If there’s one thing fleets can expect, it’s that vehicles age, maintenance demands grow, and, eventually, it’s time to budget for replacements. Managing that cycle has become harder in a high-cost environment, where every new unit is weighed against its impact on service, emissions, and already-tight budgets.

During GFX 2025, three fleet managers shared how they are adapting by tying replacement decisions to actual utilization and PTO hours. The session—moderated by Dan Simpson, product marketing manager at Fleetio—also detailed how they’re reshaping funding approaches and day-to-day practices so existing assets, including remounts and right-sized units, stay productive longer without sacrificing service.

Planning for Increased Costs and Working With What You Have

At the City of Farmers Branch, Texas, Fleet Operations Manager Kevin Reinartz, CPFP, has been navigating vehicle price increases by creating a long-term fleet replacement forecast so his finance team and city managers know what’s coming and can appropriately allocate funds and justify requests.

“Obviously, we’re going to be able to push some of those vehicles back, but if we set a replacement schedule ahead of time, we’re not surprised with a massive amount of cost in any particular year, and [we can] spread those costs out over time,” he said. “I think you can get creative with doing some lease programs. We haven’t done any of that internally yet; it’s a possibility for us.”

Tom Rowlings, assistant fleet manager for the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that his first six months were difficult due to the many vehicles that had reached or were far past their lifecycle, with some beyond repair. 

“We were forced to be the bad guys and take vehicles out of service and keep them out of service until replacements could be found,” Rowlings said. “And at that point in time, we had limited funding. We were right in the middle of COVID, so lead times were difficult.”

However, this work ultimately produced a five-year plan that made it clear to senior management just how rough a shape the fleet was in. It laid out, in tiers, which vehicles were already past due for replacement, which needed to be replaced next, and set a clear path for moving forward.

Now, Cambridge is in year five of that plan and using Enterprise to lease all of its administrative vehicles. By effectively pulling those units out of the day-to-day mainstream worries, technicians are no longer scrambling to keep aging sedans like a 1992 Crown Vic on the road, and drivers are now in all-electric Mustang Mach-Es. Because of the lease structure, the city can essentially put five vehicles into service for what it would have cost to buy one outright with capital funding.

Battalion Chief Nate Hopper, logistics officer for Trussville Fire and Rescue in Alabama, said his department had similar success once it secured city council buy-in up front on its plan so officials know, for example, when they need to ask for a unit, such as a fire truck. “It helps to get that buy-in,” he said. 

Hopper added that an administrative change in 2016 helped make that possible, as the new fire chief spent about a year having those conversations before implementing the plan and formally presenting it to the city council.

Should You Use Engine-Hour Intervals for PTO-Equipped Transmissions?

For PTO-equipped transmissions, preventive maintenance intervals can be tied to PTO hours captured through a fleet’s telematics and management systems. At the City of Farmers Branch, Texas, fleet operations manager Kevin Reinartz, CPFP, noted that many systems can tap into PTOs and track multiple hour meters, allowing fleets to base transmission service on actual PTO use. 

For transmissions that see a lot of PTO time, finding a way to track and apply that data to PM schedules can be especially beneficial.

Rowlings pointed out that tying maintenance to PTO use can be more complicated for larger operations because “it’s one more way to track.” In his smaller fleet, they use telematics to monitor when PTOs are engaged and combine that data with what he and his shop supervisors see day to day. 

For example, he noted that a forestry bucket truck may spend all day idling while crews cut trees. Those units are placed on a severe-duty maintenance program, with more frequent oil changes and transmission service, rather than following a standard schedule.

But as Reinartz added, “some things you’re just not going to be able to track.” Because of this, he recommended setting time-based intervals instead. Operations may need to bring in equipment every six months, pull a sample, and send it out for testing. 

Those results can then help determine when to service hydraulic systems or transmissions. He noted that several options are available to guide service intervals when precise usage data is unavailable.

Considering Electrifying Work Vehicles to Reduce Idling and Emissions

With only 15 square miles to cover, one of the biggest sources of fuel consumption for Farmers Branch is the police fleet, due to idling. The fleet is in the process of acquiring Ford hybrids to combat this. 

“The last fleet that I worked for, we were able to save 20% on our fuel and reduce our service intervals based on that because we went to the hybrid Fords,” Reinartz said. “There are options out there.”

The Cambridge fleet has had an anti-idling program in place for almost three years. The system sends email and text alerts to department heads at 15- and 30-minute intervals, depending on vehicle type, to discourage unnecessary idling. Because those alerts can quickly pile up, they often prompt department heads to call their crews to find out why a vehicle is idling and require an explanation.

To further cut idling, the fleet has taken steps such as requiring lights to be on when vehicles are in the street and adding extra batteries and similar equipment so units can operate without the engine running. Those efforts have also pushed the operation toward electrification. Roughly 20% of the fleet is now electric, including three brand-new all-electric refuse packers.

