Serving The Needs Of Executive Agencies
Devised by the United States Division of Contracting and General Services with regard to motor vehicle management in 1993, the Interagency Fleet Management System states that "the Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) will, to the extent that he determines that so doing is advantageous to the Government...consolidate, take over, acquire, or arrange for the operation by any executive agency of motor vehicles and other related equipment and supplies for the purpose of establishing fleet management systems to serve the needs of executive agencies; and provide for the establishment, maintenance, and operation (including servicing and storage) of fleet management systems for transportation of property or passengers..."
Its manifesto further goes on to say that Interagency Fleet Management System Services "may be furnished through commercial rental companies, private sector fleet operators, local or interstate common carriers, the Government, or a combination [of these]."
In short, this fleet management system allows for the federal government to take over fleet management operations as it sees fit to serve the needs of itself. Motor vehicles for use of any length of time, shuttles, "driver services", buses, transit lines, motor vehicle storage and servicing facilities may all be commandeered by the federal government if it sees a need and after what it considers due consultation with the agencies that would be involved.
The General Services Administration (GSA) recently implemented new regulations requiring fleet managers who operate the 600,000-plus government vehicles to renew their government-issued license plates every five years and maintain detailed data on who is driving those vehicles via Internet databases that would make it easier for law enforcement to track any of those vehicles should the need arise, such as in the case of theft.
This has been met with a lot of hue and cry from federal fleet managers who now foresee themselves buried with tons of extra bureaucratic-style work and many of whom now very suddenly will have to prepare to purchase new registration on licensing that they have used for many years without any problem.
Senior fleet specialist at GSA’s Office of Government-wide Policy Michael Moses says of these new regulations, "Nobody likes this five-year thing...Mainly it falls back on the agencies to make sure your data is correct. If you want an accurate database, it’s up to you to put the wrath of you-know-who to every vehicle operator to make sure [that] if there’s change in operator, it’s changed...If you just bought a plate six months ago and you’ve got to put a new plate on it, I’m sorry, you’ve got to buy a new plate."
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