Federal Motor Vehicles

Private and State Practices Can Improve Fleet Management Gao ID: GGD-95-18 December 29, 1994

With responsibility for 375,000 passenger vehicles and light trucks and total expenditures for vehicle acquisition, operations, maintenance, and disposal pegged at more than $1 billion annually, the federal government runs one of the largest motor vehicle fleets in the United States. The vehicles need to be well managed to provide reliable transportation at the least cost. However, in 1992 a federal task force highlighted many obstacles to cost-efficient fleet management. This report (1) summarizes the obstacles confronting federal agencies in achieving cost-efficient fleet management that the task force identified and (2) identifies practices that managers of public and private fleets consider to be essential to cost-efficient fleet management and that may be applicable to the federal fleet.

GAO found that: (1) obstacles to cost-efficient federal fleet management include the lack of uniform guidance for conducting valid cost-comparison studies, insufficient vehicle information, unpredictable funding, and restrictive agency solicitations that limit private-sector competition; (2) in 1993, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued uniform guidance for conducting valid cost-comparison studies in response to a task force recommendation; (3) most federal agencies continue to operate their fleets without complying with statutory requirements for cost-efficiency; (4) improving fleet management requires a cost-conscious culture; and (5) essential management practices for cost-effective fleet operation include assessing vehicle utilization to determine the appropriate size of the fleet, establishing a fleet operation baseline, having needed information and supporting management information systems to assess performance, comparing costs and performance with the best fleets, funding the fleet through a revolving fund, and centralizing fleet management responsibilities.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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