Top award for Ambulance Victoria fleet manager

AMBULANCE Victoria’s Gabriel Miltenoff has been named 2010 Fleet Manager of the Year by the Australasian Fleet Managers Association (AfMA).

At a gala event in Melbourne recently, Mr Miltenoff was recognised for a project Ambulance Victoria initiated in 2008 to review how fleet and equipment services were delivered at the organisation.

According to AfMA, the main thrust of the program was to not only improve fleet and equipment support and maintenance but, critically, to increase the “availability” of vehicles for paramedics.

The association said that the entire project was implemented over six months and has resulted in significant savings compared with the previous fleet and equipment model.

Furthermore, an equipment “availability level” target of 97.5 per cent has since been achieved as well as substantial savings in operational resource hours.

Other annual awards presented were the Fleet Environment Award, which went to UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide (accepted by Lee Sauerwald), and Fleet Safety Award, which was this year won by Queensland non-profit organisation Blue Care (accepted by Mark Stephens).

Left: UnitingCare's Lee Sauerwald. Below: Blue Care's Mark Stephens.

UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide runs a fleet of 100 vehicles travelling more than 1.8 million kilometres each year, and was recognised for its initiatives to reduce carbon emissions.

Its board has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2015, and over the past year the organisation has achieved a nine per cent reduction in annual CO2 emissions. UCW Adelaide has also calculated a $42,000 fuel cost saving over a three-year cycle, with whole-of-life costs reduced by 20-36 per cent per vehicle.

AfMA said capital expenditure of $350,000 had been deferred, and that annual maintenance costs had fallen 50 per cent, saving $188,600.

Among other measures employed were car pooling throughout the organisation (including top management), using smaller, less-polluting cars and offsetting emissions through tree planting.

Safety award winner Blue Care provides a range of community and residential care services in Queensland, with its fleet travelling around 32 million kilometres each year.

Considering these vast distances, Blue Care undertook a research project in collaboration with the RACQ and the Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety, tailoring a range of driver education programs for the organisation.

Over the past 18 months, 3000 staff and volunteers have been through the program and AfMA said the outcomes included a significant drop in accident insurance-related issues, including a 10 per cent reduction in overall incurred liability since 2008.

Driver at-fault claims and average claims value have also fallen, as have speeding and red-light infringements, while a 25 per cent reduction in the value of fines from other offences has also been recorded.

AfMA said each award was judged by a separate panel of peers made up of association members and industry experts. Only initiatives that are “over and above what one could expect as normal professional practice” are accepted for consideration.