Louisville Metro County gains control with web-based software

Vehicle-centric businesses, such as county governments, sometimes do not invest the time or energy in managing their fleet. In addition, vehicle expenses are normally decentralized thus making them difficult to control. When the City of Louisville, Kentucky, merged their government with the county of Jefferson, and their fleets, a decision was made to acquire a web-based Fleet Management system. Using a Fleet Management system dating back to 1984 wasn’t going to cut it in today’s world. Quick access to accurate information is crucial to running an efficient fleet operation.

Ed Meece, Assistant Director of the Metro General Services Administration (then, Public Works), helped lead the decision process which eventually chose FleetWave® by Chevin Fleet Solutions. 'With about 2,600 fleet vehicles,' says Mr. Meece, 'we needed to know what we had and where it was.' With a staff of 3 administrators, 5 supervisors, and 47 technicians, the Metro Government can now manage the combined fleet from one central database.

The new county government has two garage locations where vehicles are serviced by the in-house technicians. In addition, the web-based software is integrated with 2 on-site NAPA parts warehouses. Louisville Metro provides the space and the warehouses are administered by NAPA employees. Metro estimates that they will spend about $2.4MM on parts and tires in 2005.

Repairs and maintenance expenditure is a major cost in running any fleet. The FleetWave® software places an emphasis on recording and analyzing the details of repair and maintenance activities. In addition, the automatic warranty search tool searches for potential warranty claims. Also, FleetWave’s integrated accident management module holds all key information and allows the group to track and manage the entire accident management process.

Louisville Metro Government assigns a commercial fuel card to each vehicle, which can be used at any local Thornton’s station as well as three (3) Metro-operated fueling sites. This information is downloaded into FleetWave®, directly from the vendor, as part of their Vehicle Management System (VMS).

All the information gathered can be analyzed with the use of FleetWave’s integrated Query Builder and Crystal Reports. As all data is stored as individual transactions, reports and queries can be run over any period or range. Additionally, data can also be displayed in graphs and/or charts as well.

'One way that FleetWave® has really saved us in time and efficiency is in the area of communication,' says Ed Meece. 'Metro departments can go on-line and get relevant information on everything from work order status to parts invoices without having to call Fleet Services.' By year end 2005, Louisville Metro will utilize the various other capabilities within FleetWave®, such as Driver Records and Vehicle Registration, to become even more efficient.