It’s a new era for essential services and that calls for a new way of engineering, driven by the most powerful resources at our disposal – people.
Australia’s climate is changing; a brand-new energy system is taking shape, and a monumental amount of new infrastructure is needed to ensure that the next generation have somewhere safe to live and a secure supply of water.
On the frontlines of our future are utilities, construction partners and contractors, electricians, plumbers and engineers – and they can’t do it alone.
They need people in their corner and tools that are engineered to work the way they work.
Every one of them needs a trade fleet, but a plumber servicing residents in an urban area, a construction project manager driving out thousands of kilometres to build a major transmission project, and a sewer technician performing routine maintenance on a major metropolitan wastewater network all have vastly different requirements.
Enviroline Engineering Team Leader, Reade Stopford, explained that when helping a customer build out their new fleet, the process starts by listening to what their customer, as well as the broader industry needs.
“We want to tailor it around what the trades need, and make a space that actually suits that,” he said.
“For many [workers], this vehicle is very much going to be their office on the road, so it needs to be a space they’re happy to work in, day in, day out.”
The right fit
If the utility sector wasn’t on a tight deadline before, it most certainly is now. Emergency repairs aside, critical renewable energy projects need to be delivered by 2030, and communities can’t afford to wait for critical housing and water services – and in the middle of a skills shortage the last thing trades want to invest workers valuable time and effort in is fleet procurement.
Mr Stopford explained that Enviroline’s goal is to take the bulk of this work off their customer’s plates, without compromising on the end result. They do this by offering an end-to-end solution, and the team can source commercial vehicles at competitive prices, customise them to suit your business needs and then deliver them fully equipped and ready to go.
“Many of our fleet customers have two or three different suppliers who have been putting vehicles together for them, but nothing quite fits,” Mr Stopford said.
“What really does set us apart is how customer centric we are; how much we listen to what customers are asking for, where they are trying to fit their tools, to put their fit out, and how they’re trying to design their workspace. We start from that and then take off.”
“We work with those customers directly to see what parts were working for them, and what wasn’t, and then develop a solution from there.”
The team then use that information to source the right make and model for that particular customer and the broader industry’s needs.
“Some customers prefer vans, some prefer trucks and others prefer utes,” Mr Stopford said.
“And that’s why we have a broad range because everyone is looking for something different depending on what platform they’re working on.”
Power balance
A customised fleet solution ensures vehicles are fit-for-purpose, aligned with operational needs and are capable of supporting safety, efficiency, and compliance in field environments. However, designing a solution entirely from scratch is costly, takes time, and requires thorough testing to ensure that it complies with industry standards and is truly up to the task at hand.
To provide the optimal balance between customisation and reliability, Mr Stopford explained that Enviroline takes a modular approach.
“With fully bespoke truck bodies and fully tailored setups, you’re going to see problems like lead times blown out, waiting issues with the final result, or other general quality issues,” Mr Stopford said.
“So that’s why do a modular approach, where we have strong components that we reuse to make modular layouts.”
Their experience with industry-proven components helps add up to the strength and quality of the overall product.
“This means we might reuse the same drawer system that is a proven drawer system that we know works, and then we use that in all our different platforms,” he said
“It ensures that the quality from the lowest level to the highest level of the complete module itself is consistent and strong.”
Real-world use
With this foundation of quality, Enviroline is then in the best position to offer the modules based on what their customers need and want.
“For example, we might start with six or seven layouts for the trucks based on our customer’s feedback, but then we see that there’s a strong preference for one or two so we continue to develop through that,” Mr Stopford said.
“We look at what is going to fit and what the client is going to actually use – for example, if they’ve got a jetter, then how is that going to fit around the storage solution. A lot of our tradies will need somewhere to store [tools and materials], so we need to consider where we’re going to put that.
“We keep refining the early design stage, and then from there it kicks off into the main level of production, manufacturing and building. We look at how we can do things better and faster, and how we can make sure that the quality is always consistent – then we try to reduce the risk of errors and build ways to make things easier for the team to assemble into the design. We want to simplify it as much as possible, but still have complexity in the design.”
Shared success
Mr Stopford said he’s very excited for more customers to start to embrace this piece of Aussie innovation.
“Being an Australian company with a long history of selling to the Australian market, we’ve designed this and our other solutions to suit the harsh Australian conditions because that’s who we are,” he said.
“We are extremely passionate about our product – it is made in the local community, and we’re fully supportive of our people and our team.”
For Mr Stopford, Enviroline has a culture that brings the best out of its people.
“It’s just the openness and the community that we have in the business,” he said.
“We all get input into the way that the business runs and the way that the designs are done, and the way that production runs. We trust the team’s experience to guide us to the best way of doing things.
“We’re very open minded in the way that we approach everything, and everyone’s input really is valued. There’s no siloing, everybody’s pushing forward for the best that we can be.
“I can’t tell you how we do it, it’s just in everything that we have. It’s really magical.” U
