Erie County, N.Y., is selling its vehicles and entering into a leasing agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management, County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Commissioner of Public Works William Geary announced. The agreement will rotate out 395 vehicles from the county fleet, primarily in the Public Works and Parks departments, over the next five years, along with 187 vehicles from the Sheriff’s Office over the next four years.

These county-owned vehicles will be sold and the proceeds used to defray leasing costs, accruing savings to the county of approximately $3.7 million by year five and reach $4 million by year eight, with reduced costs for maintenance, operation, and fuel also anticipated, according to the county.

“This agreement makes sense on many levels and is a responsible, cost-effective way of renewing the county fleet while saving taxpayers a considerable amount of money. New vehicles are expensive, and replacing the current fleet of light- and medium-duty vehicles would take over 14 years to do under the current system, all while other vehicles continue to age and deteriorate,” Poloncarz said in a statement. He added that the new vehicles will be more fuel efficient and require less maintenance. 

Geary said that additional benefits are a more modern and reliable fleet that will have less of a carbon footprint.

About 35% of the county’s current fleet of non-CDL (commerical driver's license) vehicles is over 10 years old, incurring higher fuel and maintenance costs, while 44% of the vehicles used by the Erie County Sheriff’s office are over eight years old and have the same concerns.

The agreement with Enterprise would use an open-ended lease arrangement that eliminates penalties for mileage, early termination, or excessive wear and tear. Erie County will piggyback on an existing bid that already includes 14 counties as well as a number of towns across New York.