City has too many public works vehicles, says consultant for U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, NASA, Homeland Security

North America's biggest fleet management consultant has determined the almost 300 vehicles used by City of Sault Ste. Marie's public works division need to be significantly downsized.

Three representatives of Rockville, Maryland-based Mercury Associates, Inc. will be at Monday's City Council meeting to argue for slashing of unnecessary vehicles and improved fleet and financial management. 

Mercury's consulting clients include 34 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces, the U.S. Postal Service, NASA, Homeland Security and U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. 

In Ontario, the company's municipal clients include Aurora, Gravenhurst, Guelph, Halton, North Bay, Oakville and Waterloo.

Of 298 vehicles in the Sault's public works fleet, Mercury removed 75 vehicles from consideration in its 'rightsizing' analysis because they had been recently replaced or were specialized equipment.

From the remaining 223 vehicles, the consultant is calling for elimination of 14 vehicles and reviewing 84 others.

Four vehicles that are needed only during the summer peak season should be rented on an as-needed basis, Mercury says.

The consultant gave City of Sault Ste. Marie managers failing grades in four of the 10 functions it evaluated as part of its fleet practices review.

Areas in which the city needed major improvements were:

• fleet cost and financial management
• fleet management information systems
• in-house asset maintenance and repair
• in-house parts management

By adopting its recommendations, the consultant says the city will save $2.2 million, $1.4 million of that in the first five years of a multi-year replacement plan.

The age of the city's public works fleet is a major issue.

A full 40 per cent of all Sault Ste. Marie public works vehicles will either meet or exceed their recommended replacement age next year, the consultant says.

The city is running a replacement backlog between $10.5 million and $12.3 million on those vehicles, at an average annual cost of $2.9 million, councillors will be told.

Fleets evaluated by Mercury experts included these public works departments:

• operations (174 vehicles)
• parks (74)
• landfill (25)
• traffic (13)
• building equipment maintenance (7)
• administration (3)
• mechanical (1)
• stores (1)

On Monday, city councillors will be asked to approve the consultant's recommendations in principle, referring a proposed $250,000 addition to the municipality's equipment reserve to upcoming budget deliberations.

Councillors will also be asked to similarly refer to 2020 budget talks a proposal to pay a total of $130,000 to Mercury for its help in streamlining fleet operations and developing a fleet replacement plan.

Monday's City Council meeting will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m.