Montgomery County employees who rent a car for county work need written permission to use a sport utility vehicle, under a new policy designed to crack down on employees renting the gas guzzlers without a good reason.
Millie Souders, the county’s Fleet Management Services’ division chief, said the county occasionally needs to rent cars to “supplement” its own fleet. But county employees had been found renting SUVs when a compact car would have worked just as well.
Souders said the goal of the new policy, which was enacted in the fall, wasn’t to save money, but to reduce the county’s emissions.
In fiscal 2008, county employees rented $329,000 worth of vehicles from a private company for county business. About 26 percent of the rented cars were SUVs, while 4 percent were compact cars.
During the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, 11 percent of the county’s rented cars have been SUVs, while 9 percent have been compact cars. Pickup trucks were rented the most often both years.
Some County Council members have expressed dismay that the county owns and rents a large number of SUVs. Councilwoman Nancy Floreen, D-at large, told the rest of the council Monday that the Transportation and Energy Committee had tried to makes its views well known to the county officials responsible for running the county’s fleet.
“We whacked them and whacked them and made it clear that our policy is to minimize SUVs [and] to encourage the use of fuel-efficient vehicles in every single circumstance,” Floreen said.
The council also gave tentative approval to cutting $100,000 in rental fees during the next fiscal year.
