Managers of light fleets gathered in Wellington late last
week for a first-of-its-kind event for light fleet managers
and business leaders. The one-day event, sponsored by EROAD
and the Greater Wellington Regional Council packed in
insights from several industry experts including, Jonathan
Parker, founder of ThunderGrid and ChargeNet CEO Danusia
Wypych.
Jeanette
Parsons from Greater Wellington Regional Council says, “As
a Fleet Manager, the EROAD Fleet Expo is an invaluable,
unique event for the industry to embrace vehicle
technologies and data whilst motivating us all as we look
towards a greener, safer future! Greater Wellington Regional
Council is proud to support such an inspirational
event!”
EROAD
Fleet Expo is not your average run-of-the-mill industry
conference. Working with multiple car dealerships, including
Hyundai NZ, Capital City Ford and many others, the event
also put on an impressive display of over 60 different light
fleet models for attendees to experience. What made this
event stand out from the crowd, was the ability to test
drive a number of the vehicles on the purpose-built track
and off-road.
Speaking about why EROAD put on the
event, EROAD’s Executive General Manager for Australia and
New Zealand, Konrad Stempniak says, “Fleet Expo is an
excellent way to bring together light fleet professionals
and businesses to discuss the challenges, trends and
opportunities they’re facing.”
Transport accounts
for 17%
of New Zealand’s emissions, and in a recent EROAD
survey, 76% of businesses operating light vehicles said
low or zero emissions vehicles will become part of their
fleet by 2025. Events like EROAD Fleet Expo aim to help
businesses understand the options available to them, and
learn from each other as they work to reduce
emissions.
“We want to help break down some of the
barriers that might be getting in the way of progress
towards net-zero,” adds Stempniak, “Fleet Expo was
designed to serve up knowledge, industry connections and
first-hand experience of new technologies in a single event
– something that hasn’t been available to light fleet
professionals until now.”
Over 120 fleet
professionals, experts and business leaders took part in
discussions on the journey to electrification and the
actions leaders should take now to prepare for the future.
There was also practical advice on fleet optimisation,
leasing versus buying and how to plan for EV charging
infrastructure.
Commenting on the event, one of the
attendees added “the benefits of being able to drive the
vehicles first-hand rather than viewing them statically were
immense.”
EROAD, which is currently developing a
fleet decarbonisation tool in conjunction with EECA, hopes
that the event will encourage more fleet businesses to begin
or advance their own fleet sustainability
programs.
Stempniak adds, “We know fleets want to
better understand their emissions and ways to reduce them.
We also know the pathway can be unclear. As well as
technology solutions, businesses need to be able to learn
from each other and that’s where events like this come
in.”
