Many of  the 2016 Leading Fleets awards recipients are pictured here after The Honors Celebration at the Government Fleet Expo & Conference on June 21.

Many of  the 2016 Leading Fleets awards recipients are pictured here after The Honors Celebration at the Government Fleet Expo & Conference on June 21.

The Leading Fleets awards program recognizes public sector fleet organizations for their leadership, efficiency, ability to successfully overcome challenges, and vision for the future. The award, open to public fleets, encourages fleets to strive for excellence. In addition to the rankings for the top 20 fleets, the award also recognizes fleets in size categories to distinguish the differing challenges fleets of various sizes face.

This year’s award is sponsored by Ford. 

We thank this year’s judges for dedicating many hours to review applications and lend their expertise to the industry: 

  • Paul Condran, fleet services manager, City of Culver City, Calif.
  • Craig Croner, CPFP, administrative services manager, City of Boise, Idaho
  • Sam Lamerato, CPFP, retired fleet superintendent, City of Troy, Mich.
  • Pete Scarafiotti, CAFM, CEM, CPFP, fleet director and automotive engineer, City of Mesa, Ariz.
  • Doug Weichman, CAFM, director of fleet management, Palm Beach County, Fla.

No. 1 Small Fleet (499 or fewer assets): City of Buckeye, Ariz.

The Buckeye fleet, with 410 vehicles, exhibits leadership by having technicians set goals that are in line with key performance indicators as well as being involved with industry associations and through an internship program with a high school and community colleges. It ensures competitiveness by establishing a labor rate that is lower than neighboring maintenance facilities and saved more than $43,000 in one year by performing in-house warranty repairs.

Its five-year plan is to reduce its carbon footprint by 5% and replace 10% of its fleet with alternative-energy vehicles by 2020.

“This award is a testament to the entire fleet staff who worked tirelessly in the past seven years to ensure that we are where we are today,” said Mike DePaulo, CPFP, fleet manager. “Being ranked No. 1 of all small fleets says that we did it right, and we will continue to do it right.”

The City of Buckeye, Ariz., consistently exceeds its performance goals in availability, preventive maintenance, customer  satisfaction, billed hours, and quick turnaround.  Photo Courtesy of City of Buckeye  -

The City of Buckeye, Ariz., consistently exceeds its performance goals in availability, preventive maintenance, customer
satisfaction, billed hours, and quick turnaround. Photo Courtesy of City of Buckeye


No. 1 Mid-Size Fleet (500-999 assets): City of Bellevue, Wash.

The City of Bellevue fleet of 889 vehicles is governed by a four-­person Fleet and Communications Management team. The fleet’s involvement in the industry allows it to learn and employ best practices. It maintains ASE Blue Seal certification, outsources work when appropriate, and has a strong remarketing program.

The fleet’s five-year strategic plan includes looking into a new facility, pursuing additional insourcing opportunities, and replacing its aging fueling infrastructure.

“Entering the Leading Fleets contest offered us the opportunity to review current practices and helped us place renewed focus on very specific areas. Receiving the award as the No. 1 mid-size fleet was a tremendous honor and is testimony to all the hard work and dedication of the entire fleet team,” said Patrick Spencer, fleet administrator.

The Bellevue, Wash., fleet has a staff of 24 employees and has been an ASE Blue Seal facility for seven years.  Photo Courtesy of City of Bellevue  -

The Bellevue, Wash., fleet has a staff of 24 employees and has been an ASE Blue Seal facility for seven years. Photo Courtesy of City of Bellevue


No. 1 Large Fleet (1,000 or more assets): City of Columbus, Ohio

With 6,280 vehicles, the City of Columbus fleet was named the No. 1 large fleet as well as the No. 1 overall fleet. For more information on this operation, click here.

Each City of Columbus, Ohio, fleet employee contributes to the award by being efficient and working on new ­initiatives.  Photo Courtesy of Columbus  -

Each City of Columbus, Ohio, fleet employee contributes to the award by being efficient and working on new ­initiatives. Photo Courtesy of Columbus


The top 20 fleets are ranked below:

1 City of Columbus, OH

Contact: Kelly Reagan
Units: 6,280
Staff: 121
Maint. Facilities: 4
Overcoming Challenges: When Ford eliminated the Crown Victoria and the Police Department began advocating for SUVs, which fleet opposed due to fuel efficiency concerns, fleet staff responded with a compromise. Fleet worked with Police to find a solution in the form of an anti-idling device. The system automatically turns off the engine once idling exceeds a certain amount of time but does not affect auxiliary equipment. The system was installed on 94 cruisers in 2015 and resulted in a 26% reduction in idle time.

