Idea #54 -- Fleet Management

Idea #54 – Fleet Management

Report Status: Fully Reviewed

Researched by: Norma Massarotti

Original Idea as Submitted

Evaluate town vehicle fleet management; potentially eliminate all town-owned passenger vehicles and the travel allowance benefit of compensating employees for travel to and from their homes.

Other ideas included in this report

None

Idea intent

Evaluate town fleet management policies/practices and recommend changes that make fleet management more cost efficient for the Town of Belmont.

Weighted Final Score: 40 (Financial Impact: 3, Operational Impact: 2, Time Scale: 2, Ease of Implementation: 2)

Background Information

The Town of Belmont’s fleet comprises approximately 211 vehicles. Its value has not been estimated though is a multi-million-dollar asset base/investment for our Town. Total cost of ownership is not understood. Departments manage their respective fleet, and no centralized/standard data repository exists that is maintained with key and important data attributes. Additionally, there doesn’t appear to be a manual holding policies and procedures pertaining to managing these vehicles from declaration of need, purchase vs. lease, vehicle use, vehicle documentation, driver log and mileage reporting, idle hours, vehicle accidents, fueling of vehicles, maintenance plan by vehicle, misuse of vehicles, resale, etc.

Evaluation of the idea and the basis of the recommendation were made through:

a review of an excel file of Town owned vehicles supplied by the Town which included some of the key data attributes for each vehicle where available (data was incomplete)
a review of written policies that guide the management of fleet (no written policies were provided)
a review of any reporting of key metrics pertaining to the management of this asset (no formal reporting takes place)
information gathering meetings with Town of Belmont DPW, Town of Newton DPW, the State of MA OVM, the State of MA OVM fleet management company, Chevin, and the City of Cambridge DPW fleet management company, Fleetio.

Recommendations

SCIG recommends that Belmont utilize the services of Chevin (State of Massachusetts fleet management company) to conduct a two-year pilot with its FleetWave product to gain some learning and actual experience on the benefits of outsourcing some aspects of fleet management. FleetWave contains a broad set of offerings and features which can be purchased a la carte to enable a trial to get some learning. This menu type offering also allows for a phased approach roll-out to not overwhelm new users. The City of Cambridge uses Fleetio, a similar priced product to Fleetwave. The Town of Belmont could invite both companies to conduct a session with key stakeholders to see a demo and ask questions.

FleetWave’s estimated cost for the data repository only product is $5/vehicle/month x 211 vehicles or $12,660 per year. The tool would provide data to guide decision making and learning and will require users to submit data. Data submission can be automated for vehicles equipped with telematics devices or via a centralized excel spreadsheet. The tool provides data for Right Sizing through the reporting of key performance indicators (KPI’s) and reports to capture utilization rates over a period to assist in determining whether the Town has the correct number of a particular asset type. Total Cost of Ownership can be better estimated through collecting every expense incurred by the Town to operate a specific asset (loan or lease payments if applicable, fuel, maintenance and repairs, fines, telematics subscriptions if applicable, titling and registration fees, insurance, etc.). An Efficient Replacement Schedule can be better developed using the data collected and the replacement criteria for each asset type that is determined by the Town. As the data is collected in the platform tool, the system will display how a particular asset is tracking against the established criteria. Additionally, FleetWave will provide forecasting for the assets that are nearing the end of their lifecycle in a customizable fashion (i.e., 12-months, 24-months, etc..).

SCIG also recommends that Belmont improve its fleet management through the writing, implementation, and enforcement of policies/procedures that guide its management from purchase, use, maintenance/repair, and resale/retirement. These policies/procedures should be contained in a manual and adopted to ensure that the Town of Belmont’s vehicles are managed in an efficient, economical, and safe fashion, consistent with policy. The State of Massachusetts’ policy manual can be a starting point for Belmont to draft and write its policies and procedures. Additionally, policies for example those guided by the Energy Commission relating to the purchase of vehicles, should also reside in the manual.

Eliminating all town-owned passenger vehicles and travel allowances is not in scope of this recommendation. SCIG is recommending that through the writing of policies regarding Fleet Management, the passenger vehicles and travel allowances policies are written, aligned, and approved. For example, policies would be written that stipulate what positions are allowed Take Home vehicles and why, and written to guide vehicle use, etc. Travel allowances (stipends) are included in some employment contracts and though not in scope within Fleet Management, SCIG recommends that the Select Board and School Committee, respectively, review all its contracts that include travel allowances to confirm that travel allowances are justified, reasonable, and treated correctly from a tax standpoint. Additionally, it is recommended that for new contracts the Town of Belmont move away from including travel allowances in contracts and move towards reimbursement for business travel actually incurred.

Next Steps

Task	Owner/Lead
Determine who will lead overall project	Select Board with input from Town Administrator DPW Fire Chief Police Chief School Committee
Finalize and align an excel template of the key data attributes to be collected for all town owned vehicles with each department lead providing data for its vehicles (year, make, model, VIN#, purchase price, odometer reading, take home (Y/N), insurance premium cost, primary driver, equipped with telematics (Y/N), etc.	Town Fleet Manager
Populate the template for all town owned vehicles. Data providers should conduct some self-training on excel through many on-line and free options. Template will reside in a drop box.	Town Fleet Manager with each Department head
Review State of MA Office of Fleet Management Polices and write, align, implement a policy manual for the Town of Belmont which adopts similar policies as the State of MA. This effort can be implemented in phases with policies added as they become available (e.g., 2 x per year)	Town Administrator Fire Chief Police Chief School Committee
Host working session with Chevin and Fleetio to review their products with Town of Belmont and key stakeholders	TBD
As guided by State bidding laws, run an up-to-two-year pilot using a fleet management company to collect and report data on Belmont’s vehicles to help drive efficiencies, enforce policies, and to gain some learning on the value of potentially utilizing a fleet management company for expanded services.	Town Fleet Manager
Report KPI’s monthly and review pilot results to Select Board at a minimum of 1 x per year	Town Fleet Manager
Review current contracts which include travel allowance per recommendation	Select Board and School Committee
Move away from travel allowances in future contracts towards reimbursement for business travel	Select Board and School Committee