Yoon Proposes Vehicle-Sharing Program for City Fleet
New System Would Reduce Cars, Costs, Carbon
June 2, 2009
BOSTON – City Councilor-at-Large and mayoral candidate Sam Yoon will propose a new program tomorrow that would reduce the City’s fleet of passenger vehicles by making use of automobile-sharing technology.
“We export innovation, but we do not harness the local creativity and expertise that can make City Hall great,” said Yoon. “Fleet sharing is a program hatched by a Boston area company, and it has the potential to save millions of dollars every year and reduce our carbon footprint.”
Under the program, City workers would share more vehicles through technology that allows them to reserve passenger cars and vans on an as-needed basis. Boston would be able to cut its fleet down significantly and expedite its transition to all hybrid or electric vehicles.
Fleet sharing has already been implemented in Washington, D.C. through FastFleet, a service of the Cambridge-based company, Zipcar. Washington predicts a savings of $6.6 million over the next five years. The excess cars and vans are being sold through auctions to generate revenue for the District. In all, they were able to reduce the number of vehicles in operation from 360 to just 58.
Boston maintains a fleet of 1,125 vehicles, not including the front-line departments of police, fire, and schools. Of those, 871 are passenger cars and vans that could be eligible for consolidation. Each vehicle has an average cost of ownership of $10,000 per year.
Shared vehicles would also be equipped with GPS units that provide “geo-fencing,” – a system that automatically triggers an alarm when cars go outside a set boundary. Department heads will be alerted when City vehicles are driven outside their intended zones.
Yoon said the current economic climate makes creative and technology-driven solutions like fleet sharing necessary.
“We are in a 21st-century crisis that requires 21st-century solutions,” said Yoon. “We need to use this economic crisis to rethink how we can use our dollars smarter and more efficiently,” said Yoon. “Boston has the potential to turn City Hall into a laboratory of innovation. Fleet sharing is the place to start.”
Yoon will introduce a hearing order in Wednesday’s Council meeting.
