March 2009, Government Fleet - Cover Story
Standardization Offers Servicing & Budgeting Benefits
By Staff
Standardizing the vehicle platforms that comprise a fleet offers several benefits, including improved maintenance servicing, streamlined parts and fluids inventories, enhanced operational efficiency and driver safety, and expedited specification and bid processes.
Downsides to standardizing fleet vehicles include potentially higher acquisition costs, inability to take advantage of new technologies or vehicle innovations, and greater risk of excessive downtime due to model recalls or design flaws.
Standardization can be accomplished in a relatively straightforward way when limited to specific platforms, but standardizing more widely, across a number of platforms for a large portion of a fleet, can be trickier.
Vehicle Servicing & Fleet Image Benefit
The City of Napa, Calif., operates a fleet of close to 300 vehicles, including a number of standardized platforms, said Chris Burgeson, fleet manager. "That's the kind of thing we're trying to do as much as possible," he said.
Napa's vehicles for the fire, parks and recreation, police, and public works departments are maintained by four mechanics. "It's a tight staffing level," Burgeson noted. "We don't have a whole lot of room for learning as we go."
The fleet department as a whole benefits when mechanics are familiar with the vehicles they service, Burgeson said. "It means when they lift that thing up on the rack, they know their way around that vehicle and under the hood of it. It's not as if they have to start from square one and familiarize themselves with it."
There are other advantages. "It gives me the ability to standardize some of the mechanics' training," Burgeson said. "They can be focused on one make, model, and configuration. It means there's a certain consistency to the fleet."
That extends to the fleet's appearance, on which Burgeson puts a premium.
"One consistent look presents a professional image," he noted, instead of "apples, oranges, pears, and grapes."
One standard configuration in the Napa city fleet is used for building inspectors and code enforcement personnel vehicles. "We can now stock one oil filter for all trucks for all building inspectors," Burgeson pointed out.
But a standardized platform sometimes must be changed for reasons beyond a fleet's control. That's the case for the Napa police department, which, like many police departments, has been a long-time user of the Ford Crown Victoria.
"That is about to change," Burgeson said. "Ford is going to quit making that car in 2011. So we're searching for what the next standard platform is going to be."
The police department fleet numbers about 22 patrol cars, Burgeson said, and it will take a number of years before all Crown Victorias have been phased out. This year, the Crown Victoria is likely to remain the standard platform. However, Burgeson said he might "throw one car in the mix," possibly a Dodge Charger, as a candidate for the new platform. "We'd purchase one of those and put it in the fleet as a test bed," he said. "We'd want to know a little bit about that car" before settling on it, he said.
Standardizing often leads to cost reductions or improved cost controls in virtually everything related to maintenance, Burgeson said, including special tools. "We don't need a bunch of special tools. We just need the right ones for that particular make and model."
In addition to specialty tools, simplifying the array of vehicle components such as drivetrains, transmissions, and brake systems reduces the type and number of test equipment, software updates, and subscriptions required for fleet servicing.
Standardized vehicles, parts, and supplies also minimizes specifications and bid evaluations, reducing the workload for each new purchase.
City of Oxnard Seeks Broad-Based Program
Daniel Berlenbach, fleet services manager for the City of Oxnard, Calif., plans to ask the city council's approval in the near future for a process that would result in a more broad-based standardization of the city's fleet. The approach would request bids for a three-year contract solicited from local dealers representing one OEM or another - Ford or Chevrolet dealers in the area, for example - and would include training and access to diagnostic software.
The request most likely will call for bids to supply 6-10 fairly standard models, Berlenbach said, including compact, half-ton, full-size, and Crew Cab pickup trucks, "and see how each manufacturer responds, not only in terms of cost, but in terms of those other aspects" - training and access to diagnostic software.
For the term of the contract, the City would still solicit competitive bids, but only from the local dealers of the originally selected OEM.
Rather than being a change in the bidding process, Berlenbach said, "It's an exception to the rules."
This method of standardizing offers certain advantages, Berlenbach said, including greater parts and supplies efficiency. With greater similarity in vehicles, the parts department can streamline inventories and size.
"You can standardize training and the parts you're buying, and build some expertise among your folks so you become more efficient," Berlenbach noted.
Vehicle similarity also provides a user group benefit. Drivers become familiar and at ease with the vehicle's operation, controls, displays, and capabilities. Such familiarity helps promote safe driver habits and operations. Additionally, flexibility in vehicle assignments is facilitated when drivers are trained on a few standard model units.