The General Services Administration has one of the largest nontactical federal fleet in the federal government, with more than 200,000 vehicles. On Tuesday, GSA issued a Request for Information seeking ideas from commercial vendors to help reduce the fleet over time, and incorporate car sharing throughout the federal government.
The agency announced the new initiative in a Nov. 5 blog post, saying such an endeavor would reduce costs, improve efficiencies and optimize vehicle use.
“Every day across America, families and businesses look for practical ways to save money,” GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini said. “GSA is doing just that with this first-of-its-kind car-sharing program that drives down costs, increases efficiency and improves operations of the government fleet program.”
GSA will be launching a car-sharing pilot program in Washington, D.C., Boston, New York City and Chicago to put this plan into action immediately. GSA expects the pilot program to explore best practices, and examine how car sharing works in large metropolitan cities with participation from several federal agencies.
“GSA manages one of the largest federal fleets in the U.S. government,” said Tom Sharpe, commissioner at GSA’s Federal Acquisitions Office. “This common-sense approach will help agencies focus their limited resources on their critical mission, rather than fleet services. We will be able to test whether it is more cost-effective and beneficial to use a car sharing service in lieu of taxi cabs, renting, leasing and/or purchasing a vehicle.”