Date: Oct 6, 2021
Author: Virginia Still
Location: California
"The City of Riverbank will be getting an upgrade for their Motor Fleet. Members of the City Council unanimously approved a Master Equity Lease agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management Trust at the council meeting held last week.
Assistant City Manager/Administrative Services Director Marisela H. Garcia and representatives from Enterprise Management presented the council and public details about the program. The full details can be found at riverbank.org.
Garcia stated that the current fleet program has a variety of vehicles including CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), gasoline and diesel with 70 percent of the City’s fleet over 10 years old. The CNG Facility (fueling station) was built approximately 20 years ago. The CNG maintenance building was completed in 2012. She added that they were both built using grant funds.
The City’s fleet has been discussed at previous meetings including a presentation that was given in February this year to the council and public to prepare them for the upcoming agenda item for a decision to be made.
Several years ago the City of Riverbank transitioned from gasoline-powered vehicles to CNG through a grant they received, which also allowed them to construct the buildings. There were advantages at that time for having CNG vehicles but Garcia shared that now they are very minimal. The age and wear of the vehicles has led to increased maintenance costs and fueling costs for CNG are the same or more than the cost of gasoline.
The vehicles are used by different departments within the City. They plan on upgrading 24 vehicles in the first year.
It was stated in the report that the financial impact “would result in one-time upfront costs (down payment and licensing fees) of $25,000 with an on-going monthly lease payment of $13,800. These costs would be covered by the current budgeted “vehicle maintenances costs” allocated to each of the City’s divisions, including the General Fund (Parks, Building, and Building Maintenance) as well as the Streets, Water, and Sewer Funds. As the City will be retaining the maintenance function for these vehicles, these Funding sources will need to make an additional annual commitment of approximately $50,000 in order to fund the City Mechanic’s budget.”
The council shared the sentiment on transitioning away from the CNG fleet and keeping options open for hybrid or electric vehicles.
The Enterprise Fleet Management Program that was presented is to cut costs and increase efficiency in the fleet. The estimated savings over 10 years that was stated is over $417,000 through the new leasing program.”
