Rightsizing the Division of Fleet Managements's Trip Pool

摘要

The Virginia Department of Transportation's Division of Fleet Management (DFM)maintains a fleet of vehicles for short-term rental to state employees traveling on official state business. This fleet, known as the trip pool, is a subset of the state owned centralized fleet. Until May 1996, a vehicle rental contract with a private-sector company enabled the DFM to change its vehicle assignment practices to better utilize the vehicles in the trip pool. The private-sector vehicle rental contract enabled the DFM to reduce the size of the trip pool, since excess demand could be met with private-sector vehicle. This study is a continuation of the author's unpublished 1995-96 study of the DFM. It incorporates updated data into a revised inventory model. The results included in the study show that the vehicle rental contract with a private-sector company has resulted in approximate quantifiable savings of $20,000 per year. The full amount of the savings to the Commonwealth resulting from the rental contract cannot be quantified due to lack of available data. Other results included in the study indicate that the overall cost of state employee travel can be reduced by an estimated additional $20,000 per year if the DFM resizes the trip pool as indicated in the study.