2 City of Fort Wayne, IN

Contact: Larry Campbell, CPFP
Units: 1,957
Staff: 29
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: Departments have grown significantly in the past few years. Fleet separated each department and division using class codes to show that it is unbiased and to ensure that turnaround time and fleet availability is equal for each department. It found that while the overall city vehicle availability may be high, it might be low for one department. Fleet runs a report daily to ensure the numbers are about the same across user departments and to see why there might be any differences.

3 Montgomery County, MD

Contact: Bill Griffiths
Units: 3,419
Staff: 204
Maint. Facilities: 13
Overcoming Challenges: Staff needed to meet and exceed performance targets on reliability, availability, and preventive maintenance (PM) compliance in the midst of a right-­sizing initiative. Existing staff members formed a training, quality assurance, and reliability team. They created training trees for career growth, administered more than 30 training classes, and partnered with the local college. This approach resulted in a 26% increase in reliability, a 98% PM compliance rate, a 27% decrease in downtime, and a 6% decrease in cents per mile.

4 City of Tulsa, OK

Contact: Brian Franklin, CPFP
Units: 3,120
Staff: 79
Maint. Facilities: 4
Overcoming Challenges: Customers weren’t adhering to preventive maintenance (PM) schedules because they didn’t want to take units required for critical tasks out of service and because PM schedules didn’t accommodate their work shifts. Fleet opened a PM-­only shop for heavy equipment and outsourced light-­duty PMs to a local vendor that had 12 citywide locations, extended hours, and Saturday service. Fleet staff also ensured motor pool vehicles were available to those getting PMs and created an online PM scheduler. PM compliance now exceeds 95%.

5 County of San Diego, CA

Contact: Sharyl Blackington
Units: 4,105
Staff: 61
Maint. Facilities: 8
Overcoming Challenges: With the integration of a volunteer fire department into the county Fire Authority, the fire fleet increased by 60%. Fleet faced a shortage of manpower and ­certified fire mechanics to maintain and repair the vehicles. Using industry maintenance and repair units (MRUs) to calculate needs, fleet received approval for two additional full-time technicians. Eight technicians attended training and became certified fire mechanics. Fleet added a mobile service truck and is working on retrofitting a satellite maintenance facility to primarily support the fire fleet.

6 City of Houston, TX

Contact: Victor Ayres
Units: 11,685
Staff: 378
Maint. Facilities: 25
Overcoming Challenges: Reduced capital budgets make vehicle replacement a challenge. For light-duty vehicles, fleet created a shared motor pool program and in 2015, expanded it from three locations to 12. The shared motor pool vehicles have a 50% increase in utilization through better management and telematics. This allowed fleet to eliminate 88 vehicles and eliminated the planned purchase of another 75 vehicles.

7 City of Buckeye, AZ

Contact: Michael DePaulo, CPFP
Units: 410
Staff: 7.5
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: In order to attract and retain qualified employees, the fleet created a new job classification, Master Technician. Qualifications include being ASE Master certified for automobiles as well as medium-heavy trucks and five years of experience. Fleet also created a tool maintenance allowance, creating a policy that provides increasing yearly allowances based on how many years of service the technician has.

8 City & County of Denver, CO

Contact: Todd Richardson
Units: 2,163
Staff: 89
Maint. Facilities: 7
Overcoming Challenges: A new product line of side loader refuse trucks continually failed due to technician and operator unfamiliarity. After collaborating with the dealer and manufacturer, fleet sent technicians to factory training. It then developed a training program for operators to identify and address signs of problems preemptively. Fleet also rebuilt the preventive maintenance program to become a predictive maintenance program based on staff members’ greater knowledge base of the vehicles. These efforts increased Solid Waste equipment availability from 80% to 91% in the span of 12 months.

