Arizona lawmaker ‘Jeff Weninger’ has introduced a legislation requiring the state to cut its vehicle fleet by 20 percent and to launch a program that could use private cab services like Uber or Lyft or other companies to provide transportation for state workers.
Representative Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler, said that the Arizona government owns too many vehicles. He wants taxpayer money used more efficiently for state employee travel.
The government holds an astonishing amount of vehicles, Weninger said in an interview last week. House Bill 2440 will require a 20 % cut in the state vehicle fleet and will create pilot program using rental cars, fleet management services, ride-hailing services, vehicle-for-hire companies or private-public partnerships.
Arizona would be free to choose from those choices, which Weninger said would add transportation flexibility and leave room for new or innovative technologies in the state that do not yet exist
The Weninger’s legislation targets about 13,000 vehicles used by the state workers. The legislation excludes police cruisers, fire trucks and construction vehicles.
Weninger helped champion effort that led to a 22 % drop in the Chandler City’s vehicle costs, when he was serving the Chandler City Council.
Weninger said that they found their fleet was huge and they found people who drove two times a week for a few hours each day and they had their own vehicles issued to them. If the fleet is reduced a lot of money can be saved”, He said.
Director Dawn Lang of Chandler Management Services said that the city saved $1.6 million annually, after it cut its fleet by 25%, from 845 cars, light trucks and SUVs in 2009 to 617 cars at present. The city now spends about $6 million yearly on its fleet.
Lang said that cooperation between the city department heads to thoroughly assess vehicle assignments and use was key to the program’s success.
Lang said the program required everyone to be at the table to share, how their employee works and it also allowed them to really hone in on where they could cut the vehicles.
A report from the state Department of Administration said that Arizona had 12,709 vehicles as of 30th June 2016, including 5,370 “light duty” vehicles — it is a category that would include cars and many pickups — that are not motorcycles, law enforcement vehicles, fire trucks or all-terrain vehicles. Slightly over half of those are in Maricopa County.
The report also said the state and its universities spent about $7.5 million for maintenance and $10.3 million for fuel for their light duty vehicles during the 2015-2016 fiscal years.
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