“Progress is impossible without change.” – George Bernard Shaw
Change is also a constant, even when we try to resist it. And 2024 has more than proven that whether by chance or design, we’re well and truly in the throes of it.
This concept was embodied in our recent national conference’s theme, connect, adapt, transform. Our series of sessions and panels focussed on addressing the tides of the future (including contracts, transports and fuels, and our workforce), emergent technologies, innovation and data management, and manufacturing, all the way to antisocial behaviour, safety and operational transformation for the betterment of our organisation members and their employees.
Incidentally, the conference – leaning towards the very far end of 2024 and hosted at the equally far end of the country in Hobart – sported a fabulous turn-out. This suggests that despite it being a year choc-full of industry events, bus and coach was still on the ready for its own time in the limelight.
Speaking of endings, we bade farewell to out-going NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto OAM, but not before offering up the national regulator and state of bus safety in Australia update as his very last presentation.
We wished our own Ian ‘Macca’ MacDonald all the best, thanking him for his inspired contributions across the decades in his capacity as IR … and head of the Australian Public Transport Industrial Association (APTIA). At the same time, we officially welcomed our new National Industrial Relations Manager, Kirsten Jongsma, via initiation by conference program!
The National Industry Awards each year are also a reminder that there are still enormous strides to be taken, while celebrating those who have not only undertaken but smashed them in 2024. Amid the applause and surprise factor for some, we recognised the outstanding lifelong contributions of industry greats, Jim Hill (Gatton Bus Lines) and Dick Rowe (Busways Group).
Venturing back home… there was further changing of the guard after our recent BIC Council elections. I’m happy to announce that Tony Hopkins will reprise as Chair, while Vice Chair Julian Gurney steps down ahead of his new appointment UK-based bus manufacturer Wrightbus. We wish Julian all the best and hope to continue to engage with him in his new role. Stepping up are Keolis Downer’s Rolf Mitchell and Clark’s Logan City Bus Service’s Kaylee Clark, as we say goodbye and thank you to Mark McKenzie and Adam Pulitano.
Now, I’ll leave you with these immortal words: “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.” – Martin Luther King Jnr.
Until next time, keep rolling…
Roz Chivers
Executive Director, BIC