9 Lee County, FL

Contact: Marilyn Rawlings
Units: 1,850
Staff: 30
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: Lower taxes in the past few years have resulted in equipment life being extended well beyond the norm, with repair costs escalating and a reduction in fleet personnel. Local vendors no longer carried the parts or equipment inventory they used to stock, so acquisition times were extended significantly. As a result, equipment had major, time-­consuming repairs, parts were back-ordered, no back-up equipment was available, and crew and equipment downtime escalated. Fleet implemented various solutions, including conducting off-site repairs and increasing vendor involvement.

10 Manatee County, FL

Contact: Michael Brennan, CEM
Units: 1,357
Staff: 39
Maint. Facilities: 4
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet’s most significant challenge has been keeping scheduled technological, safety, and facility advancements on schedule as it constructed a new regional facility while maintaining service levels. Fleet completed a major upgrade of its fleet software, added telematics to 50 additional units, and continued to automate its parts operation. It expanded its wireless fuel management system and commenced installations on off-road equipment. Fleet recorded more than 800 direct contact training hours in fiscal year 2015 and stayed on schedule to open its facility.

11 City of Tempe, AZ

Contact: Kevin Devery
Units: 1,128
Staff: 30
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: Tempe’s biggest challenge was designing, procuring, funding, and installing a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station for its refuse trucks. The city has 11 CNG refuse units and is committed to purchasing more CNG units. After receiving capital improvement funding for the project, staff worked with engineering and the transit division to develop the plans for infrastructure. The site will have two fast-fill pumps that can fill up to 25 trucks, with the capability to expand.

12 City of Long Beach, CA

Contact: Dan Berlenbach
Units: 2,016
Staff: 97
Maint. Facilities: 8
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet staff implemented a new fleet management system while making significant business practice improvements and continuing to provide responsive service. Steps taken to overcome it included: using temporary staff to identify and correct database errors; drafting fleet supervisors from the floor to analyze system information and perform detailed setup; and updating computers. Staff members received intensive training and now understand the driving factors in the program, allowing fleet to pinpoint service gaps effectively and address them.

13 City of Anaheim, CA

Contact: Julie Lyons
Units: 1,100
Staff: 30
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: The fleet is facing an aging workforce. Fleet actively promotes cross training and has multiple people trained in the same tasks to minimize productivity loss when an employee retires — or is promoted as a result of another retirement. Management re-classed all technician positions in order to raise the pay level and provide a more linear career path. It also incentivizes ASE and fire certifications, and it offers training, mentoring, and guidance for those technicians who want to leave the floor and become managers.

14 City of Moline, IL

Contact: J.D. Schulte
Units: 380
Staff: 11
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Justifying a green fleet can be difficult when data is not available. Fleet staff wanted to try out propane autogas mowers, but no historical costs were available yet. What staff did know was that a propane autogas mower cost $1,500 more than a gasoline mower. To overcome this cost, fleet staff began looking into incentives. It received $10,500 from two organizations, which exceeded the additional cost of the propane autogas units and allowed the city to purchase the units.

15 City of Fort Worth, TX

Contact: Wayne Corum
Units: 3,513
Staff: 108
Maint. Facilities: 3
Overcoming Challenges: The city’s vehicle replacement program did not coincide with the budget process, which prevented vehicles from being encumbered the same year as it was procured. Fleet formed a process improvement team with members from various departments. The team identified the barriers that affect the timely procurement of vehicles and equipment and took steps to solve the problem. The vehicle replacement list was updated and published by December 2015, and replacement meetings were scheduled to meet the city’s FY-2017 budget cycle.

16 City of Bellevue, WA

Contact: Fleet Team
Units: 889
Staff: 24
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet’s usual operational method of regarding upfitting and remarketing vehicles as filler work — and placing priority on equipment already in service — created idle equipment and bottlenecks in and around the shop. Customers expressed their frustration in surveys. In 2015, the fleet created a new program to dedicate existing staff and shop space to this work as well as a scheduler. This eliminated bottlenecks, and fleet staff is delivering vehicles on time more consistently.

17 Alameda County, CA

Contact: Doug Bond
Units: 1,080
Staff: 15
Maint. Facilities: 3
Overcoming Challenges: Budget has continued to be the fleet’s biggest challenge, which it has tackled with technology. Fuel accounts for approximately one third of the department’s budget. Using grant funding, the county purchased hybrid and electric vehicles, which allowed it to save an estimated $475,000 in fuel costs. Fleet has also upgraded its fuel sites and installed GPS devices in more than 400 vehicles to reduce fuel consumption. Finally, its collaborative fuel purchase is estimated to save $250,000 over the five-year contract.

