To mix a metaphor, Bryan County’s fleet of vehicles is getting a bit long in the tooth.
The county has 285 vehicles in its "rolling stock," which means everything with tires or tread on it. The vehicles range from fire trucks and ambulances to sheriff’s department cars, dump trucks and road graders, according to information provided to county commissioners in December by County Administrator Ben Taylor.
Most of the vehicles are up there in age and mileage, and Taylor used the county’s roads department to illustrate the problem for commissioners.
More than 60 percent of the department’s light vehicles, otherwise known as pickups and vans, are at least 15 years old, Taylor said. More than 80 percent of the road department’s vehicles have 180,000 or more miles on them.
And Bryan County’s roads department is not alone. It’s pretty much like that across the board. Taylor said he used vehicles in the roads department "because it’s typical of the whole fleet," he said.
There are vehicles in the county’s inventory approaching antique status: Among them are a 1995 pickup with more than 340,000 miles on it and an even-older 1991 pickup with unknown mileage. Newer vehicles include a 2005 pickup with close to 200,000 miles on it.
Taylor noted the vehicles are regularly maintained and are safe to operate, but it’s getting expensive to keep them on the road. The maintenance costs in 2016 for the 17 vehicles Taylor pointed out in his presentation to commissioners was $15,000.
"It’s just more expensive to operate those older vehicles when you look at gas mileage and efficiency," he said.
That’s part of the reason for the presentation. The other is budgeting.
With residents being asked to pass another Special Local Option Sales Tax in November, Taylor said the county has to identify what needs to be replaced so they can be put on the budget to be bought using SPLOST.
It’ll be done on a schedule, once department heads decide which vehicles need to go first. Bryan County has already approved a vehicle replacement plan for its fleet of fire trucks and ambulances, and "we’re going to move that on to the other departments this year," Taylor said.
He hopes it’ll save the county money in the long run. Taylor also believes it’ll keep the county from finding itself nursing a fleet of aging vehicles down the road.
"The idea is to get a standardized, reasonable, rational replacement plan in place so we’re not in a position where 80 percent of our vehicles have 200,000 miles or above on them," he said.
As vehicles are replaced the older ones will be sold at auction.