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Vehicle Roation Reduces Workload
The Ada County Highway District in Boise, Idaho, has rotated vehicles for more than 12 years, according to Jeff Storkan, shop foreman.

This practice, shifting individual vehicle use throughout a fleet based on mileage and application factors, can provide several benefits, says Storkan.

Sending lower-mileage vehicles to high-use applications (10,000-15,000 annual miles-plus) promotes:

• Lower operation cost due to manufacturer warranty coverage and new-vehicle operation.

• Lower maintenance cost due to vehicle age and mileage.

• Benefits of transferring older vehicles to light-use areas (2,000-4,000 annual miles) include:

• Lower cost of operation due to lighter use.

• Lower maintenance cost due to reduced utilization and vehicle age. Higher maintenance needs, but increased vehicle availability.

• Greater reliability and availability and increased vehicle life due to less usage and lower accumulative mileage.

Rotated vehicles and machines should be equipped alike to allow multiple department and operator use, advises Storkan. In addition, he says, “I have seen the practice of vehicle rotation save a large amount of tax dollars over the years and get the organization through some tough times when funds are not available.”

"The Montgomery County, Md., fleet monitors the usage of vehicles it manages and notifies using agencies when underutilization occurs. Fleet is currently working on a plan to reassign underutilized vehicles in lieu of replacement with new units."
­­—Millie Souders, division chief, Montgomery County, Md. division of Fleet Management Services

"The State of Colorado developed a vehicle utilization coding system that enables annual adjustments and modifications to the vehicle inventory and real locations based on the vehicle usage parameter."
­­—Art Hale, fleet manager, State of Colorado

"The State of Illinois rolled out a Web-based fleet utilization tool to track mileage use and other variables for efficient fleet utilization reporting."
­­— Barb Bonansinga, division vehicle mgr., Illinois fleet central management services