Enterprise Fleet Management pitches leasing to Dade City commission, projects $1M savings over 10 years

Enterprise Fleet Management area manager Mike Sosa told the Dade City commission at a workshop that the company’s proposal to lease and more actively manage the city’s fleet could shorten Dade City’s vehicle replacement cycle from roughly nine years to five and produce about $1 million in savings over 10 years.

The pitch matters because Dade City currently owns and operates 91 vehicles across departments and faces rising operating and maintenance costs tied to an aging fleet. Sosa said a leasing approach would create a predictable, consolidated cost for acquisition, maintenance and disposition and would let the city capture resale proceeds more effectively.

Sosa said the company’s review, done with city staff, found 91 city-owned vehicles and that “34% of the fleet is 10 years or older.” He said 2012 was the average model year targeted for first-year replacement and that older vehicles tend to be “unreliable, unsafe, have higher operating expenses, and have diminished returns.” He summarized Enterprise’s financial model this way: “We project a savings of a million dollars for the city of Dade City. That projection includes our costs.”

On technical structure, Sosa described an “open-ended lease” (sometimes called a…