Government Fleet, Jan/Feb 2021

The fleet department hasnt created any new vehicle pools but the overall fleet size has crept up Some departments are trying to only allow one person per vehicle as much as they can Cademarti says During COVID hes worked to create and enhance a 10 year replacement plan although anything past five years becomes more of a guessing game We try to look and see what replacements will be needed so we can move vehicles around to balance the load and avoid unbalanced waves of replacements This planning didnt necessarily happen because of COVID but it certainly accelerated it a bit The citys safety division put out guidance for vehicles and fleet has made sure to follow them including cleaning shared spaces and wiping down anything that is a central touch point after use When the pandemic first hit theyd also requested drivers roll windows down to increase the circulation of fresh air The City of Everett used to contract a biowaste cleanup company to decontaminate the back of police cruisers However once COVID hit they refused to come anymore since there wasnt a specific approved procedure to clean up a vehicle exposed to the virus However they now have found a vendor to perform this service Regardless mechanics continue to wear clean gloves and take every precaution possible to keep themselves and vehicles safe for use When asked if he thinks asset sharing will cease in the coming years he says he doesnt think so What I do think is there will be more standard state or federal protocols created to ensure it remains a safe practice He mentions a different set of shared vehicles public transit may see a downsizing in the near future as well Everett Transit experienced an approximate 50 loss of its ridership due to COVID I feel that due to COVID the only time people ride the bus is if they absolutely have to get with coordinating preventive and predictive maintenance We started working a lot more closely with the customer departments which improved productivity and uptime I believe COVID has allowed us to realize we can change some things moving forward permanently There are some times you start to wonder why we havent always done something like this Thinking Ahead Tony Cademarti fleet program manager of Motor Vehicle Division Transportation Services for the City of Everett Wash says his fleet vehicles are being shared less due to health concerns caused by the pandemic For example before COVID the Public Works Department normally put two people in a single truck Now three to four man teams need multiple vehicles to get their jobs done while staying socially distanced We have a lot of replaced equipment we had to retain temporarily to have extra moving ability he explains Its quite difficult to keep people six feet apart from each other in smaller vehicles One example of a work around was to have one person drive a 12 passenger van with someone in the back row so they could maintain the amount of space needed between the driver and passenger We did that for several months when needed but its just such a waste to drive something that big for two people Thankfully Cademarti was able to keep any vehicles ordered before COVID shut everything down Everything else must be approved on a case by case basis due to budget restraints The only department that was really affected by a reduction in their replacement fleet was parks which as part of a replacement reduction turned in two vehicles and got one new one Unfortunately parks tend to get the short end of the stick because fire and police are all funded out of the same general pool fund he says PHOTO UNSPLASH ROSS FINDON The new normal has caused many changes that may be here for good ASSET SHARING 10 GOVERNMENT FLEET COM JANUARY FEBRUARY 2021