Top 10 highlights from CFMS

Over 150 delegates attended the Canadian Fleet Maintenance Summit (CFMS), hosted in Montreal on April 10, 2019.

Presentations and panel discussions on topics that directly impact freight transport and logistics attracted industry influencers and decision-makers to the one-day event co-hosted by FPInnovations and Newcom Media Quebec.

We asked FPInnovations’ PIT Group fleet management specialist, Simon Trudel, who moderated a panel discussion on traffic congestion and its impact on vehicle maintenance, to list his top 10 takeaways from the CFMS. Staffing issues in the transportation industry topped the list.

1. Companies in the transportation sector would like to find ways to avoid high employee turnover, but the growing labour shortage will only exacerbate this trend.

2. In the past, companies had plenty of candidates to choose from, whereas today the lists are very short, even at recruitment agencies.

3. Transportation companies must make an extra effort to stand out in terms of corporate image to attract new employees.

4. The new generation of workers is engaged and aware. They have plenty of choices and if they realize that a company does not respect its own values, they will leave.

5. During the panel discussion on traffic congestion and its impact on vehicle maintenance, many agreed that after-market replacement parts can be a suitable choice for fleets as long as they are good-quality parts and their lifespan is consistent with a fleet’s strategies.

6. The use of electric trucks has become a viable practice because expertise in this technology is now well developed.

7. As they become more reliable, electric trucks, due to their simple mechanics, could relieve the impact of the lack of technicians by reducing the required ratio between the number of mechanics and the number of trucks.

8. The new generation of drivers is very enthusiastic and conscious about environmentally-friendly vehicles to the extent that electric vehicles may draw new drivers to the industry.

9. It was said at the conference that artificial intelligence (AI) will gradually replace administrative staff and office workers.

10. Driver behaviour has as much impact on maintenance costs as it does on fuel consumption.