LOS ANGELES – UCLA Fleet Services, which owns 1,112 vehicles valued at $7 million, is a transportation resource available for both university students and staff members, according to The Daily Bruin.

The organization is now working toward improving sustainability of UCLA-owned vehicles. Fleet Services already encourages student organizations to use Flexcars if they need vehicle transportation for only a portion of the day.

The departments that use fleet vehicles include Housing and Hospitality, Facilities, Hospital, Transportation, Communications, and Technology Services. Several vehicles are used by academic and administrative departments, and a motor pool of roughly 50 vehicles exists for rental to university-sponsored events.

Of all these vehicles, 34 percent run on alternative fuels that include biodiesel, propane, and compressed natural gas. The university also operates hybrids, electric vehicles, and flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on either gasoline or a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol.

UCLA is working on a three-year plan running until the 2008-2009 fiscal year that aims to increase the number of clean-fuel vehicles to half of the overall fleet. This could mean up to a 25 percent reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions. The plan also proposes a 10 percent reduction in fleet size over the same time span, reported in The Daily Bruin.

Fleet Services is in talks this year with Housing and the Department of Chemical Engineering to convert waste oils from dining facilities into bio-diesel. The university currently has two compressed natural-gas stations, an unleaded-fueling station, and is waiting for a flex-fuel station to open in Brentwood. The university also purchases a small amount of biodiesel and propane.