State takes wheel on vehicle count: New law should help Fleet Management know what exactly is in its parking lot

Three years, thousands of vehicles (depends on whose estimate) and one House bill later, we have an answer.
Of course, we still have questions, too, about the number of state vehicles and trailers licensed and insured, but this is a start.
The state’s official fleet number of 8,380 was obviously not easy to arrive at, but it’s at least far below the mathematical mean among three state agencies.
The state Department of Administration’s Fleet Management Division lowballed its estimate — 7,500 — proof it had a handle on things, sort of.
Not too far off the over/under estimate the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) reported it had about 10,500 active license plates on state vehicles.
Finally, who would have guessed the actuaries and CPAs at the Board of Risk and Insurance Management (BRIM) would own the high number, 12,500.
The mean number was about 10,160, so we can all take a little bit of satisfaction that the real answer was at least under five digits.
We realize it would take years and wads of money to discover how BRIM could insure a ghost fleet of 4,000 vehicles and trailers. But wouldn’t you like to know?
Or what those additional 2,000 active license plates, the DMV issued, were attached to. A hundred or so we might sort of understand — 2,000, no.
At this point we almost feel like congratulating Fleet Management for only being off its count by about 800 vehicles, give or take 30.
Yet, we’re not going to claim House Bill 4015, that was passed in last year’s legislative session, is the answer to this breakdown in addition. Still, this bill looks to go a long way toward keeping a better grip on the wheel of this vehicle fleet.
It’s also backed up by the State Vehicle Title, Registration and Relicensing Project of 2018, that went into effect Jan. 1. That project requires all state-owned vehicles to have new gold and blue license plates, instead of the old green and white ones.
While HB 4015 allows the state police to pull over vehicles with the former green state plate and ticket the driver, it also requires every state vehicle’s registration be renewed every two years and regular maintenance.
But the most important element of HB 4015 is that it calls on Fleet Management to track the number of state vehicles and annually report that number.
Some will say that most governments — federal, state and local — trend toward loose and fuzzy accounting. You know, if it takes a wrong turn it just keeps going.
Well, there’s a signpost up ahead — our next stop is a full accounting of how our tax dollars are being driven.
It’s time we permanently park waste, fraud and abuse of our state’s vehicle fleet.