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Home My WebLink AboutIR 8784J*INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS �'RTtq� r a } tx tea To the Mayor and Members of the City Council No. 8784 July 11, 2006 Page 1 of 4 SUBJECT: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and GPS Fleet Monitoring The following is in response to questions raised by the City Council regarding the use of alternative fuel powered vehicles and GPS fleet monitoring systems. Alternative Fuel Vehicles In 1995, the City of Fort Worth embarked upon an alternative fuel program for the City's fleet in order to comply with the 1994 Texas Clean Fleet Program and the 1990 Federal Clean Air Act. At that time only two types of alternative fuel technologies existed. The City chose LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) as the alternative fuel choice due to range limitations and infrastructure costs associated with the other alternative fuel option CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). The city selected 822 vehicles to be converted to LPG use in either a bi -fuel configuration or dedicated configuration. Due to problems encountered with the performance of conversion packages, in 1997, the City discontinued converting vehicles after approximately 558 had been completed. In 1998, an effort to continue utilizing LPG within the City fleet lead to the purchase of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) LPG conversions through Ford Motor Company. This would allow any warranty issues to be handled through the manufacturer and not have to go to a separate vendor for LPG issues. From 1998 to 2004, the City of Fort Worth purchased a total of 159 alternative fuel vehicles. Major manufacturers experienced numerous problems with LPG conversions. Due to these problems, the major manufacturers discontinued their support and manufacture of LPG and CNG vehicles in 2005. In 2001 the City of Fort Worth's first Hybrid vehicle (Toyota Prius) was purchased as a new option for alternative fuel vehicles. This technology continues to be expanded by all major manufacturers including Ford, GM, Toyota, and several other companies. The advantages to acquiring Hybrid vehicles include increased fuel economy, lower emissions, and extended warranty on Hybrid components (8 years /100,000 miles). There are some disadvantages to Hybrid vehicles that include a higher initial cost than comparable units, limited types of Hybrid vehicles, long delivery time, and concerns about crash safety and used battery disposal. On April 4, 2006, the City Council adopted Clean Fleet Vehicle Resolution 3334 -04 -2006. The resolution outlines the acquisition, operational and maintenance standards needed for the City of Fort Worth to apply for grant dollars through the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) to supplement the purchase of alternative fuel vehicles. The Equipment Services Department has responded to the "call for projects" for these grant dollars and in the Fall 2007, the RTC will determine which projects will be awarded. Currently, the City of Fort Worth fleet consists of 4,011 pieces of equipment. These pieces of equipment include 3,109 vehicles that receive preventative maintenance. Of those vehicles requiring preventative maintenance, 2,439 vehicles are operated on city streets and highways, thus requiring state inspection. The City has 356 alternative fuel vehicles. The alternative fuel vehicles consist of 311 I.NG vehicles. 33 E85 (8so,o Fthanoh fueled vehicles, and 12 Hybrid vehicles. Although the CM olI Fort Worth has F85 capable vehicles, the fuel itself is not currently available in the Fort Worth ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS To the Mayor and Members of the City Council No. 8784 July 11, 2006 Page 2 of 4 SUBJECT: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and GPS Fleet Monitoring area. The current trend is toward a reduction in LPG vehicles and an increase in E85 and Hybrid vehicles. Another forthcoming technology is fuel- celled vehicles and they should be available in the next 5 to 7 years. Fuel - celled vehicles rely upon a molecular reaction rather than combustion to create power for the vehicle. Emissions from a fuel - celled system are much smaller than emissions from the cleanest fuel combustion process. In June 2006, the Equipment Services Department completed a benchmark study related to Alternative Fuel Vehicles. The following chart shows the results of that study. City Vehicles requiring state inspection Number of Alternative Fuel Vehicles % of Alternative Fuel Vehicles in Fleet Austin 3425 345 10.07% Arlington 913 23 2.52% El Paso 1988 16 0.80% Fort Worth 2439 356 14.60% Houston 8500 462 5.44% San Antonio 3250 261 8.03% Oklahoma City 2219 63 2.84% The City of Houston has the largest fleet along with the most alternative fuel vehicles (462) compared to other municipalities studied, but the City of Fort Worth has the highest percentage (14.6 %) of their fleet utilizing alternative fuel vehicles. The