Government Fleet, May 2019

recycled asphalt is ready to use The carrier can keep asphalt warmed for 20 24 hours an improvement over the fleets old hot boxes Designing a Tailored Solution Mohammed Al Rawi chief information officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation wanted to check out a county motor pool vehicle to attend a meeting He asked his assistant to reserve a vehicle and she handed him two things a key and a binder of forms It was really cumbersome it looked like a mortgage application Al Rawi joked Drivers had to record their name title location odometer reading and other information at least four times before and after each trip These records were sent to the auditors office for monitoring Al Rawi had a background in information technology and knew there must be a way to log this data automatically Although there are vehicle tracking systems on the market none were developed specifically for government agency compliance He brought this idea to a local college and engineering students developed a system that records vehicle and driver data automatically using RFID scanners and sends it to the cloud when the vehicle is connected to Wi Fi available in most county parks Installing the system only costs the department 75 100 per vehicle with no additional cost to maintain What Next So youve created a new solution to your problem now what do you do with it For Grisham the answer was to wait After installing his new press brake in the fleet shop he and Smith built a few more machines for friends and family to use at home and set the idea aside to revisit after retirement And a little more than a decade later his son Jesse convinced him to start a business GrishamWorks holds the patent for the only press brake that can continuously bend metal over the top of the machine and the Grishams and Smith sell their BrakesAlot machine to shops all over the country For the City of Calgary starting a new business wasnt exactly an option Later this year the city plans to begin marketing its invention with the hopes of licensing it out to a company and bringing that revenue back to the city Los Angeles Countys tracking system is installed in select vehicles Al Rawi said the team is working out bugs but Microsoft has expressed interest in the product SOURCES Mohammed Al Rawi public information officer Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation Email MAlRawi@ parks lacounty gov Majid Asefi manager of fleet operations City of Calgary Alberta Canada Email Majid Asefi@ calgary ca Edward Bellfield NAPA IBS parts administator City of Ventura Calif Email Napa@ ci ventura ca us Sharon Fleming director of fleet services City of Calgary Alberta Canada Email Sharon Fleming@ calgary ca Bob Grisham founder GrishamWorks Website www grishamworks com Jesse Grisham president GrishamWorks Email Grishamworksllc@ gmail com Ron McCoy service center manager Allen County Ind E mail Ronald McCoy@ co allen in us Bob Grisham a former fleet superintendent for San Bernardino County Calif designed this press brake with his son and a coworker An earlier version of this machine was made for the fleets welding shop QUICK FIXES IN THE SHOP Not all inventions are major projects Some come up during day to day operations The Allen County Sheriffs Office in Indiana invented critter bars pictured to protect the space in the middle of a bumper that push bumpers dont protect Staff members made 25 in the past few years saving the sheriffs office money The City of Ventura Calif had a problem with leaking radiators on some fire engines and the fleet team could not find a solution for sale A mechanic designed a template which was manufactured by a gasket and shim company to seal the upper and lower tanks So far the city hasnt had any problems with leaking radiators PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALLEN COUNTY AND GRISHAMWORKS MAY 2019 GOVERNMENT FLEET COM 19