In December 2008, with the direct assistance of Active Tree Services, Brisbane City Council and Energex pioneered Australia’s first Integrated Trimming Program (ITP). The results were exceptional. Traditionally both organisations have conducted vegetation maintenance on residential streets at separate times, resulting in residents having their areas disturbed twice. In a move to integrate time and resources the ITP was a savvy solution that benefited the wider community and local government alike.
The Integrated Trimming Program (ITP) was developed out of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that exists between Energex and Brisbane City Council (BCC). Through the MOU, both parties explore programs where they can work together to achieve mutually beneficial results for vegetation maintenance in the community. Thus the trial Integrated Trimming Program (ITP) was developed and implemented through service provider Active Tree Services (ATS).
ATS was the obvious choice for the Program as they have been a key service provider to Energex in South East Queensland for seven years and also meet the BCC work specification requirements. As the BCC are often in the same area as Energex over the same period of time, it made sense for them to use a common resource.
ATS was engaged to conduct powerline clearance as per usual for Energex and at the same time provide BCC’s footpath and roadway clearance, formative pruning and dead tree wood maintenance on those streets in a joint approach under the ITP.
The ITP ensured that ATS went through each area doing all needed vegetation management for both organisations at one time providing both parties a unique opportunity to streamline operations and market their service to the community in the least disruptive and most comprehensive, efficient manner.
Mr Matt Palmer, Vegetation Policy and Planning Manager at Energex was one of the Program’s pioneers and noted that community liaison and positive response to the ITP was imperative. Clear in his objective to assess the program’s effectiveness Mr Palmer stated, “We chose a very sensitive area of Brisbane to roll out the Integrated Trimming Program. The residents have beautiful homes and take a great deal of pride in the visual amenity of their streets. Historically in that area we’ve received a lot of complaints surrounding accessibility and noise while works were being carried out. However, during the ITP, the number of complaints dropped from double figures to just one for the whole area, which was phenomenal.”
Mr Palmer believes the reason for the community embracing the program so whole-heartedly was due to the fact that prior to conducting work Active Tree Services ran an advertising campaign throughout the entire area. Distinctly branded with Energex and BCC identities along with their own, ATS ensured the recipients knew when works would be carried out, what they would be doing, who would be doing it and why.
This resulted in residents having full knowledge of works and those conducting it while seeing a united front being offered by their local government and Energex. “It wasn’t one government body in conflict with the other or just one on its own.” said Mr Palmer “ And that got greater community acceptance”.
Not only was there an almost 100% drop in complaints but the efficiency benefits over-all were notable. Energex took the greater risk in embarking on the Program, as it was they who were covering the cost and sharing their resource with the BCC. However, even with the significantly increased scope of work there was absolutely no loss in efficiency for Energex in the project rollout. “Our time frames were met and that was critical.” Stated Mr Palmer. “The biggest benefits for Energex have been the community consultation and the improved relationship with the community due to customer satisfaction.”
Practically it was Brisbane City Council who experienced the greatest advantage, reflected in huge gains in cost effectiveness. This was due to the ATS crew cost being covered and resource usage (like chipping and equipment) cut down significantly which reduced time, consumables and resource double up.
Along with having the necessary resources, ATS servicing of Energex contracts fitted in geographically with the area that BCC wanted done and still met the Energex scheduling. “ATS have the competencies to do the work and meet key criteria for both BCC and Energex. No additional training was required.” Mr Palmer explained, “The individual competencies of the ATS workers are not an issue either.” Mr Palmer noted that this saved up to nine thousand dollars of training which would have been necessary to get a BCC contractor up to speed on Energex competencies in order to undertake the works required under the Program.
With relevant parties from Energex, BCC and ATS doing what needed to be done to make the Integrated Trimming Program a possibility, the project was a resounding success. The way forward is limited only by scheduling between the two organisations. Both have sub-contractors and an internal work force to facilitate local vegetation management and this will continue, with future ITP areas pinpointed to streamline works and pick up any shortfall.