GONZALES — City of Gonzales has approved an agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management to lease vehicles for the City’s vehicle fleet.
“Enterprise has started a fleet management company, and with their expertise, we will be able to manage our fleet a little bit better and take advantage of some equity and have safer vehicles,” Consultant Mike Howard said.
The current Gonzales fleet consists of 22 vehicles with 45 percent over 10 years old. According to Howard, small jurisdictions usually buy vehicles and use them until the end of its useful life. Howard said this leads to two problems.
“We keep vehicles longer than perhaps we should,” Howard explained. “Our fuel efficiency and our costs go up because the vehicles require more maintenance. And, we also have the caring cost.”
Costs would go down with newer, more efficiency vehicles as part of the fleet. This would be possible through Enterprise’s open equity lease, where the City can trade a less fuel efficiency vehicle for another.
“Over a 10-year period, if we kept our fleet the same size, it is estimated the City would save $160,000 a year, or $16,000 a year,” Howard said. “While that is not significant, what is significant is we will have safer, more reliable vehicles for our staff to use.”
The change would also offer the chance for the City to have hybrids in its fleet. Howard, who also works with King City and Soledad, said that although Enterprise doesn’t typically work with small jurisdiction fleets, such as Gonzales, they were willing to make an exception because of the other two cities.
The vehicle fleet management will include passenger vehicles but not the fire trucks.
