Kyle Teams With Enterprise For Fleet Maintenance Pilot Program

If you need the police to show up at your home, they need a vehicle to get there. Want the public works department to fix a water line break or repair a pothole? They need vehicles to get there.

Kyle, Texas —  The city of Kyle also has vehicles for parks and maintenance staff, engineering and building inspectors; more than 50 in all.

Yet purchasing and maintaining a fleet of city vehicles gets expensive. That’s why the City of Kyle is rolling out a pilot program with Enterprise to test out whether leasing vehicles is a more cost-effective way to operate our fleet. Kyle City Council approved the pilot program at its October 17 meeting.

“More than 40 percent of our fleet is more than 10 years old,” Assistant City Manager James Earp said. “As with any vehicle, the older it gets, the more likely it will need repairs beyond routine maintenance.”

Those repairs are often more expensive, such as replacing major components that have a lot of wear and tear.

Earp said a variety of factors led the city to consider using Enterprise for a pilot program, including reducing the expense of fleet maintenance as well as reducing the downtime when vehicles are being repaired.

He said police vehicles, which have some of the hardest usages of all city vehicles, were frequently in one of the repair shops around Kyle. In years past in an effort to save money, a police employee would sometimes change the oil in the parking lot.

“We believe Enterprise can help us by keeping costs lower and out of commission times down.”

Under the fleet pilot program, Kirby Watson of Enterprise said the city could see a 79 percent repair cost reduction.

“We have a $33.88 maintenance package that is guaranteed under this program,” he said.

He added that with city vehicles being replaced every five years, rather than keeping them for 10 or more, the resale values would be higher.

Another perk in the Enterprise pilot is that if city staff purchase gas at any Exxon/Mobile station, they can save $.05 per gallon.

Earp said while the sales pitch sounds good, he wants a proof of concept.

“We want to ensure this kind of fleet program will benefit taxpayers in the long run,” he said. “I anticipate reviewing the numbers next summer during the 2018-19 budget cycle.”

Earp added that continuing with Enterprise would only make sense if the cost savings and downtime reduction are significant.

“Our goals are to cut a sizeable piece of fleet maintenance costs out of our annual budget and keep more vehicles on the road in good working condition,” he said.