S.L. County may apply brakes to rapid rotation of its fleet

Salt Lake County's fleet headquarters often resemble a makeshift used-car lot with roughly 400 vehicles lined up that are either for sale or recently purchased by the county.

That switch from fleet management to car market has county leaders looking to ax the fleet's method of reselling cars an average of 18 months after purchase. The rapid rotation system — once highly praised for saving on maintenance expense — is simply costing the county too much, Mayor Peter Corroon said.

"Unfortunately, instead of saving on employees because of the low maintenance, we've become a car dealership," Corroon said. "It's going to be clear that we've been turning over our cars too quickly."

Replacing vehicles within one to three years has meant high administrative costs to run the county's auto sales, as well as extensive costs to get used vehicles ready for sale and new cars equipped for county use.

Corroon and other department heads met with consultants Monday to review a possible fix to the system, and Corroon will likely push to extend the life of county vehicles as part of a fleet report in July.

The consultant group suggested, for example, the County Sheriff's Office — the fleet's biggest client — turn over its patrol cars every three years instead of annually. Unmarked vehicles such as detective cars would also be bumped from a one year resale to every five years.

About 1,800 vehicles are part of the rapid rotation system, with regular sedans and light trucks sold after two years, police cars sold after one and heavy duty vehicles such as garbage trucks replaced every three years

Extending those years of use will likely change the entire management of the fleet, Public Works Director John Patterson said, putting the focus back on utility instead of potential resale.

The push to make back a large portion of the initial purchase led fleet managers to buy more expensive and often unnecessary vehicles simply because they would resale better, he said.

"We'll get out of the used-car business and get into the utility of the vehicle." Patterson said. "The whole focus was on remarketing the cars."

About 73 of the county's cars are Ford Explorer SUVs, picked because of their high resale value, Patterson said. The county also chose to buy many high-end Eddie Bauer edition Explorers for the same reason, even though they were more expensive.

Detectives in the Sheriff's Office now drive Toyota Camrys instead of the traditional Ford Crown Victoria patrol cars because the Camry ranked higher on the resale market, he said.