Fleet Services Earns National Accreditation
Author: Central Services
Date:
6/17/2019 2:50:27 PM
The County's Fleet team worked hard to earn accreditation through a national association.
It is one thing to be a functioning Fleet, and even more to be a good one. To be an accredited Fleet takes excellence.
In a pool of 38,000 municipal fleets, the County of SLO’s fleet team is the 197th organization in the United States to receive national accreditation and just the second to achieve accreditation outside of a Public Works organization.
The goal of American Public Works Association (APWA) accreditation is to provide a means of formally verifying and recognizing public agencies for compliance with the recommended practices set forth in the Public Works Management Practices Manual. Since the County’s Fleet Services is not part of the Public Works Department, the team had to apply for accreditation as a stand-alone entity separate from the Public Works Department, which earned its re-accreditation.
The team at Fleet Services, led by Lucas Janetski, assessed current practices and worked with supporting departments to refine procedures and policies. During this process they evaluated and documented 175 separate practices. From these, APWA recognized three of them as exemplary. Practices rated as exemplary are shared throughout the national APWA audience. The most notable of these was the implementation of the Local Motion fleet-sharing program.
The immediate benefit of achieving accreditation is that it has legitimized Fleet Services operations on a national level. It defined the clarity of roles between departments and centralized documented policies and procedures. This will enhance streamlined operations and contribute to emergency preparedness within SLO County. The accreditation will also help Fleet Services continuously improve, supporting other County Departments as they provide important services to the people of SLO County.
Shahnawaz (Shahn) Ahmad, APWA Region VIII Director, presented the accreditation plaque to the Board of Supervisors during the March 26th meeting. Will Clemens accepted the plaque on behalf of the Board and Fleet Services. Most of Fleet Services staff and many of Central Services staff were in attendance.