In 2018, the City contracted with Matrix Consulting Group to assess the City’s vehicle replacement policies, practices, and funding strategy and provide recommendations on a long-term replacement plan. As a follow-up, and in conjunction with the Replacement Study, Matrix was also retained in July of 2018 to conduct a comprehensive vehicle utilization and right-sizing study to identify opportunities to streamline fleet sizes and flag potential surplus vehicles and equipment. This initiative was consistent with on-going citywide efforts to identify opportunities to reduce expenses, increase operating efficiencies and improve productivity.

The utilization study commenced with a general assessment on the number and types of vehicles in the City’s fleet. The scope of the work included a review of available fleet utilization GPS data from the City’s Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) system; completion, by departments, of fleet allocation worksheets used to associate vehicles to programs, functions and staff; interviews with departments to discuss their needs for relatively low use vehicles; development of recommendations regarding vehicles that could be eliminated from the fleet without undue negative impacts to city operations; and calculations of potential savings from implementing the study team’s recommendations.