If you think gas prices are hitting you and your ’98 Honda Accord in the wallet, trying owning 1,200 cars, trucks and hybrids. The City of Tacoma does. But officials in charge of the massive fleet aren’t all that worried. No, really.



“We budgeted for this,” says Fred Chun, Fleet Services manager for the City of Tacoma. “We are on a two-year budget cycle, and we talk to our industry colleagues and try and predict what we’ll need as best we can. If it goes over, we ask for more money, or we use vehicles more efficiently. If it gets bad, my recommendation would be to reduced miles and conserve where we can.”



Chun and other city officials may have to do just that if gas prices climb much higher. Between January 2005 and December 2007, average gas prices have rocketed from a palatable $2.03 per gallon to an average $3.00 per gallon. If that doesn’t seem like much to swallow, note that the increase means an annual increase of $1,160 per vehicle driving 2,000 miles per month, according to national organization Government Fleet. Based on that formula, Tacoma’s fleet of 1,200 vehicles would incur $1.4 million per year in extra expense. But that estimate should be considered generously conservative. Gas prices in Tacoma are averaging closer to $3.47 per gallon these days. Did we also mention that many of the city’s vehicles use diesel fuel, which runs an average $4.10 per gallon?



As prices rise, Government Fleet Editor Mike Antich suggests that fleet managers begin to take fuel prices as seriously as other key concerns, such as vehicle depreciation, when buying vehicles.



Tacoma has been doing just that, largely because of a slew of state and federal government mandates. But it also makes financial sense, says Chun. Tacoma has consistently replaced older, more gas-hungry vehicles with fuel friendly hybrid vehicles.



“When we get a new vehicle, we replace it with a smaller or more economical one,” says Chun. All of the city’s refuse trucks and public utility trucks use D-20 (a 20 percent biodiesel blend).”



Hybrid vehicles cost about 20 percent more than the average fleet truck, said Chun, but the savings produce a rapid return on the city’s extra investment as gas prices reach past $3.50 per gallon.



“It can be a struggle, but we continue to look at alternative vehicles as a good investment,” says Chun. “As prices go up, the savings accrue much more quickly.”



But those savings can’t possibly offset gas prices that increased nearly two-fold. Cities need to look beyond buying fuel-friendly cars and trucks if they want to avoid wasting tax payer dollars, says Greg Corrigan, vice president of business intelligence for fleet management agency PHH Arval, in a report issued by Government Fleet.



Methods for reducing fuel costs should include creating goals to conserve fuel by optimizing trip routing to avoid unnecessary travel and backtracking, he said. Use of city-owned vehicles for personal use also should be evaluated — an issue recently addressed in a study of personal use of police vehicles by Tacoma Police Department officers. The cost of the assigned vehicle program, including fuel use, is largely offset because it eliminates the cost of providing parking for police vehicles. Instead, officers park the cars in their driveways. The study recommends that the city examine its policy on subsidizing commuting, while emphasizing that no evidence of abuse was found.



“The city needs to be sensitive to perceptions that officers could be unreasonably using police vehicles for personal reasons,” the report reads. “Procedures to enforce appropriate policies need to be routinely examined to ensure that they are working.”



Fact: Tacoma’s vehicle fleet was ranked 76th of 100 best-run fleets in the nation by Government Fleet.  Seattle didn’t even make the list.