The City of Bellevue, Wash., has partnered with the CEI Group, Inc. (CEI) to provide accident management services for its municipal fleet of 700 vehicles, CEI announced today.

The agreement calls for CEI to provide auto body repairs for all of the city's departments, including its police, fire, utilities, and parks and community services departments.

In naming CEI, Tom Wall of the city's fleet management team cited the company's ability to streamline the fleet's administrative processes by reviewing body repair estimates, tracking repair costs, and providing detailed invoices directly to the city's risk management staff.  He also noted that "all the body shops in the CEI network have gone through a stringent screening process that guarantees quality providers."

The city's agreement with CEI was facilitated by the contract the State of Washington awarded CEI after a competitive bidding process.  The state's contract enables governments and government agencies within the state to work with CEI without issuing their own request for proposals.

Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, is the state's fifth largest city, with a population of 122,000.