Three Years Later, W.Va. Uncovers Its Fleet Count

After years of investigation, the State of West Virginia has finally determined how many vehicles it owns. A state delegate announced that the state owns 8,380 fleet vehicles, reported WVAH.

The new vehicle count is more than the state’s fleet office originally estimated but significantly less than the 12,000 vehicles that were being covered by the state’s insurance. According to WVAH, Delegate Gary Howell reported that the state will be able to save nearly $400,000 in insurance premium payments each year. 

The current tally of W.V. fleet vehicles, as reported by WVAH:

• 4,175 Class A vehicles, including passenger cars or trucks with a gross weight of 10,000 lbs. or less
• 2,907 Class B vehicles, which are trucks with a gross weight of more than 10,000 lbs., truck tractors, or road tractors
• 1,031 Class C trailers, which are large trailers pulled by Class B motor vehicles and havea  gross weight greater than 2,000 lbs.
• Five Class G motorcycles and parking enforcement vehicles
• 18 Class M pieces of mobile equipment
• 36 Class R house trailers
• 208 Class T trailers or semitrailers designed to be drawn by Class A vehicles with a gross weight of less than 2,000 lbs.

In 2016, the West Virginia Legislative Auditor looked into whether the state really needs all of its fleet vehicles, but ran into problems tracking down the vehicles mentioned. At the time, the Fleet Management Office reported that there were 7,700 vehicles in the state fleet, but there were 10,000 active state license plates issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles and 12,000 vehicles covered by the Board of Risk and Insurance Management. After five months of investigation, the Legislative Auditor announced it could not find an accurate count.

Since the initial audit, the state has made several moves to get a better handle of its fleet. Governor Jim Justice took office shortly after the audit. He made cuts to his own office fleet and called on state agencies to follow his lead. Later audits found that 69% of state agencies lacked written fleet policies and that many agencies did not meet the state’s minimum mileage requirements.

In March 2018, Gov. Justice signed House Bill 4015, to reform the Fleet Management Office into a permanent Fleet Management Division and require additional reporting and tracking of the state fleet. It also phased out the state’s old state fleet license plates, with new plates going into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.