GSA Blog

GSA Fleet Delivers for Earth Day

The 48th annual Earth Day celebration takes place on April 22nd and is an opportunity for GSA to reflect on how we deliver more efficient vehicle products and services to federal agencies. As an Office of Management and Budget designated Best-in-Class solution, the GSA Fleet program eliminates redundant costs by aggregating demand and providing a unified way of conducting business across the federal government. This allows agencies to focus on their core mission requirements.

One of these areas of centralized expertise is the advancement of sustainability through delivery of appropriate products or services. GSA Fleet continuously works with automotive manufacturers to offer the federal marketplace current alternative fuel technology. Over 2,000 alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) configurations were awarded for this fiscal year. Moreover, for the first time ever, GSA is now offering a plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) SUV; and we are also re-introducing a hybrid SUV offering.

GSA Fleet consolidates governmentwide vehicle purchasing, therefore offering motor vehicles at prices substantially lower than dealer invoice. Last year GSA averaged a 20.6 percent discount amounting to an estimated cost savings of $381M. Due to GSA’s ability to save customer agencies time and money, AFVs accounted for 77.5 percent of all federal government vehicles procured in fiscal year (FY) 2017.

Ancillary products and services are also necessary to achieve cost-savings goals. In FY 2017, GSA awarded an electric vehicle supply equipment blanket purchase agreement (BPA), which serves as a streamlined and cost-effective procurement option for customers interested in purchasing electric vehicle charging station solutions. The BPA encompasses five charging station manufacturers and delivers 76 different equipment configurations for agencies to choose from including level 1, level 2 and DC Fast Charging options.This contracting vehicle removes significant knowledge-gap and contractual burdens such as developing and competing new requirements that may inhibit electric vehicle adoption.

Lastly, GSA Fleet made the strategic business decision to deploy telematics across its entire leased fleet. GSA is completing a small-scale implementation of telematics in FY 2018, and pending success of that proof of concept, will begin installing telematics devices on all new vehicle acquisitions starting in FY 2019. Among several benefits, the data derived from telematics will help GSA Fleet identify opportunities to reduce operating costs and automate manual, resource-dependent business processes.

GSA is committed to working with the federal fleet and energy communities to help agencies meet federal sustainability requirements and will continue to make accessibility and affordability of new technology vehicles and vehicle-related products a priority.