day to grow as the firm took on the lion’s share of organisation and logistics. Safety remains her main motivation and she relishes the opportunity to build connections and share information that makes our roads safer. Her favourite thing about the event is seeing fleet operators recognise and take the safety of their most precious resource, their staff, seriously.

By 2021, Fleet Day outgrew its original venue and shifted moved to Claudelands Events Centre. This year, the event welcomed record numbers and featured some well-known names like MC and veteran broadcaster Stephen McIvor and headline speaker former All Blacks Coach Sir Graham Henry. Other speakers, exhibitors and attendees represented public and private sector organisations from all over the country, including the New Zealand Police, Downer, the AA, Te Waka, OptiFleet and ChargeNet.

Sir Graham Henry speaks at Fleet Day.

Sir Graham Henry told the audience that finding good people and then leading them to be better is critical to the success of any team. He stressed the role of senior players helping new ones fit in and perform.

This is timely advice as Rosie Spragg from Te Waka explained the importance of freight and logistics to Waikato’s economic development and warned of a looming skills shortage as larger numbers of truck drivers approach retirement age and too few new drivers join the industry.

Fleet managers Josh Hedley from Downer New Zealand and Brian Yanko from the New Zealand Police teamed up to demonstrate the value of partnerships and relationships. The pair connected through LinkedIn and even though their organisatons are very different, they both oversee thousands of fleet vehicles and have been able to share ideas, experiences and challenges to help each other out. For example, Downer provided dozens of SUVs to the Police to assist the recovery in Gisborne and the Hawkes Bay following Cyclone Gabrielle.

No one could have walked away from 2023’s event without thinking about road safety as organisers dropped a 2004 Honda Jazz from a 35-metre crane outside the arena to demonstrate the impact of crashing. It reached 87km/h before smashing into the ground, shattering the windscreen, crushing the bonnet and shoving the engine into the cab.

Preparing to drop the Honda Jazz from a great height.

Looking back, Jenny is proud of the way the event has evolved in line with contemporary thought about road safety. She says previously everyone focused on “the road” but our approach now is more holistic and people centric, seeing technology, work culture, the environment and safety as one interconnected whole. This understanding shows the potential for fleet managers to spur positive change and the value of gathering a range of experts together at one event.

Jenny says because Fleet Day draws so many major players together, the council can build relationships with key stakeholders and deliver outcomes around road safety education and awareness. It also supports council goals for reducing emissions and improving productivity and economic performance. She says the technological progress each year blows her away and she feels very humbled at the effort that people and organisations go to, willingly sharing their knowledge and experience. Jenny is already working with EROAD on Fleet Day 2024, where they hope to take it up a another gear.