18 City of Dublin, OH

Contact: J. Darryl Syler
Units: 254
Staff: 9
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet wanted to fully utilize its snow plow trucks in the off season. Dump trucks are used throughout the year, but not all are fully used in the summer. With the Streets and Utilities division, fleet staff developed a spec for a multi-use or swap loader vehicle. This allows the city to change beds for better use of the truck. Having a multi-use vehicle will allow fleet to reduce the number of vehicles needed and to obtain optimal use of the asset year round.

19 City of Milwaukee, WI

Contact: Jeffrey Tews, CPFP
Units: 3,076
Staff: 105
Maint. Facilities: 5
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet staff is responsible for contacting 200 drivers and support staff during snow operation call-outs. This task involved pagers and six staff members spending up to two hours on the phones, any time, day or night. Fleet automated the call-out process, utilizing cell phones and an automated community messaging system. Fleet staff sends a detailed message and text to a list of people, who can acknowledge the message by pressing 1. The system retries any no-responses and reports all results. There has been a significant reduction in response time, as well as savings of more than $30,000.

20 County of San Bernardino, CA

Contact: Roger Weaver, CAFM, CPFP, CPM
Units: 6,015; Staff: 81
Maint. Facilities: 6
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet implemented a new fleet management information system and encountered various problems with the system and implementation. Staff worked with the provider to get additional training, requested enhancements for identified problems, collaborated with other fleets for implementation strategies, and created user committees. The system is now meeting the fleet’s needs and its use is continually improving.

[PAGEBREAK]

The remaining fleets are listed in alphabetical order:

City of Beverly Hills, CA

Contact: Craig Crowder
Units: 415
Staff: 11
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet wanted to improve preventive maintenance (PM) compliance, reduce downtime, and improve technician efficiency. With two new technicians, management had to fast track training, mentoring, and job shadowing. Staff continued to have brief meetings at the beginning of each day to discuss key items or issues. These steps reduced PM overdue rates from 24% to 8%, improved fleet availability from 83% to 92%, and raised technician efficiency from 64% to 78%.

City of Charlotte, NC

Contact: Chris Trull
Units: 6,397
Staff: 119
Maint. Facilities: 5
Overcoming Challenges: Aging equipment is driving up maintenance and repair costs. Fleet provided equipment analysis data to prove that repairing a light vehicle and extending its life is more cost efficient than extending the life on a heavy vehicle (dump truck, refuse truck, and construction equipment). Fleet staff has been working with city’s Budget Office and user departments to try and replace more heavy equipment and less light equipment on an annual basis.

City of Chesapeake, VA

Contact: George Hrichak, CEM, CPFP
Units: 1,554
Staff: 36
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: The city experienced suspension failures on 10 of its fire engines. Long parts lead times and repair costs of more than $38,000 stretched the budget. Using savings from the fuel budget, fleet retrofitted all failed units to the newest configuration suspension. This retrofit allowed the ball joints to be replaced independently of the control arms, eliminating the possibility of this type of sudden expense on this platform again.

City of Cincinnati, OH

Contact: David Cavanaugh
Units: 1,800
Staff: 70
Maint. Facilities: 9
Overcoming Challenges: Declining capital resources and increasing vehicle replacement costs have resulted in nearly 50% of the citywide fleet being out of lifecycle. The city began a Capital Acceleration Program (CAP) that is designed to infuse capital funding for accelerated fleet replacement over a seven-year period. It will bring 85% of the fleet within lifecycle within 12 years. Staff is working with a consultant to guide the fleet through this process.

City of Conroe, TX

Contact: Erik Metzger
Units: 599
Staff: 8
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Staffing and space are fleet’s two biggest concerns. A relatively low pay scale makes it hard to attract qualified technicians. Fleet now allows technicians six months to obtain certifications from the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License. The pay increase has helped retain most of the new employees. Staff is also requesting a new fleet facility that has twice the space of the current one.

