The City Fleet Business Manager at the Brisbane City Council, Tony Rawson, is the 2008 winner of the Craig Roseneder Award for Technical and Maintenance Excellence in the Workshop.
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) and the Australian Road Transport Suppliers Association (ARTSA) announced the award in Melbourne last night at their Castrol Awards Dinner, which is part of the 2008 ATA/ARTSA Technical and Maintenance Conference. The conference is continuing today.
The Chairman of the ATA, Trevor Martyn, said Tony Rawson led a team responsible for maintaining up to 4,000 assets, including trucks, light commercial vehicles and heavy tracked equipment.
“As the manager of the Brisbane City Council’s City Fleet, Mr Rawson is responsible for two mechanical workshops, a service facility, a 24 hour-a-day onsite breakdown unit, a smash repair shop and a vehicle body fabrication plant,” Mr Martyn said.
“His outstanding performance as a manager and leader has made City Fleet a highly cost-effective organisation and delivered great value for money for Brisbane residents.
“In total, Mr Rawson has more than 28 years of experience in the vehicle maintenance field. He started his career as a vehicle mechanic and then technical instructor in the army. Since then, Mr Rawson has held senior maintenance management positions with Mack Trucks, Volvo, and Shorncliffe in Papua New Guinea. He has managed Brisbane City Council’s City Fleet since May 2005.”
Mr Rawson said he felt honoured and privileged to win the award, and that he was looking forward to attending the American Trucking Associations’ Maintenance Council meeting in early 2009 as part of his prize.
“I’m looking forward to finding out what their technical and maintenance issues are, how they handle them, and what they do about recruitment,” Mr Rawson said.
Under Mr Rawson’s leadership, City Fleet has two intakes of about six apprentices per year. Those apprentices are trained to a very high standard, with a City Fleet apprentice taking out a high achievement award at the 2007 CVIAQ Apprentice of the Year Awards.
Mr Rawson emphasised the importance of training and keeping apprentices.
“We have many career paths within the industry - diesel mechanics, electricians, trailer mechanics. There are some great opportunities that pay great dollars, but we simply don’t promote it enough,” Mr Rawson said.
“We need a focused recruitment program and the appropriate training for incoming technologies otherwise we will struggle, but if we take on board training programs and accept new technologies I think we will be OK,” he said.
Mr Rawson said keeping up with growing number of rules and regulations was also an issue for the industry.
“The list of things that operators need to comply with is growing. I think regulators need to understand that when they implement new policies they need to understand the impact they will have on the industry, the operator and the maintainer,” Mr Rawson said.
The ATA and ARTSA present the Craig Roseneder Award each year to honour the men and women whose expertise keeps Australia’s heavy vehicles running. The award is sponsored by Castrol.