CHARLESTON, WV - The State of West Virginia selected FleetCommander fleet and motor pool software to automate its shared-use motor pool management, which includes an online reservation system with integrated key control for vehicles in selected state agencies and educational institutions across the state. The announcement was made today by Agile Access Control, Inc., creator of FleetCommander.

According to Steve Brightwell, project manager for the West Virginia Department of Administration's Fleet Management Office, state vehicles are used for business use by employees, whose responsibilities take them to geographically dispersed locations throughout the state.

"Fleet vehicles are critical to the work of state employees because many must travel several hours away to do their work, not just minutes," Brightwell said. He added that with the high number of miles travelled by employees across the state, FleetCommander vehicle utilization reports will be a critical component. "Getting an accurate handle on utilization will be essential when we are deciding whether to replace vehicles," he says.

According to Brightwell, the State of West Virginia's deployment of FleetCommander will begin with the launch of a pilot program within its Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) to automate manual shared-used vehicle fleet management processes. Manually reserving vehicles, keeping paper mileage logs, keeping track of keys, and paper maintenance logs have all become very time consuming," Brightwell said. "Automating with the latest fleet technology and making fleet management user friendly and more technologically advanced is a goal of the West Virginia Fleet Management Office.”

Brightwell estimates fleet management time to be cut significantly when this software is in place.

The deployment of FleetCommander in West Virginia is in line with the state's Green Fleet Initiative, launched last year. Among the effort's goals is to "optimize fleet size by eliminating or reassigning unused or underutilized vehicles while promoting carpooling."

Clay Chandler, executive director for the State's Fleet Management Office summarized this initiative by saying, "In an era of economic downturn and reduced tax revenues, relying on fragmented legacy systems and "stop-and-go" manual interfaces will simply not be an option for state agencies who wish to remain relevant and be viewed as the best value by the state's citizenry."