City of Lawrence

Public Works Department

MEMORANDUM

DATE:	April 20, 2007
TO:	David Corliss
	City Manager
FROM:	Steve Stewart,  Central Maintenance Garage Manager
RE:	Downsizing the Fleet - Update

In response to your direction and support, staff of the Central Maintenance Garage Division of the Public Works Department has proceeded with several opportunities to downsize the fleet of City vehicles, resulting in adjustments to vehicle purchases that are now more appropriate for the intended job. 

Staff developed a survey to evaluate the vehicles each department requests during the purchasing process. This opportunity to look closer at the job each vehicle needs to do has allowed staff to place several smaller vehicles in service.

The attached spreadsheet has all the changes we have achieved this year as well as the units we downsized last year. One example of a downsizing project involved unit 753, a crane truck in the Storm Water Division. We downsized the chassis from a tandem axle to a shorter single axle and shortened the flatbed. The old crane was then mounted to the new chassis and recertified. This unit is already in extended service and should now be serviceable for another ten years. This replacement saved the city roughly $10,000 and made the truck easier to operate in the current job.

Some technical delays in the patrol car bid process worked in our favor. We missed the 2007 model year, but were price protected on the 2008 cars. All eleven of the new Crown Victoria's are flex-fuel rated. These vehicles will operate on E-85, the ethanol based fuel, bringing our total to twenty-five flex-fuel vehicles.