INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Indianapolis hopes to soon save millions of dollars by eliminating a long-standing perk for about 400 city and county employees: vehicles they can take home after hours, according to http://www.IndyStar.com.

City Controller Bob Clifford estimated the new approach would save the city at least $6 million in replacement vehicle costs every four or five years. The change could save an additional $250,000 annually in gas, maintenance, and accident repairs.

The proposal, which goes before the Indianapolis City-County Council on Oct. 8, would not affect police officers — only non-emergency vehicles used by employees who log fewer than 10,000 business miles a year.

The city and county own about 3,000 vehicles in all, including 231 take-home vehicles driven by city employees ranging from building inspectors and road engineers to a public works spokeswoman and the city’s Latino affairs director. The county has additional 420 or so cars and vehicles it lets non-emergency personnel take home.

Employees are not allowed to drive the vehicles for personal use. However, Clifford said the city has no way to enforce this prohibition and did not start collecting mileage logs until July.

Clifford said reimbursing employees for business miles driven in a personal vehicle would cost the city less, mainly because of purchase costs and depreciation associated with maintaining a larger fleet. In 2006, the city paid nearly $850,000 for fuel, maintenance, and repair of its take-home vehicles.

The City spends about 31 cents per mile on the 2.7 million miles driven in take-home cars, www.IndyStar.com said. It estimates it would spend about 43 cents per work-mile in reimbursing employees for the use of their personal vehicles.

Despite the 12-cent difference, Clifford said there still will be a savings of five cents per mile when purchase costs and depreciation are factored in.

The City’s public works department would be hit the hardest by the change. More than 100 of the 231 city-owned, take-home vehicles that have been targeted are used by public works.