City of Atlanta’s fleet project saves taxpayer dollars

City using automation and fleet metrics to right-size the fleet and drive down costs

CHANTILLY, VA, April 7, 2020 -- The City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management automated the management of its vehicle fleet to reduce costs, improve utilization, enhance service to employees, and to further green its fleet. Fleet vehicles are a critical tool used by Watershed to provide core services such as treatment and delivery of safe drinking water, treatment and collection of wastewater and management of stormwater in the City of Atlanta. The announcement was made by Agile Fleet, creator of the fleet management system in place in Atlanta.

“With the new automated system, we can run usage reports, see the status of our fleet with an online fleet dashboard and other fleet status screens and reports. This gives us instant visibility into what has happened, what is happening and what will be happening with our vehicles. Having all of the data we need in one system has been a game-changer to getting our city fleet under control,” says Fleet Manager Robert Horton.

The Watershed currently has two self-service motor pool operations that serve employees who require city vehicles to conduct business. By sharing vehicles and allowing employees to easily schedule them via an online vehicle reservation system, the agency has increased the use of existing vehicles while reducing the overall need for vehicles dedicated to individuals or departments. Providing 24/7 pickup and drop-off of vehicle keys using the automated self-service kiosk makes physically accessing the vehicles efficient throughout the department. As a result, vehicle usage for the shared fleet is rising at an astonishing rate. With the Agile Fleet FleetCommander system in place, the city now collects usage metrics for each trip. FleetCommander produces preventative maintenance schedules via the automatic system, which provides an extra safety measure that benefits the fleet and city employees alike. The system also collects driver feedback on every trip so administrators are immediately notified of any occurrences that may arise.

Having visibility into how and when vehicles are being used enables the city to slash underused vehicles. Horton said, “The city initially envisions cutting about 10 vehicles.” According to Agile Fleet estimates, this will save the city a minimum of $30,000-$65,000 annually in maintenance, depreciation, insurance, parking and other costs. Having usage metrics will also enable the department to fine-tune the fleet’s composition to best meet the city’s needs.

“We are happy to see the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management share vehicles, right-sizing and reducing costs for taxpayers,” says Ed Smith, president of Agile Fleet. “Besides sharing vehicles, we know that having, communicating and consistently enforcing fleet policies can dramatically reduce fleet costs as well. The fleet system automates the communication and enforcement of fleet policies and ensures that all drivers have acknowledged version-controlled fleet policies. We expect that to help them reduce costs as well,” says Smith. “We’ve seen clients slash hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses just by enforcing policies for vehicle usage. It’s a really smart way to cut expenses,” Smith says.

Along with communicating policy as a part of new employee onboarding, the automated system requires drivers to re-acknowledge policy every year. Over time, Horton expects to be modifying vehicle use policies to stay current with best fleet management practices. Better policy will have a big impact on the organization’s bottom line.