City of Durham, NC

Contact: Joseph Clark
Units: 1,612
Staff: 44
Maint. Facilities: 3
Overcoming Challenges: The fleet has limited funding for its vehicle replacement program. A new utilization study recommended doubling annual utilization. This led users to relinquish equipment and utilize vehicles more effectively, and fleet developed a 10-year replacement plan that incorporates lifecycle cost, return on investment, and acceptable annual increases in funding levels. It also identified $500,000 in annual savings in reduced maintenance and operating costs.

City of Fairfield, CA

Contact: David Renschler, CPFP

Units: 345
Staff: 15
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: The city conducted a year-long project to have propane autogas tanks, dispensers, and new vehicles purchased, but the public shut down the project due to environmental and safety concerns. This opened the door for fleet staff to convince executive management that renewable diesel would be a good option. It allows the fleet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions even more than the propane autogas project and with no infrastructure costs.

City of Fargo, ND

Contact: Harold Pedersen
Units: 600
Staff: 38
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: After evaluating three different idle management systems for police cars, fleet staff could not find one that was guaranteed to not activate when parked inside a building but would monitor battery voltage to start the vehicle when the voltage got to 11.5 volts. Staff rewired some systems and parts to put together a system that would fit the city’s parameters. It was economical, was the best fit for meeting officers’ requirements, and decreased fuel consumption.

City of Fort Collins, CO

Contact: Tracy Ochsner
Units: 2,040
Staff: 36
Maint. Facilities: 4
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet had an inadequate vehicle replacement program, where most departments had to initiate a request for new vehicles. To change this, staff used its fleet management system to create a report listing all vehicles that needed replacement. Staff posted the results in its budget manual for every department to allocate funds in their 2017-18 budgets. The feedback on this initiative was very positive, and fleet anticipates this will reduce overall costs.

City of Henderson, NV

Contact: Robert Herr
Units: 1,407
Staff: 20
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet had a disparate parts room with no central monitoring or control and an inflated inventory with underused or obsolete parts. Staff planned a redesign that would add two new tire carousels and make room for a central parts room, which was approved by City Council. The new space provides better monitoring, control, and security of parts and tires, and more efficient management and distribution of parts with fewer underused and obsolete parts.

City of Huntington Beach, CA

Contact: Robert LaRoche
Units: 822
Staff: 16
Maint. Facilities: 3
Overcoming Challenges: As the city moves out of the recession, fleet staff must determine which vehicles and equipment get replaced first and juggle the desires of multiple customers. Staff worked with customer departments to establish priorities and provide acceptable alternatives to ensure their operational needs are met. Staff handled replacements through grant funding, moving vehicles around, and leasing.

City of Indianapolis, IN

Contact: Ronnie Rhoton
Units: 4,787
Staff: 104
Maint. Facilities: 3
Overcoming Challenges: In 2015, Indianapolis began the process of converting its non-pursuit vehicles to electric plug-in hybrid vehicles, beginning with 200 vehicles. The logistical coordination of disposing older vehicles from the municipal fleet, as well as the reassignment of hybrid EVs, has posed challenges, primarily in the areas of vehicle home charging and charging stations. The city identified strategic areas for charging stations and has already implemented certified home charging units for high usage drivers.

City of Lakeland, FL

Contact: Gary McLean
Units: 1,350
Staff: 28
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet gambled to cut its budget at the same time the city enacted a hiring freeze — even though fleet had three vacancies at that time. Management drastically cut fuel budgets, reduced three positions from payroll, and reduced operations and maintenance account lines. After the crisis was averted, fleet was approved to hire replacements, but continued to hold vacancies, discovering an actual service level increase. This led management to evaluate staffing for a permanent reduction going forward, based on attrition.

City of Oceanside, CA

Contact: Jeffery Hart
Units: 481
Staff: 12
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet faced the recent retirement of two of its most senior technicians who were also the city’s police vehicle upfitters. With an aggressive recruitment program, staff was able to hire a team leader and a certified Master Technician from a local dealership for the light-duty side and a talented fire mechanic from a neighboring city. The fleet faces the retirement of two more senior technicians next year.

City of Orlando, FL

Contact: David Dunn, CFM
Units: 3,077
Staff: 57
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: The fleet was training technicians but losing them to other agencies with better pay incentives. Staff launched a city-wide salary assessment survey, retrained its core technicians to keep up with the rapid pace of technology in fleet vehicles, expanded educational sessions provided by manufacturers and vendors, and developed a pilot program with a university to develop specialized training on new technology to technicians.

