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Central Garage outlines fleet budget, rising vehicle costs and electric-equipment trials
Summary
The Central Garage presented the equipment fund and operations budget, explained an internal possession-fee model districts pay for vehicles, detailed rising chassis and upfit costs, and described pilot use of battery-electric construction equipment and several electric vehicles.
David Thurber, superintendent and fleet manager at the Central Garage, told the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 28 that the central shop manages vehicle purchases, depreciation and parts for the districts and recommended an equipment-fund budget for fiscal year 2026.
"We purchase the equipment that the districts use for plowing and maintaining the roads," Thurber said, and described the equipment fund as driven by depreciation, auction proceeds and a supplemental transfer. He told the committee the recommended equipment purchase authority is approximately $9 million in the coming fiscal year and that operating and parts costs have been rising.
Thurber explained why the agency charges districts a possession fee rather than a usage charge. He said the possession fee is calculated from depreciation, 12 months of labor, parts and commercial repair charges to create an average cost per unit that districts can budget. "Each truck in each category has the same rental rate or possession fee," he said, which the districts pay regardless of hours the vehicle runs.
Committee members raised the impact of rising chassis and upfit prices. Thurber showed that costs for tandem-axle plow trucks and other chassis have increased markedly in recent years and said the agency’s vendor pool has narrowed. He summarized fleet valuation figures presented to the committee: a replacement-cost fleet value in the neighborhood of $75–$76 million and a depreciated book value around $30 million.
Thurber described the Central Garage’s telematics and diagnostic tools. He said automated-vehicle-location data and spreader controls feed a public-facing site (CloudTrak) and that on-board telemetry can show fault codes and application rates for salt spreaders. He also said the garage has limited camera deployments so far and has put a wing and body-monitoring camera on one long wing truck; broader camera rollouts have cost implications.
On low-emission equipment, Thurber outlined pilots and purchases: small battery-electric excavators and wheel loaders on limited trials (run times of about four to six hours per charge for digging work), a compact electric wheel loader in District 4, and multiple Ford F-150 Lightning vehicles and other electric or hybrid vehicles being put into service. He said the agency is evaluating charging infrastructure needs and noted operational limits for battery equipment on long continuous operations.
Thurber said parts-price increases, constrained vendor competition and longer manufacturer lead times have made regular replacement and upfitting more difficult than in prior years. He closed by noting the central garage’s ongoing work to finalize numbers for the governor’s recommendation and said staff would provide corrected budget tables to the committee as needed.
