St. Louis Has Better Options Than Buying Nine New Mustangs for the City’s Fleet

Unless Steve McQueen is coming to work as a cop for the City of St. Louis-or using film tax credits to shoot "The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery Two: Twice as Heist"-I really don't see the need for St. Louis to buy nine new Ford Mustangs for the city's vehicle fleet.

This does not pass the smell test, as nice as that burnout tire smell can be. I don't doubt that certain city employees may need cars, but new Ford Mustangs should not be on the menu. In fact, no new cars bought by the city should be under consideration.

Contracting Out for Fleet Management

The City of St. Louis owns lots of vehicles-3,400 to be exact. Many of these are specialized vehicles, such as police cars, ambulances, trash trucks, and fire trucks. But it also owns many normal cars, like the Mustangs it just bought.

What St. Louis should do with its regular car fleet-as other local governments have done-is contract with a rental car company to provide and maintain the city's fleet. If only there were a major rental car company nearby. . . .

Local governments need cars for some of their employees to drive. If you have an inspector driving to appointments all day, that mileage reimbursement cost is going to add up quickly on taxpayers. But that does not mean a city, county, school district, etc., must own its own cars. Enterprise, or whichever company won such a bid process, could provide the local government with the vehicles it needs while saving taxpayers money.

How Do Cities Save Money with Outsourcing?

As one article on the fleet outsourcing topic described it:

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of outsourcing is that municipalities can save both money and stress in an extended fiscal period by not having to worry about the employment of drivers in some cases, vehicle repairs and upkeep.

Allentown, Pennsylvania outsourced its fleet management several years ago to save money, just as local governments around the country have done.

Look, I get it. It would be fun to be a St. Louis city employee driving around in a new Mustang. But taxpayers should not have to fund "cool." Cities need cars, but contracting for them is a better option than buying dozens, or hundreds, of them outright.