Prince George's County, MD Fleet Expands Rightsizing Initiatives

Fleet reduction of 12 vehicles and introduction of plug-in hybrids planned

LARGO, MD, January 26, 2015 -- The Prince George's County Fleet Management Division announced new plans to expand its rightsizing initiative by adding a second motor pool site and introducing plug-in hybrids. The new site, located in Largo, MD, will be launched early this year. The announcement was made today by Agile Access Control, Inc. (Agile), creator of FleetCommander fleet and motor pool software in use at the county.

"We are very proud of the more sustainable, effective and efficient management that our Fleet Management division has achieved with the assistance of FleetCommander," said Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III. "In Prince George's County, we strive to not follow best practices but create them. I am very proud of the national recognition of our Fleet Management division and that Prince George's County is leading the nation in innovation."

According to County Fleet Manager Richard ("Rick") Hilmer, the success with automating the first motor pool more than two years ago has spurred the county's efforts to seek out other opportunities for sharing vehicles and right sizing their fleet, including launching the new motor pool in Largo. "One of the best things about the new motor pool is that we can reduce the number of vehicles without impacting the level of service we provide to the citizens of the County. And, we don't have to hire any more staff to manage it because the solution is automated. Our existing motor pool coordinator can manage it from his location in Upper Marlboro while he handles his other duties. That never would have been possible before we put FleetCommander in place."

Although Prince George's County has operated their motor pool at the CAB for many years, managing the system before implementing the FleetCommander was not efficient. Hilmer says, "In the past, we had to have one person with a clipboard tied to that motor pool location. He was responsible for taking reservations over the phone or in person, handing out keys, collecting keys, and physically being there at all times to assist pool customers. That meant if he took a vacation, was sick, or needed to be out for any reason, we had to make sure there was staffing in place to cover those responsibilities." On the flip side, Hilmer said there were times the motor pool coordinator did not have customers, but he was still required to be physically available for vehicle dispatch in case the need arose. Hilmer said since automating their motor pool with FleetCommander, the motor pool coordinator is able to conduct other county business not necessarily at the CAB site, including managing the new Largo motor pool remotely.

FleetCommander motor pool technology currently in place at the Prince George's County CAB enables them to:

• Visually see the status of the shared fleet via the FleetCommander online dashboard
• Offer customers the capability to easily reserve vehicles themselves online, around the clock
• Manage keys via secure key boxes that enable drivers to pick up and return keys without the need for an attendant to be present
• Offer a completely self-service capability for reserving vehicles and gaining access to keys via a touch-screen kiosk, similar to those used in airports
• Automatically collect vehicle utilization data to facilitate fleet right-sizing and support motor pool composition decisions
• Automate billing and run fleet metrics reports

In planning for the new motor pool site, Hilmer says they used data collected by FleetCommander to analyze average mileage and other data from daily rentals to determine the size and composition of the new motor pool. The new pool will enable the county to reduce its fleet by 12 vehicles and add more efficient hybrid electric vehicles. Hilmer says the mileage data showed that the majority of trips taken by daily rentals could be more efficiently conducted using plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). As a result, the county purchased six plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and three dual-head electric vehicle charging stations to "green" its fleet and reduce petroleum consumption. Although the plan is to initially reduce the fleet by 12 vehicles when the motor pool is launched, they have identified 8 additional vehicles that may no longer be needed. "We are going to ease into it, and give people time to use the pool and learn that they will always have access to vehicles when they need them before we reduce further," Hilmer says.

Agile estimates between $3,000-$5,000 annual savings per vehicle reduced in maintenance, depreciation, insurance, and other costs associated with keeping unneeded vehicles in a fleet.

The Prince George's County fleet is made up of more than 3,200 vehicles serving 4,000 drivers. The Fleet Management Division is responsible for the overall management of a fleet of vehicles used by 18 agencies of the county government, 12 municipalities, 40 volunteer fire departments and two non-profit organizations. Another benefit of the new motor pool will to be the ability to offer pool vehicles as backup to county employees who use their assigned vehicles to conduct business on a daily basis. "Many of our public safety officials use fleet vehicles as mobile offices. The new pool will be available to those with mobile offices to use the pool in the event their vehicles are out of commission for whatever reason," Hilmer says.

"The Prince George's County Fleet Management Division is a wonderful example of how our customers can significantly reduce the manpower needed to facilitate the sharing of vehicles, while being committed to increasing transportation and energy efficiency. We look forward to the launch of their Largo motor pool site and hearing about more Prince George's County successes in 2015," says Agile President Ed Smith.