City staff and vendor present proposal to shorten Cedar Hill fleet life cycle and cut operating costs

City staff and a consultant from Enterprise Fleet Management presented a proposal to move the city’s light-duty vehicles into a market-value finance (open-end lease) structure aimed at lowering operating costs and shortening vehicle lifecycles. Assistant Public Works Director David Parnell said the city has 162 DMV-registered vehicles and plans to target 122 standard-use vehicles in the initial program; he told the council the current average vehicle life is about 9.6 years. "Our current average life span is 9.6 years," Parnell said during the briefing.

Jennifer Bertram, Enterprise’s senior account executive, explained the vendor’s approach to acquisition, upfitting logistics and resale strategy, emphasizing resale timing and market placement as key drivers of total cost of ownership. "We are the largest purchaser of vehicles in the world," Bertram said, describing Enterprise’s resale channels and market data (Manheim auction samples) used to set conservative resale floors. She and staff proposed a 3‑year pilot with an annual client review to recommend which assets to replace based on market conditions.

The presentation included estimated impacts: reducing average fleet life toward a 4–5 year replacement cycle, a projected minimum 17% reduction in fuel costs and a 23% reduction in maintenance expenses from running newer vehicles and better capturing resale equity. Staff stressed that in-house maintenance would continue and that the model includes upfit costs for specialized units; final terms, schedules and an implementation date would be set after detailed modeling and council guidance. The city manager offered to return with more detail at the May 26 briefing session and staff offered to meet individually with council members to review financial assumptions.