Federal Motor Vehicles: Private and State Practices Can Improve Fleet Management.

With responsibility for about 375,000 passenger vehicles and light trucks and total expenditures for vehicle acquisition, operations, maintenance and disposal estimated at more than 1 billion a year, the federal government operates one of the largest motor vehicle fleets in the United States. These vehicles need to be well managed to provide appropriate and reliable transportation at the least cost. However, in 1992, a federal interagency task force identified numerous obstacles to cost-efficient fleet management. At the request of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and Congressman Bob Franks, GAO summarized the obstacles faced by federal agencies in achieving cost-efficient fleet management that the task force identified, and identified examples of the management practices that managers of public and private fleets considered to be essential to cost-efficient fleet management and that may be applicable to the federal fleet. In 1986, Congress enacted the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. The act required agencies to take certain actions to improve the management and efficiency of their fleets and to reduce the cost of the fleets operation. The act also required the General Services Administration GSA to issue regulations to implement cost-comparison requirements and that the Office of Management and Budget 0MB monitor agency compliance. In 1988, GAO looked at actions agencies took to comply with the acts requirements and determined that most agencies had not conducted the required cost-comparison studies to determine the cost-efficiency of their fleets. In 1991, the Presidents Council on Management Improvement established the Interagency Task Force on Fleet Management. KAR p. 3