3 December 2024

Custom Fleet Innovate RAP: 2024 achievements, challenges, learnings

In the second year of our Innovate RAP, and building on our first year, we’ve been actively working toward our vision for Reconciliation and are proud to share our achievements, challenges, and lessons learned.

In line with our vision for Reconciliation outlined in our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan, we’ve made meaningful progress to deepen our understanding of reconciliation and foster greater appreciation for the unique cultures and histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

As detailed in our broad RAP commitments, we’re required to publicly share our RAP achievements, challenges, and learnings annually.

2024 achievements:

1. Continued our Cultural Training Strategy
   In celebration of NAIDOC Week we welcomed back Jillian West to deliver the next level of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Awareness training. Jillian is a master at interactive storytelling and our crew came away with a stronger appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories. We look forward to seeing what our next iteration of training looks like in 2025 as our crew further develops their knowledge of cultural traditions and customs.
2. Supply Nation Launch
   One of the opportunities identified in our RAP is to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander supplier diversity to support improved economic and social outcomes. Acting on this item, this year we established a partnership with Supply Nation.
   

   Supply Nation has a vision of a prosperous, vibrant and sustainable Indigenous business sector. They aim to achieve this by facilitating connection between 4,500 verified Indigenous businesses and more than 750 paid corporate, government and not-for-profit members in every state and territory.

     Procurement have conducted an initial analysis of our 23/24 spend with suppliers compared to the Supply Nation directory and have already identified $194k of passive spend with accredited Indigenous business as of mid-2024.  

   We’re excited to see this number grow as the Supply Nation directory expands and we find new opportunities.
3. Yarning Circle held for Executive Team
   As part of this year’s National Reconciliation Week Celebrations, we had the privilege of welcoming Killara Foundation CEO, Kyle Vander-Kuyp to host a Yarning circle for our Executive Team. Using this traditional practice, topics discussed included the 2023 referendum, sharing of culture experiences and the some of the cultural challenges faced. Kyle expressed his gratefulness for the long-standing partnership between Custom Fleet and Killara Foundation. He acknowledged the work we are done and continue to do, creating opportunities that will address challenges, make a difference, and progress towards reconciliation, through our “Innovate RAP” commitments.
4. RAP Working Group attended Killara’s “Day Out” in celebration of National Reconciliation Week
   A key focus of our RAP is building relationships through the celebration of National Reconciliation Week (NRW). The members of our Melbourne RAP Working Group had the pleasure of taking part in the Killara Day Out. Cultural activities reflected this year's Reconciliation Week theme, ‘Now more than ever,’ focused on amplifying voices in treaty-making, truth-telling, education, and addressing racism. A highlight was the traditional weaving workshop where members learnt about traditional materials and the significance of these in aboriginal culture. Our crew were also fortunate to sample traditional native food from the esteemed Melbourne restaurant Mabu Mabu. The group thoroughly enjoyed this meaningful experience walking away with greater understanding and appreciation for the rich history and beauty of the indigenous cultures.
5. Anti-racism training delivered to leaders
   As part of our commitment to promote positive race relations through anti-discrimination strategies, Jillian West delivered an important workshop specifically designed for leaders. The session focused on understanding and addressing the effects of racism within the indigenous community which covered topics such as the effects of racism on indigenous individuals and how to better support indigenous communities. As always, Jill's session was well-received with the personal stories shared by a highlight for attendees.
6. Launch of our Cultural Protocol Guidelines
   Partnering with Jilian West, Custom Fleet launched the new Cultural Protocol Guidelines to our business. Including, guiding principles, traditional customs, key dates of significance and responsibilities of all employees, these guidelines are an important resource demonstrating our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by observing cultural protocols.
7. Met all RAP governance requirements
   This includes the convening of our RAP Working Group at least twice a year, and quarterly updates on RAP progress to our crew and senior leaders.

2024 challenges and learnings:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce participation
  As mentioned in our 2023 RAP update, through our ongoing partnership with the Killara Foundation, it’s been a challenge to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander employees in our business. We have a dedicated role established which we will only fill with someone from an Indigenous background. However, with a record low unemployment in Australia, this role was vacant for most of the year. We’ll continue to partner with Killara to fill this vacancy. We’ve tackled this challenge with new thinking and in 2025, to further support Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders in finding employment opportunities we look forward to taking part in Killara’s new Ngarrgu Djerring program. As part of this initiative, we will be welcoming groups of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth into our Melbourne office to practice interviewing skills and resume writing. Our crew look forward to getting to meeting new candidates and supporting them in their career journeys, maybe even at Custom Fleet!
  
  
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island suppliers
  Through our new partnership with Supply Nation (and Amotai in New Zealand), we have discovered that there are not a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suppliers to the mobility, fleet and automotive industries. We look forward to partnering with Supply Nation to work with and influence their network of certified businesses to take up opportunities to diversify their service offerings so that we can actively contribute more of our direct and indirect procurement spend to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned businesses.

We celebrate what we’ve achieved in 2024!

As we reflect on our challenges and learnings, we’re reminded of the ongoing responsibility to listen, learn, and adapt.

March 2025 marks the end of our first Innovate RAP and we look forward to further enhancing our progress in the last two years by focusing on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander supplier and recruitment strategies.

A cultural shift

The reconciliation journey is not about meeting commitments and milestones, rather it’s about creating a cultural shift that permeates our business, promoting genuine understanding and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, cultures, and histories.

We look forward to building on the progress we have made and taking further steps forward to achieving our vision for reconciliation in 2025.