City of Raleigh, NC

Contact: Travis Brown
Units: 2,599
Staff: 77
Maint. Facilities: 3
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet’s biggest challenge was in planning, building, and occupying its new facilities. Staff made sure there was new technology for greater productivity, facility locations were dispersed to decrease travel time for customers, and the facilities had greater capability. Fleet worked to address the challenges of these new buildings and larger-capacity fueling stations, which come with new monitoring and fueling equipment that require routine inspections, maintenance, and training.

City of Ventura, CA

Contact: Mary Joyce Ivers, CPFP
Units: 394
Staff: 9
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet had problems with two newly delivered fire pumpers: identified deficiencies had not been corrected at the factory. The Fire Department suffered a downtime of more than 3,000 hours for both pumpers. Fleet staff worked with the manufacturer and dealer to hold them accountable for multiple warranty issues. Staff is also working with various other manufacturers to have recalled parts delivered directly for fleet technicians to make repairs.

County of Riverside, CA

Contact: Lisa Brandl
Units: 4,317
Staff: 52
Maint. Facilities: 7
Overcoming Challenges: The county continues its goal of being a zero-emission fleet, in alignment with the local air quality management district’s vision. The fleet is purchasing all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and the necessary infrastructure, and 80% of its light-duty passenger vehicles bought in FY-2014-15 were gasoline-electric hybrids. Fleet obtained grant funding to help pay for these purchases as well as electric vehicle chargers.

County of Sonoma, CA

Contact: David Worthington
Units: 1,312
Staff: 23
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: In the past year, technical team members experienced various injuries and problems that led to their absence from work. Employing extra help on the shop floor allowed staff to keep up with work — until those workers left for permanent positions elsewhere. The department began subletting any work beyond current staffing capabilities, added one full-time position, and looked into creating an applicant pool for extra help technicians.

County of Ventura, CA

Contact: Peter Bednar
Units: 1,568
Staff: 42
Maint. Facilities: 3
Overcoming Challenges: During the recession, fleet staff decreased by 29%, with only a fraction of vehicles reduced. Staff fell behind on maintenance and repairs. Fleet management determined it needed eight additional staff members but couldn’t hire them. Fleet began sharing data about open work orders in a visual dashboard with technicians, discontinued inefficient systems, and eliminated non-value operations on new police vehicles, among other changes. These efforts improved efficiency despite the lack of staff, and fleet saved more than $680,000 by working leaner.

Dakota County, MN

Contact: Kevin Schlangen, CAFM, CEM, CPFP
Units: 382
Staff: 13.5
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: About 60% of staff were new hires or in new positions, and the county had a hard time hiring entry-level technicians. Fleet staff revised job descriptions, expanded its mentoring program, used benchmarking data to support new pay grades and operational changes, and participated in college career fairs. Through these efforts, it gained approval to hire fleet trainees, from which fleet filled three full-time technician positions.

DC Water, District of Columbia

Contact: Timothy Fitzgerald
Units: 1,800
Staff: 8
Maint. Facilities: 2
Overcoming Challenges: The fleet’s biggest challenge is getting user departments to understand best value versus lowest bid in contracts. Fleet began spec’ing a mesh network system within its vehicles, driving up acquisition costs. The mesh network allows the vehicle to connect to other vehicles, buildings, and infrastructure, which allows for less expensive networking by decreasing data costs. Fleet staff worked with user departments, tested the system with them, and showed them the benefits — including cost reduction of 40% — to convince them that this would be the best value purchase.

Denver International Airport, CO

Contact: Jeff Booton
Units: 958
Staff: 74
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: The fleet’s biggest challenge was upgrading its fleet management information system (FMIS) while simultaneously developing and incorporating an entirely new workflow process. Staff underwent a year-long process, from initial ­design through implementation, to reinvent how it processed all its maintenance actions. Then, staff collaborated with the software provider to make this workflow an integral part of its FMIS. The new process standardized maintenance inputs, which gave staff the ability to produce metrics.

