Do You Want To End the Lease on an Assigned Vehicle?

It may be possible to end the lease of your assigned vehicle before the end of its life if we can transfer that vehicle to another customer. To discuss this opportunity, we need to hear from you ASAP. We have begun planning new vehicles orders for this fiscal year so we need to make any lease changes now before vehicles are ordered. If you wish to discuss your vehicle lease, please call Mike at 384-0564.

Don’t Just Submit, Validate and Review!

When you have finished filling out a Fleet Service Requisition form for a daily rental vehicle there is a button you can click that reads “Validate and Review.” Clicking on the “Validate and “Review” button before you submit to workflow allows you to review dates and times for accuracy and most importantly see the current status’ of drivers listed on the request so you know whether or not they are already approved to drive. Take a look at a short excerpt from our Kiosk Tutorial video that demonstrates the function.

Get New Staff Certified to Drive and Trained

This is the time of year that many new staff members, both student and full-time, are hired. If your new staff members may possibly drive a University vehicle make sure you get these new drivers registered in the University’s Driver’s License Review System. This system is located on Employee Self-Service in the Parking and Travel section, under the Parking and Transportation heading. If you do not have access to this system, your departmental HR person will. This is also a good time to review all of your drivers and make sure they are entered into this system as well.

Our website has lots of good information to get new staff familiar with all things University Vehicles. The Safety and Training section includes information about required driver training courses, a link to FAQs that cover all aspects of University vehicles, and tutorial videos for topics like fueling and submitting rental requests. 

Is there a Toll or is there Not a Toll, Therein Lies the Question?

The official Illinois Tollway App has recently been updated to include a new Tollway Trip Planner. The new mapping feature helps drivers traveling on the Tollway system and toll roads in other states by showing all toll plazas, toll rates and payment options on the way to their destinations. By using the trip planner, drivers can map out the best routes and plan for tolls before they leave home. This app can help you determine if you might want to add an I-PASS transponder to a Fleet vehicle rental. The App also allows you to pay unpaid tolls, manage your I-PASS account and use the pay-by-plate service directly from your phone.  If you are travelling in a Fleet car with a Fleet I-PASS transponder, we’ll take care of all of that for you. Check out the Illinois Tollway website that includes links to download the app.

Inventory Time!!

For those customers who have vehicles that are permanently assigned, it is a good idea to occasionally check to see if everything that should be in the vehicle is there. Here is a list of things you should have in each of your assigned vehicles:  ice scraper, yellow envelope with an information exchange form for accident reporting, the vehicle registration, a self-insurance letter from Risk Management (Iowa is a proof of insurance state), a roadside assistance card or letter, and a fuel credit card. If your vehicle is missing any of these items, please let us know and we can get you a replacement.

Honest Mike’s Used Cars

Next up for auction are two Dodge Grand Caravans: a 2018 with just over 67K miles and a 2019 with almost 80K miles.  Also hitting GovDeals soon will be a red 2019 Grand Caravan with less that 70K miles. Check out the auction page on GovDeals.

Fleet Factoid

Every new car sold in the US is required display a window sticker that includes the listing of certain official information about the car like make, model, trim, VIN, mechanical specs, pricing, etc.. The official name for this a “Monroney sticker” named after Almer Stillwell "Mike" Monroney, a United States Senator from Oklahoma who championed the Automobile Information Disclosure Act of 1958. The Act mandated the disclosure of information about the car on the grounds of consumer protection.