DAS outlines state fleet size, rising maintenance costs and small EV rollout
Loading...
Summary
The Oregon Department of Administrative Services told the Ways and Means Subcommittee on General Government that the statewide light fleet totals several thousand vehicles, maintenance costs have risen sharply since 2021 and the department has begun a modest electric-vehicle rollout, while agencies may continue to buy off statewide contracts.
Acting Cochair David Gomberg called an informational hearing Feb. 25 of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on General Government and invited the Oregon Department of Administrative Services to present on fleet and parking services. Brian King, fleet and parking services manager for the Department of Administrative Services, told the committee DAS oversees light-vehicle usage, access and procurement for many state agencies and reported on the department’s biennial fleet report.
King said the DAS-controlled fleet totals about 4,200 vehicles overall, with roughly 3,700 assigned to state agencies across the state. The fleet is used by more than 46 agencies and serves seasonal needs—such as providing extra vehicles to the Oregon Department of Forestry, State Parks and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife during wildfire season. King said DAS also operates a daily rental motor pool at its Salem Airport Road site and has upwards of 1,000 vendors supporting maintenance and repairs.
The report identified sharply rising maintenance costs as a key pressure on fleet budgets. “The average cost per mile…has jumped up in the last few years,” King said, and DAS staff attributed much of that increase to higher fuel prices—which King said have been around $3.35–$3.50 per gallon recently—and supply-chain-driven maintenance cost increases. King told members maintenance costs have risen about 41% since 2021.
King described DAS’s small electric-vehicle program and its limits. “We have 30, 32 full electric vehicles and about another 20 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles,” he said, and noted roughly 400 hybrid vehicles are in the fleet. He said the primary constraint to expanding EVs is charging infrastructure at state facilities, and DAS expects to expand the EV count in the next biennium as infrastructure is deployed.
Committee members pressed DAS on which vehicles are included in its counts and whether law-enforcement fleets are part of the DAS operation. King said most state vehicles in the DAS registry carry e-plates, but “the ones that are plain plated for enforcement and investigation activities” are excluded; he added that Oregon State Police run their own fleet and purchasing operations while still falling under DAS policy oversight.
On procurement, King said agencies may purchase from statewide price agreements that DAS procures. Those agreements are typically fulfilled by in-state dealerships; King said the statewide contracts and cooperative purchasing arrangements allow agencies to benefit from volume discounts while local dealers may participate in bids when they respond to the statewide request-for-proposals.
King described operational supports: a four-person call center that coordinates maintenance and repairs, an in-house Salem shop for seasonal service and short-term rentals for agencies avoiding large capital outlays. He said DAS maintains an online daily-rental calculator and a reimbursement process, including after-hours support through a national roadside assistance vendor and expedited fuel-card reimbursements.
The hearing moved to other DAS topics after about 90 minutes of committee questions. King provided contact information for follow-up and said he would answer additional committee questions on fleet operations.
The presentation did not include any committee votes or formal actions.
