Last spring I was made aware that some New Rochelle police officers were not too happy with the vehicles they drive on the job. I was told many of the vehicles are not in good shape and perhaps past their useful life, that the mileage on some police vehicles is very high. I made a Freedom of Information request last Spring and got some details on the vehicles but was unable to get mileage information. I have had this list for about 8 months now and unless I get mileage data somehow I cannot do much to determine if there is a story here so if anyone out there has any bright ideas on how I can get mileage information on police vehicles please let me know — or better yet, go get it and send it to me (a list of vehicles I need mileage for is linked below). Maybe someone on City Council can ask.
I cleaned up and organized the list, eliminated vehicles like Harleys and Segways and buses and came up with a count of 65 “cars” which includes sedans, SUVs and pickup trucks.
In terms of “year”, the cars and trucks break down as follows:
- 1981 – 1
- 1996 – 1
- 1999 – 2
- 2000 – 3
- 2001 – 4
- 2002 – 4
- 2003 – 2
- 2004 – 2
- 2005 – 3
- 2006 – 7
- 2007 – 3
- 2008 – 8
- 2009 – 9
- 2010 – 0
- 2011 – 11
- 2013 – 3
- 2014 – 2
Aplying some basic math, the average age of these 65 vehicles is 8.7 years old. 49 of the vehicles are more than 5 years old (75%).
An article on Police Fleet Management from the International City/County Management Association web site reports that milerage not age is a determining factor in maintenance cost.
The average age of the police fleet does not appear to be a factor in maintenance costs. Many would suspect that the older a vehicle is, the higher the vehicle maintenance costs are. However, among CPM participants, maintenance costs per vehicle are not shown to increase as the average age of the police vehicles increases. It is possible that age has an impact, but because CPM jurisdictions are replacing their vehicles regularly, the impact of age is not demonstrated.
The average number of miles driven per year is shown to have an impact on maintenance costs. Up to an average of 20,000 miles driven per vehicle, there does not appear to be a large difference in maintenance expenditures. However, after the threshold of 20,000 miles driven per vehicle, other maintenance costs per vehicle become much larger.
So, it is imperative that I obtain the mileage data to determine whether police officers are complaining because they want newer vehicles for their personal comfort of whether there are financial reasons to get newer cars, but even if the odometer has a high milerage figure it does not necessarily mean the car will break down more.
Government-Fleet Magazine published an article in 2007, Replacement Mileage Creeping Up for Public Safety Agencies which addressed how law enforcement agencies were driving fleet vehicles farther and longer than ever before. This was BEFORE the Great Recession so the situation can reasonably be believed to have gotten worse not better.
Shrinking budgets and improved vehicle performance are two reasons law enforcement agencies drive fleet vehicles farther and longer than ever before. Today’s law enforcement fleet managers are forced to keep vehicles to the 100,000-mile level and beyond, a figure many industry experts agree is an appropriate mileage level. However, it was a figure unheard of a decade ago.
Better built vehicles may mean this is no longer the issue it once was:
…today’s vehicles are more durable said Rich Cichon, vice president of Metrochecker cab service in Chicago. Cichon has consulted with numerous law enforcement officials and is a former member of General Motors, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler law enforcement fleet advisory boards. He said with just a few service routine changes, a vehicle can maintain its productivity to 200,000 miles.
Again, without the mileage data there is no basis to even begin a proper analysis but at least the question is there for discussion.