“Pretty much anything that is available in all-electric, we’re buying electric, unless the department can justify why it should not be electric,” Rowlings said.

Using Grants to Close the Cost Gap on Cleaner Vehicles

Since 2017, Cambridge has received roughly $3 million in grant funding to help close the cost gap between diesel and cleaner options, Rowlings said. For example, grant dollars covered roughly the difference between a conventional diesel refuse truck and the city’s electric refuse packers. 

He credited “creative grant writing” and a city staff member who is “chasing every bit of grant funding out there” with making those purchases possible. Without that support, he noted, buying three electric refuse packers “would have taken up my whole annual replacement vehicle plan for last year,” instead of allowing the fleet to stay on track.

As fleet managers know, grants are an important part of getting new equipment and keeping vehicles on the road. But what about when it comes to going after grants you typically wouldn't have thought to look for?

At Trussville Fire and Rescue, for example, a local utility in the area regularly offers funding. Battalion Chief Nate Hopper said the utility “usually tries to give away money every year,” and the fire chief is now on their short list of contacts. The department has also secured a Firehouse Subs grant that helped pay for additional equipment.

In Farmers Branch, Reinartz noted that his team has obtained a couple of electric vehicles through a Texas state grant, but added they have not had much success with other grant opportunities recently.

Successfully Reducing Operator Damage on Vehicles

Reinartz noted that one of his peers has had strong results using in-vehicle cameras to cut down on operator-caused damage. While some incidents are unavoidable, he pointed out that cameras can help train operators to be more aware of their surroundings and habits.

More advanced camera systems with built-in AI can also alert drivers if they are distracted or using their phones, giving them a timely reminder that they are behind the wheel and need to stay focused on the job.

Education and ongoing conversations are just as important as technology. Because the vehicles are not personally owned, some operators may be less careful, Rowlings noted. However, when they understand that damage can take a unit out of service for days or even weeks, they tend to become more cautious.

Rowlings added that being proactive about repairing body damage, repainting, and fixing dents has also made a difference. As operators see the effort the fleet puts into keeping vehicles in good condition, many take more pride in what they drive and handle them with greater care.

“When I first started at this job, every seat that I sat in, in our fleet, was worn smooth; there was metal frame coming through. One of the big things I did was have my technicians replace the seat cushion and replace the covers so at least the operators feel a little bit more that they're being taken care of in their vehicles,” he said.

The aim, he added, is for operators to take better care of the vehicles when they see the effort the city is putting into keeping them in good condition.

Rowlings has taken a similar approach by tightening up inspections, particularly on snowplow vehicles that historically saw a lot of damage in winter. Now, they require pre-trip and post-trip inspections that go beyond basic DOT items to include the cab interior, lighting, mirrors, the salt spreader, plow, and other components likely to be damaged during a storm. 

By documenting vehicle condition before and after events, the fleet has reduced repair work because operators are more aware of how they are using the equipment.

Trussville Fire and Rescue has had success since installing cameras in all its ambulances and fire trucks about three years ago. And now, thanks to AI detection, Hopper or a supervisor is notified anytime a driver gets on their phone in one of those units, cutting down on distracted driving. 

Tools and Processes to Focus on for Next Year

While it would be ideal to map out every fleet’s needs years in advance, in reality, many operations start by focusing on near-term steps that can extend vehicle life and free up budget for other priorities.

At Trussville Fire and Rescue, one of the most effective strategies has been remounting ambulances. The department keeps the patient-care box, which typically outlasts the chassis, and remounts it at around 125,000 to 150,000 miles. 

That approach costs roughly half as much as purchasing a new ambulance. When possible, the outgoing chassis is then repurposed with a utility body or other upfit so it can be reassigned to another function within the fire department or elsewhere in the city.

Reinartz said the focus is on making sure limited dollars go to the units that matter most. That means working with departments to identify their highest-priority vehicles and comparing that list with council guidelines and city goals. The idea, he noted, is to align replacements with those priorities and “push off another year for the ones that we can.” It ends up being, as he put it, “a constant balancing act.”

For many fleets, that balance increasingly comes down not just to how old a vehicle is, but also to how often it is used and what role it plays in day-to-day operations.

In Cambridge, part of that balance now comes from looking more closely at how often certain units are actually used. After two unusually warm winters in Massachusetts, his team reviewed vehicles that sat for long stretches and were only pulled out for snow. 

For the FY26 budget process, he brought forward a plan to repurpose and right-size based on utilization: replacing some smaller plow routes’ Ford F-550 dump trucks and nine-foot plows with pickup trucks, and downsizing certain brine trucks to F-600 hook-lift chassis that can be used year-round with brine, salt, or dump bodies. 

The goal, he said, is “really focusing on actual utilization and vehicle purpose, not just age and miles and things of that nature.”