City of Dallas was contacted but did not respond to the request for information. GPS Fleet Monitoring Systems The Fire Department currently uses the global positioning system (GPS) to track the location of equipment. Tracking is performed through the Public Safety Computer Aided Dispatch System. Several departments including Police, Water and Development have expressed an interest in utilizing this technology. Tracking systems are currently being studied to determine the potential applications, costs, benefits and return on investment. There are two types of GPS fleet monitoring systems that are being studied. The first type is Real Time monitoring. Real Time monitoring is the GPS system that can immediately identify the location of a vehicle (a.k.a. AVL — automatic vehicle location). The infrastructure costs and monthly service charges for Real Time monitoring require substantial capital allocations. The second type is Passive monitoring. Passive monitoring is the collection of vehicle locations during operation that are batched and downloaded whencver the vehicle data is received. The data can be batched and transmitted at any time that the vehicle enters the range of the receiver. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 8784 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council July 11, 2006 `�►�" >° Page 3 of 4 a SUBJECT: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and GPS Fleet Monitoring 6x 14575 With Passive monitoring, at the end of a shift, a supervisor would be able to identify where a particular vehicle had been throughout a given shift. The ITS Department has done some cost comparisons between seven (7) potential vendors of GPS systems. Initial conversations with departments have determined that the Police Department would want the Real Time monitoring to facilitate the safety of their officers. Other city departments could meet their needs with the Passive monitoring. The on road city fleet (minus the vehicles assigned to Police and Fire) totals 1,323 vehicles. Below is a cost example for Passive and Real Time GPS for non public safety vehicles. Non Public Safety Fleet - 5 -Year Cost Range Example - Total Fleet of 1323 First Year Sub se went Year 5 Year Total Low High Low High Low I High Passive $409,400.00 $961,100.00 $2,000.00 $4,500.00 $417,400.00 $979,100.00 Real Time $926,100.00 $1,587,600.00 $396,900.00 $793,800.00 $2,513,700.00 1 $4,762,800.00 The on road Police fleet totals 944 vehicles. Below is a cost example for Passive and Real Time GPS for Police Department vehicles. Police Fleet - 5 -Year Cost Range Example - Total Fleet of 944 First Year Subsequent Year 5 Year Total Low I High Low High Low I High Passive $295,700.00 $695,800.00 $2,000.00 $4,500.00 $303,700.00 $713,800.00 Real Time $660,800.00 $1,132,800.00 $283,200.00 $566,400.00 1 $1,793,600.00 $3,398,400.00 In 2005, the Equipment Services Department partnered with a Fort Worth MWBE company, Williams Pyro, to test that company's development of a black box technology. The initial purpose for the partnership was to obtain data for diagnostic information to assist in reducing repair costs. Other data that can be captured with the technology included the ability to track potential vehicle abuse and inappropriate operations (i.e. idle time and speed intervals). Based upon previous City Council requests related to GPS, the company is developing a GPS system to be included in this technology. The Passive technology will be completed by Fall 2006 and the Real Time technology will be developed in 2007. (The Williams Pyro GPS solution is one of the seven vendors included in the ITS cost analysis above.) ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS Tt.% r tl A K f ][ Yt77 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council No. 8784 July 11, 2006 Page 4 of 4 SUBJECT: Alternative Fuel Vehicles and GPS Fleet Monitoring Phase One of the test involved three city Equipment Services Department vehicles to determine the accuracy of data collection. The test has recently moved to Phase Two involving 30 city vehicles (5 Sedans, 7 Pick Ups, 2 SUVs, 1 Van, 10 Dump Trucks and 5 Brush Trucks) from the Environmental Management, Code Compliance and the Transportation and Public Works departments. Phase Two of the test involves use of three WiFi receivers located at the Southside Service Center and the James Avenue Service Center. This phase of the test will allow the Equipment Services Department to do a cost benefit analysis of the black box technology. In summary, the Equipment Services Department continues to work closely with their customer departments to determine the viability of Alternative Fuel vehicles and GPS technology to assist departments with their fleet costs and providing information for efficient management of city vehicles. If you have questions or comments regarding this topic, please contact Wayne Corum, Acting Director of Equipment Services at 817- 392 -5118. Charles R. Boswell City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH. TEXAS