It was time to modernise Greater Shepparton City Council’s fleet management. Fleet Coordinator Chris Giles chose Formbird FLEET and said farewell to his much loved Excel spreadsheet.
Chris Giles has been part of the Greater Shepparton City Council for Nineteen years. He hasn’t always been the fleet coordinator; in his own words, he “started at the lowest of the low, picking rubbish at the landfill”. That’s not to denigrate anyone in that role; it’s essential. Waste management is the area in most councils that concern most residents, more often.
Chris moved on to become a fleet administrator and the world’s biggest Microsoft Excel fan. He painstakingly put a system together to manage the council’s fleet; this was not your run of the mill spreadsheet. We are talking intelligent menus, admin areas, macros and interfaces designed in VBA.
Even with all that sophistication of their spreadsheet, the fleet team were still running into roadblocks. Every organisation hangs on to legacy systems, and Greater Shepparton City Council was no exception.
It was time to move on… Following a tender process, where FLEET proved the most compliant solution, the work started with Formbird at a cracking pace.
One of the main reasons Chris decided to upgrade was how the council would manage their fleet’s imminent electrification. And how were they going to deal with the new flow of fleet data heading their way from connected vehicles? His workshop manager is already staying ahead of the information on electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Greater Shepparton City Council is now well underway with their Formbird FLEET implementation. Chris is getting ready for training and setting up with tablets for the workshop. Whom he describes as “the best crew ever”. The team is looking forward to having a display in the workshop that keeps everybody on the same page.
With his tech background, Chris is keen to learn how to build functionality in Formbird. The low-code nature of the Formbird platform means it’s easy to add features to an existing implementation as the need arises.
We look forward to catching up with Chris in the future to see where the changes to his fleet management have been and also to check that he’s overcome the heartbreak of leaving Excel behind.
