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Metro Shrinks Car Fleet To Save Fuel
City To Eliminate 400 Vehicles, Save $1.4 Million
POSTED: 10:18 am CDT June 2,
2008
UPDATED: 6:25 pm CDT June 2,
2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Metro Nashville government will shrink its fleet of cars by 10 percent to save fuel.
Video: Metro To Eliminate 400 City Cars The mayor's office said on Monday that the city will eliminate 400 vehicles and expects to save more than $1.4 million a year.The number of times employees can take home 17 non-emergency vehicles will be cut back, and the city hopes that seven can be eliminated all together.Emergency crews won't be affected from the new iniative, although food runs for the Nashville Fire Department trucks will be limited to one run per day. The Office of Emergency Management will be going from 13 to five take-home cars.One City Council member hopes the savings are reinvested in the bus system.Councilwoman Megan Barry said the funds would help the Metro Transit Authority, which plans to cut routes and raise fares to counter fuel cost increases.Metro's director of general services, Nancy Whittemore, is in charge of Metro's fleet and said in the past year gasoline costs have gone up 34 percent and diesel has gone up 77 percent."We're asking all departments to look at their take home cars to see if there's anywhere they can park those. All departments will be going through that exercise, and we hope departments will," said Whittemore.The Nashville Fire department will eliminate a total of 24 cars from its' fleet, 17 of which are take home cars.The Office of Emergency Management will give up another 10 vehicles, which is half their entire fleet."Public safety will be maintained, but there will be some inconveniences for some folks. They're going to have to drive their personal vehicles a lot more to pick up the vehicle that they were taking home for their after hour and weekend activities," said Steve Halford, Chief of the Nashville Fire Department.Currently, there are 900 take home cars in Metro's fleet. More than 700 of those are police and fire vehicles that can't be eliminated.The mayor said there must be a strong justification for those remaining cars to be taken home. Otherwise, employees will have to park them.Metro said they are looking to replace current vehicles with hybrids or compact cars whenever possible.
Video: Metro To Eliminate 400 City Cars The mayor's office said on Monday that the city will eliminate 400 vehicles and expects to save more than $1.4 million a year.The number of times employees can take home 17 non-emergency vehicles will be cut back, and the city hopes that seven can be eliminated all together.Emergency crews won't be affected from the new iniative, although food runs for the Nashville Fire Department trucks will be limited to one run per day. The Office of Emergency Management will be going from 13 to five take-home cars.One City Council member hopes the savings are reinvested in the bus system.Councilwoman Megan Barry said the funds would help the Metro Transit Authority, which plans to cut routes and raise fares to counter fuel cost increases.Metro's director of general services, Nancy Whittemore, is in charge of Metro's fleet and said in the past year gasoline costs have gone up 34 percent and diesel has gone up 77 percent."We're asking all departments to look at their take home cars to see if there's anywhere they can park those. All departments will be going through that exercise, and we hope departments will," said Whittemore.The Nashville Fire department will eliminate a total of 24 cars from its' fleet, 17 of which are take home cars.The Office of Emergency Management will give up another 10 vehicles, which is half their entire fleet."Public safety will be maintained, but there will be some inconveniences for some folks. They're going to have to drive their personal vehicles a lot more to pick up the vehicle that they were taking home for their after hour and weekend activities," said Steve Halford, Chief of the Nashville Fire Department.Currently, there are 900 take home cars in Metro's fleet. More than 700 of those are police and fire vehicles that can't be eliminated.The mayor said there must be a strong justification for those remaining cars to be taken home. Otherwise, employees will have to park them.Metro said they are looking to replace current vehicles with hybrids or compact cars whenever possible.Copyright 2008 by WSMV.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
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