City to use car-sharing service

    By: Tom MacDonald

    The city of Philadelphia is trimming its vehicle fleet in order to cut costs. Fleet Manager James Muller says part of the effort involves using car sharing services.

    By: Tom MacDonald
    tmacdonald@whyy.org

    The city of Philadelphia is trimming its vehicle fleet in order to cut costs. Fleet Manager James Muller says part of the effort involves using car sharing services. WHYY’s Tom MacDonald reports.

    Transcript:

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    Philadelphia Fleet Manager James Muller says 243 vehicles, ranging from dog-catching trucks to back-hoes, have been pulled off the street as part of an initiative to save money.

    Muller: “These vehicles will all be gone through to find out the condition of the vehicles and if they are better than what we have have in the existing fleet, we’ll swap vehicles in and out, and the vehicles will be sold.”

    Mayor Nutter checks out the car fleet
    Mayor Nutter checks out the car fleet

    The biggest cut came from the police department, which shed 140 cars and trucks.

    The city’s goal is to trim 500 cars from the fleet, replacing some with a car-sharing service. The plan also calls for paying gas money to city employees to use their personal vehicles for city business. The city has a total of roughly 6,000 vehicles.

    Listen:
    Click on the play button below or right click on this link and choose “Save Link As” to download. [audio: reports20090312fleet.mp3]

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