He estimates the city has spent at least $50,000 due to extra maintenance from keeping vehicles longer, just on parts alone. Spending $600 on a set of tires - that’s hard to recoup at auction time, he explained. For police vehicles, Campbell thinks the biggest expense of keeping vehicles longer is tire cost, along with larger items like transmission repair. An accident vehicle that would normally be auctioned off is now studied to determine whether the repair costs outweigh “waiting an undetermined amount of time to get a replacement vehicle delivered,” he said.īecause vehicles are kept for the optimum life cycle, considering maintenance and operating costs, having to hang onto it another year or so will affect life cycle costs.Įven with smaller issues, the costs add up. “We cannot recover the dollars and we’ll have to keep it for a couple of years longer to help recover the costs.” The unit is a 2007 truck we normally wouldn’t have put that kind of money into it,” said Larry Campbell, CPFP, director of fleet operations. “We just put $100,000 into a reserve ladder truck because it’s two years by the time you do the specs, go out to bid, issue a PO, and get delivery. The City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, unfortunately, encountered a worse situation. “I spent over $1,000 in repairs on a vehicle that’s only worth $5,000,” Schlangen said.
It often means spending money on significant repairs when the vehicle would normally be sold. The biggest effect of delivery delays is public agencies are keeping their existing vehicles in service longer - an undesirable option since government fleet vehicles already have long life cycles. Photo: City of Fort Wayne Keeping Vehicles Longer The City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is experiencing delivery delays for its police vehicles. A technician is pictured here working on a patrol vehicle. The staff identified 40 vehicles that could be switched out to electric vehicles (EVs), but “our vendors couldn’t bid because they had no idea when vehicles will be available again,” said George Hrichak, CEM, CPFP, fleet manager. Lynch said this was done after reviewing the cost of the repair and repair time, including any potential delays in parts deliveries.Īt the City of Chesapeake, Virginia, this is delaying the fleet from implementing its electrification plans.
The City of Kitchener is using rentals at times to bridge the gap in vehicle delivery delays if the fleet vehicle had a major failure. He’s down to 10 vehicles now, only because he needed the remarketing funds for those vehicles back in his budget. Schlangen said decommissioned police SUVs are easiest to keep for multi-purpose use. He had up to 28 vehicles stashed as spares at the highest point, all of which were used during the height of the pandemic to allow workers individual cars. “They’re not in service, but we can reassign them and put them back if we had to, if we’re waiting for parts or if something else were to happen,” Schlangen said. “Even though we have gotten new pickups in and some new police squads in, we have not gotten rid of the old ones,” he said. The City of Kitchener in Ontario, Canada, ordered plows from a different manufacturer after canceling an order for two tandem plows because the first company couldn’t guarantee pricing and delivery times, said Matthew Lynch, manager of fleet planning.Īt Dakota County, Minnesota, Kevin Schlangen, CAFM, CEM, CPFP, fleet manager, has built a reserve of older vehicles that would normally be remarketed. “They have to relook and rethink to see what works, and maybe they may have to move vehicles around,” he said, adding that user departments often must consider the county’s mandate to electrify when buying new vehicles. If a department wants a pickup truck, it could look at the other manufacturers, said Rey Llerena, manager of equipment and contracts. With so many purchasing issues, some are turning to purchasing alternative vehicles if they’re available for ordering or can be delivered sooner.īecause Miami-Dade County in Florida couldn’t get in orders for select police SUVs, the fleet is instead looking at special service vehicles, or the competing SUV pursuit vehicle. A fleet manager said he can’t get chassis quotes from heavy-duty truck manufacturers because they don’t know when chassis will be available. In other cases, dealers have had to cancel purchase orders because they’re not getting filled. Early cut-offs at order banks are limiting the selection of vehicles and affecting what fleets can buy, sometimes closing before an agency can even place an order.