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Houston fleet to install telematics; take-home vehicle policy remains 30-mile radius under AP 2-2
Summary
Fleet management officials told the Budget Committee they are installing a Samsara telematics system to capture vehicle locations and usage; the city’s current take‑home vehicle policy (AP 2‑2) limits take‑home vehicles to a 30‑mile radius unless approved by the department director and mayor’s office.
Council members asked how the city tracks use of assigned (take‑home) vehicles and whether commuting beyond city limits is monitored. Fleet Director Gary Glasscock said the current administrative policy (AP 2‑2) requires take‑home drivers to live within a 30‑mile radius unless they obtain special approval from their department director and the mayor’s office.
Glasscock said current mileage reporting for work and nonwork miles is self‑reported annually by drivers to department heads and that the city assesses an annual "take home" charge to employees who operate take‑home vehicles. He said that charge is updated annually and is based on capital cost, fuel and maintenance costs for the vehicle.
The director told the committee the department is rolling out a Samsara GPS telematics system and that once units are installed across the fleet, staff will be able to measure actual vehicle locations, create geofences and receive exception reports when vehicles leave allowed areas. He said telematics will improve the department’s ability to report exact usage and respond to questions about commute distances and off‑duty operation.
"Once we get these telematics units in the entire fleet, we'll be able to tell exactly where each vehicle is being operated," Glasscock said. "We can also set up... fenced areas to where if a vehicle goes out of an allowed fenced area, we'll start receiving exception reports."
Glasscock said some data currently used for billing and the take‑home charge is obtained via self-reporting, and that the telematics rollout should reduce reliance on manual reporting. Committee members asked staff to return with more precise usage numbers after telematics units are deployed; Glasscock said he could work with departments to extract current self‑reported data but that exact figures are not centrally reported today.
No council action was taken during the workshop; follow-up reporting on telematics implementation and vehicle‑use data was discussed.
