City of Portland, Oregon Case Study

City of Portland. Oregon fleet
City of Portland. Oregon fleet
How CityFleet of Portland uses AssetWorks FleetFocus

Artists and musicians. Environmentalists and entrepreneurs. Portland, Oregon is a thriving city that prides itself on its beautiful surroundings and friendly, vibrant, creative community. There are two million people in the Portland metropolitan area and they live 78 miles from the Pacific Ocean and only 65 miles from the nearest glacier. Portland’s residents enjoy the nation’s largest forested city wilderness – the 5,000-acre Forest Park. In fact, there are 37,000 acres of parks in the Portland metro area. It’s no wonder that mowing equipment is an important part of the City’s fleet in addition to police cars, street pavers, diggers, vans and many other types of vehicles.

The City of Portland’s CityFleet department is comprised of six shops and six fuel stations with a budget of $35.8 million. CityFleet is operated by 76 employees that manage the acquisition, repair, maintenance, parts, and fueling of a diverse fleet comprised of 2,850 vehicles and pieces of equipment valued at over $110 million. The fleet serves all of the bureaus in Portland and in order to keep up with demand, CityFleet estimates that nearly $300K worth of maintenance parts sits on the shelves at any given moment.

CityFleet has relied on FleetFocus software since the early 1990s to manage all aspects of its fleet maintenance. “CityFleet uses FleetFocus to track all aspects of our business. The software provides seamless data capture, fleet analysis, and meaningful reports. These features enable better accountability, improve business performance, enhance customer service, and give us our competitive edge over the private sector,” stated John S. Hunt, CPFP, Fleet Director.

"CityFleet uses FleetFocus to track all aspects of our business. [FleetFocus’ features] enable better accountability, improve business performance, enhance customer service, and give us our competitive edge over the private sector."

The City has highlighted several areas where FleetFocus has helped them achieve gains in efficiency and cost savings:
  • Improved Work Order Processing: CityFleet processes over 23,000 work orders a year and the process of filling in missing data and closing them was labor intensive. FleetFocus gives Portland the ability to seamlessly and quickly access work order data on one screen, in one application, and close many work orders at one time.
  • Real-Time, Automated Preventive Maintenance (PM) Compliance: The cost of repair is ten times greater than the cost of preventive maintenance. By utilising FleetFocus PM functionality to better calculate and schedule preventive maintenance, Portland stays ahead of compliance and thwarts any big disasters and expenditures.
  • Barcode Readers for Stocked Parts: CityFleet tracks all parts by using a bar coding system. This improved efficiency on the workshop floor contributes to immediate productivity gains. At one time, the annual inventory could take as much as four days and required costly temporary employees to complete the job. Since CityFleet began using FleetFocus’ Barcode Reading technology, the task has been whittled down to two days without the use of extra staff. Additionally, the bar coding makes the parts tracking information highly accurate. This has led to purchasing decisions that save the department a considerable amount of money.
  • Adaptable and User Friendly Software: FleetFocus is a flexible, adaptable interface that allows CityFleet to change the names of fields, hide tabs and streamline the screen. The ability to customise data has increased the value of the data for the department. This enables CityFleet to run incredibly relevant and accurate reports that lead to better fiscal decisions.
Recognition for a Job Continually Well Done

In October of 2005, John Hunt joined the City of Portland, as CityFleet Manager. Within one year of having John at the helm, CityFleet was selected as one of the 100 Best Fleets in North America. Within two years, CityFleet advanced to the top ten, cited for monumental improvements to business process and organisational changes. John has fostered trust between CityFleet and its customers, encouraging new ideas to address challenges, and, in general, has created a culture of excellence within the City organization.

In 2008 Portland’s CityFleet was named the # 4 best run public sector fleet in the country by Government Fleet Magazine. Additionally, Hunt was named Public Fleet Professional Manager of the Year for 2008 by the APWA (American Public Works Association) for his innovative ideas, accomplishments, and demonstrated ability to gain credibility and recognition for his fleet team. The awards earned by Hunt and the whole CityFleet are tangible rewards for a fleet that runs efficiently and intelligently on a daily basis.

AssetWorks is proud of the long relationships with clients such as CityFleet. Long term working relationships with Fleet Managers and fleets allows AssetWorks to better understand their clients and the ever-changing needs of the industry. Through better understanding, AssetWorks is able to develop the technology that drives real-world improvement.

 
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