There are 34 vehicles in the city hall fleet, ranging from a 2003 Toyota Prius ($40,382 purchase value) to four 2006 Chevrolet Aveos ($17,000 each).
That’s down 13 vehicles from 2009 when the fleet consisted of a mixture of 47 cars, pickups, SUVs and vans.
The declining number of vehicles is part of an ongoing review being performed by Karen Sinclair, the city’s director of strategic planning and business improvement.
The city hall fleet currently has an acquisition value (the cost to purchase the vehicle when new) of $854,702, for an average cost of $25,138 per unit.
The operating costs for 2011 were $136,600.
The city hall fleet is used by a variety of staff, based on department. It is comprised of five vehicles for bylaw enforcement officers, six for engineering work inspectors, 12 for building inspectors, three for survey, two for engineering (traffic), one for the mayor and five in the general pool (for use by any staff employee who needs a vehicle to perform their job).
Vehicles are to be used for city business only.
Sinclair said employees can take a vehicle home only if they are working late at night and are going straight home from a work site, or early in the morning and reporting directly to the job site.
The city hall fleet is just a small portion of the overall number of vehicles owned and operated by the city.
The four other main fleets include public works, Abbotsford police, fire rescue service and the airport.
In 2011, the total repairs and maintenance cost for all vehicles was approximately $2.5 million, with an operating cost of $1.9 million; and management, planning and overhead costs of $770,000.
In the past two years, the public works yard has been reduced by 36 pieces of equipment. About $71,000 was raised by auctioning the old equipment and another $94,400 was saved in operating costs.
Five vehicles were removed from the airport fleet (auctioned for $31,400 and saving $22,700 in operating costs). Other reductions included police (six vehicles) supply services (one), plus non-fleet related cutbacks and cost-saving suggestions provided by city staff.
Sinclair reported in 2011 the city made a total of $282,300 from selling equipment, saw $295,200 in operating savings, and $1,592,000 in capital saving by not replacing the eliminated vehicles.