To the Editor:
Beaufort County Community College maintains a fleet of college vehicles available for checkout by college faculty and staff for official college business. The college rolls down used vehicles to the campus police and maintenance departments for college use.
The use of fleet vehicles is an effort for the college to reduce costs for official college business. The IRS mileage reimbursement rate is much higher than our actual cost per mile used of these vehicles.
There are currently seven fleet vehicles in use at BCCC. Five of these vehicles are available for checkout from the business office and the other two are for the continuing education division and the president’s office.
Each year as a part of the county budget request process, BCCC staff members review the age of each fleet vehicle, amount of service needed during the previous year, and determine vehicles that need to be replaced. In the early part of 2012, it was determined BCCC needed to replace one of the fleet vehicles (2003 Dodge Caravan with approximately 140,000 miles) and one of the campus police vehicles (numerous mechanical issues). The plan developed included purchasing a new van and rolling down the old van to the maintenance department. The vehicle previously assigned for use to the college president was selected to roll down to campus police because of the type of vehicle and suitability of use for this purpose.
The purchase of these vehicles was included in the county budget request presented to and approved by the College’s Board of Trustees at the April 3, 2012, meeting. This information was also included in the budget presentation presented to the Beaufort County Commissioners during a joint budget meeting on April 18, 2012.
Once the budget was approved by the County Commissioners, the vehicle assigned to the college president was transferred to the campus police department. There was an immediate need for this transfer because of the mechanical condition of one of the police vehicles. Another fleet vehicle was assigned for use by the college president until such time as a new vehicle could be ordered for the fleet.
In June of 2012, state term contracts were reviewed by college staff members and a vehicle of similar size to the one being replaced was selected. The various standard color options available on state contract were also reviewed. A metallic silver Chevrolet Impala was subsequently ordered. The vehicle is scheduled to be delivered in September 2012.
BCCC takes the use of our limited college resources very seriously. We make every attempt to lower our operation costs and the use of fleet vehicles is one method used to lower our costs.
RUSSELL A. SMITH
Chairman, BCCC Board of Trustees