Eugene Water & Electric Board, OR

Contact: Gary Lentsch, CAFM
Units: 262
Staff: 10
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet had planned for workforce retirements, but not early retirements caused by changes in the retirement system. Over a two-month period, 40% of fleet staff had either retired or accepted higher paying positions elsewhere. The department partnered with a couple of dealerships to work in the fleet’s facility with its own technicians with an equal shop labor rate. This helped fleet meet temporary staffing needs and allowed technicians to learn new repair techniques from the dealership technicians.

Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, IL

Contact: Michael Webster
Units: 615
Staff: 16
Maint. Facilities: 4
Overcoming Challenges: The fleet has problems finding obsolete and hard-to-find parts for its GM medium-duty dump trucks. GM no longer produces the medium-duty line, and the propane autogas systems on the trucks are no longer manufactured. When a part is back-ordered in the GM system, staff contacts its GM factory rep to begin the search process with its network. Staff also checks aftermarket channels and works with the local hose and fabrication shops to have parts fabricated to expedite the process.

Hillsborough County, FL

Contact: Robert Stine Jr.
Units: 3,800
Staff: 54
Maint. Facilities: 4
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet absorbed financial, procurement, information technology, and acquisition workload from a previously consolidated department that was disbanded. Fleet received two staff members to handle these services and recruited two additional people to absorb the additional workload. Fleet started recurring support meetings to prioritize actions, developed focus groups, and eliminated staff process steps. These actions allowed fleet to receive adequate staff support in order to meet customer needs.

King County Fleet & Metro Transit, WA

Contact: Jennifer Lindwall
Units: 2,955
Staff: 125
Maint. Facilities: 5
Overcoming Challenges: Fleet was challenged with “greening the fleet” to meet the emissions ­reduction goals in King County’s Strategic Climate Action Plan. The division underwent a business analysis to identify new strategies and efficiencies to reduce emissions without compromising service. In addition to growing its fleet of electric vehicles, King County broadened outreach to customers to help identify new efficiencies in their business operations, choose more efficient vehicles, and encourage a commitment to the environment.

New York City Citywide Administrative Services, NY

Contact: Keith Kerman
Units: 28,471
Staff: 1,672
Maint. Facilities: 40
Overcoming Challenges: The Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services-Fleet and the Mayor’s Office released a Clean Fleet Plan to continue implementation of the city’s sustainability plan. The city issued a Request for Information (RFI), receiving 76 official RFI responses that included alternative fuel strategies, vehicle add-ons, infrastructure development, and idle management. Fleet is working with agencies to review the proposals, set up follow-up meetings, and further develop its Clean Fleet strategy.

Orange County, FL

Contact: Bryan Lucas
Units: 3,565
Staff: 65
Maint. Facilities: 1
Overcoming Challenges: Turnover due to retirements has been the fleet’s biggest recent challenge. When fleets know there will be permanent positions coming available, it offers strong applicants the chance to start in a “casual” position. This gets them working quicker and allows fleet to try them out before the permanent positions are filled. Staff members work closely with local technical schools and colleges for recruiting. They post vacant positions on their career sites, offer tours to students, and participate in the schools’ advisory boards.

Sacramento County, CA

Contact: Keith Leech Sr.
Units: 2,300
Staff: 104
Maint. Facilities: 11
Overcoming Challenges: An update to the county’s fleet management information system (FMIS) several years ago was unsuccessful, resulting in very limited use of the system. This prevented the fleet from making data-driven business decisions. Fleet worked with a consultant to identify ways to improve efficiency and use of the FMIS, eventually hiring an FMIS application administrator and contracting with the software vendor to further improve efficiencies.


While the following fleets were not named among the top 50, the accomplishments and efforts of these fleets warrant recognition.

  • Bonneville Power Administration, WA
  • Chesterfield County, VA
  • City of Fayetteville, AR
  • City of Harrisonburg, VA
  • City of Kirkwood, MO
  • City of Moscow, ID
  • City of Orange, CA
  • City of Phoenix, AZ
  • City of Roanoke, VA
  • City of San Jose, CA
  • City of Tyler, TX
  • City of West University Place, TX
  • City of Wichita, KS
  • Cobb County, GA
  • NYC Parks, NY
  • Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, FL
  • Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada
  • Sarasota County, FL
  • State of Delaware
  • Town of Castle Rock, CO
  • Washington State Department of Transportation
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