To kick off 2023, Fleet News Group talk with Michael Hasten of LBM Fleet Solutions about one of our favourite topics — how the circular economy affects fleets.

"The circular economy has a multitude of impacts on fleet,” said Hasten, LBM’s chief commercial officer. “It's really adding a constraint to the traditional take and make approach. It's all about how do we actually reduce,reuse, recycle, to optimise and reduce waste. And the results obviously will be a more sustainable business environment.”

The circular economy is a guiding theme for the Fleet News Group podcasts. In 2022, we talked to Dickson Leow, general manager at Innovative Mechatronics, or the IM Group, about pioneering EV battery reuse and recycling in Australia, to Lina Goodman, CEO of Tyre Stewardship Australia, which is funding research and development of programs to find uses for end-of-life tyres, and to ANC’s CEO, Joe Sofra, who is building the largest electric van and truck fleet among Australia’s last-mile delivery specialists.

Fleet News Group podcast host Caroline Falls talks with Lee Sauerwald, president of the Australian Fleet Management Association (AfMA), for the last recording of 2022, about his own award winning fleet sustainability practices.

“Right back in probably 2010 is when we first started on our journey. And we've been on a carbon reduction path ever since,” said Sauerwald, adding that Uniting Communities where he was responsible for fleet at the time was ruled carbon neutral as early as 2015. He said the Adelaide based non profit, of which Sauerwald is now executive manager corporate services, is working towards a goal to be net zero by 2035.

Carola Jonas, CEO and founder of Everty, a company that offers a software platform to help companies operate and manage their EV charging infrastructure, talked to Fleet News Group.

She talked about the positive impact the removal of the fringe benefit tax on certain-priced electric vehicles will have. She also forecast the disparity will widen between low-cost charging of an EV compared with filling a car with petrol or diesel fuel.

Jonas founded Everty five years ago when, she said, the cost of charging an electric vehicle was about one-third of the cost of refuelling a traditional car or light commercial vehicle with petrol or diesel. Today she estimates it’s around one-quarter or one-fifth because fossil-fuel-based fuel has become more expensive.

Fleet News Group podcast host Caroline Falls talks with EnergyAustralia’s Jack Kotlyar about his NextGen unit’s dedication to helping fleets get set for electrifying their vehicles.

“From an EA perspective, and from a NextGen perspective, we are focusing on that electrification and decarbonization journey for those customers looking to buy electric vehicles,” said Kotlyar, Head of NextGen business unit.

Fleet News Group podcast host Caroline Falls talks with Evenergi managing partner Steve Lewis about how rapidly the climate has changed for EV adoption in the last six months, since his in-depth presentation at the AfMA fleet conference in May.

“The thing that's really sparked it is probably led to a degree by the federal government,” said Lewis, referring to the ousting of the Coalition by Labor at the last election and the new leadership’s ambition to accelerate the transition to low-emission transport.

Former 60-Minutes journalist Ray Martin and inventor Matthew Vaughan talk to Fleet News Group's Caroline Falls in this podcast linked here about the revolutionary suspension smoothing Base Air system that Martin reckons is among Australia’s best and biggest inventions — akin he reckons to WiFi, the Black Box, and the Cochlear implant.

“I thought Matthew was just in the long line of these little Aussie inventors in a back shed who changed the world,” said Martin, talking about his impression of the inventor and the air management system that can be fitted to a truck’s suspension for a smoother ride for the driver and the cargo, reducing fatigue and damage.

Martin said he’s followed Vaughan’s journey since meeting him and first hearing about the invention in a coffee shop in Sydney 13 year ago. After years of development and iterations, getting patent protection, and trials with big truck fleets, Base Air was recently officially launched together with news that Paccar Australia — the importer and assembler of Kenworth and DAF trucks — has adopted it into their parts distribution network.

ORYX People’s top directors Kris de Jager and Sharon Henderson talk about the changing role of the fleet manager, the great resignation and moves to attract more women in the transport sector in this Fleet News Group podcast.

Last-mile delivery group ANC’s CEO, Joe Sofra, talks about transitioning his fleet of 1,000 vehicles to electric, and concerns about charging infrastructure, in this Fleet Auto News podcast.

“At the moment my point of anxiety isn't necessarily around being able to source vehicles. My point of anxiety is much more around the supporting infrastructure to charge these vehicles. I'm probably more focused on that at the moment to make sure that we have the supporting infrastructure so we can expand the fleet as fast as we possibly can,” said Sofra in the 25-minute interview.

“I'm a lifelong surfer … an outdoor enthusiast and so the ocean environment has always been in my direct line of sight,” said Jay Collins, US-based senior vice president and general manager of EV and mobility at global fuel card brand WEX Inc.

Collins was speaking to Fleet Auto News’ Caroline Falls from his Portland, Maine, US home for this podcast talking about the big wave developing in EVs, and their role in building for a more sustainable future.

The podcast also features the new US legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act — which includes significant incentives for EV adoption and charging infrastructure.

Fleet News Group talks with leaders at mapping technology specialists HERE Technologies and Hema Maps in this podcast about their location services that help keep drivers on remote roads safe.

Robert Gallagher, HEMA Maps MD: “We're collecting enough data out there to get people into the regions and back home safely.”

Dan Antonello, GM ANZ, HERE Techonologies: “A lot of the products that come out of the content that we collect go into the navigation systems, turn-by-turn instructions for vehicles, but you also see, for your audience in particular, a lot of information going into the fleet telematics.”