FM Fleet Services, comprised of 28 staff members, manages the purchasing, maintenance, and administration of over 1,487 vehicles across campus, including 1,015 vehicles, 314 trailers, 103 carts, and 55 boats.  

The awards Fleet earned are from the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA) who ranked Fleet at UC Davis #13 in the Green Fleet Award, #14 in 100 Best Fleets (up from #86 last year!) and in the Top 50 of Government Fleet-Leading Fleets. NAFA awards these honors annually to recognize excellence in fleet management and to encourage more individuals to look toward the industry for business and career opportunities. This national recognition provides our customers with increased confidence in FM’s Fleet and highlights our dedication to the University of California (UC) sustainability goals. 

The awards result from Fleet’s recent improvements to telematics for emissions testing, as this replaces the existing SMOG program. Telematics provides continuous monitoring for SMOG compliance instead of testing once every other year. Fleet uses the telematics data to determine fuel and idling patterns, find vehicles that may be switched to Zero-Emission, and safety considerations for driver coaching. More generally, this improves our Fleet’s safety, maintenance, and cost efficiency! 

While creating an advisory board in 2022, Fleet received customer input to ensure high engagement for decision-making. Fleet has also expanded Motor Pool operations to serve more customers and eliminate as many single-vehicle assignments as possible. Single-vehicle assignments give departments more flexibility in getting a rental instead of paying for a monthly lease on a vehicle. Therefore, if you are able to reduce the number of vehicles in an ongoing lease and supplement with a daily/hourly rental, the department can save money! This change to Motor Pool allows our Fleet to efficiently dispatch vehicles to our customers on a short-term basis. Fleet Services hopes to expand this operation and even create Micro-Pools! 

Future initiatives include expanding electric vehicle adoption across UC Davis by providing customers more options for these types of vehicles that are department-owned. This endeavor allows our customers to lease a smaller electric department-owned vehicles compared to vans or sedans, which aligns with the UC and campus sustainability goals. This demonstrates commitment to innovation and serving customers, two key reasons why they are nationally recognized by NAFA. 

Fleet Services Interim Director, Fred Gallardo, shared his appreciation to the Interim Assistant Director Casey Kendrick for taking the lead in applying and coordinating the major work required for these awards. Fred added, “Our placement in the awards has improved since Casey took over submitting these applications.”.