Title
Outsourcing of Vehicle Paint and Body Repairs to the CEI Group (B)
Explanation
For the past several years, the City has opted to solicit bids weekly for paint and body repairs to City vehicles. The City typically spends approximately $70,000 annually with five (5) different local vendors who provide these services. Current procedures were developed over the last several years after meetings between staff and local vendors. However, despite multiple revisions, the process remains unacceptable from a Fleet performance perspective. Because of this, Fleet Management staff investigated alternative solutions and now recommends the utilization of an auto accident management company. These companies handle the entire process when notified of the need for a repair including analysis of the damage, determination of how the vehicle should be repaired, selection of a pre-approved shop to do the repair work, review of any requested supplements, inspection of the completed job, and payment to the shop.
Some of the major drawbacks of the current process and potential improvements by utilizing an accident management company include:
1) Reduction in Downtime - Due to legal and procedural barriers, the downtime on a vehicle from the time it is made available for inspection to the time it is picked up for repairs by the paint and body vendor is a minimum of thirteen (13) calendar days. The unavailability of vehicles is a tremendous disadvantage to operating departments and adversely affects the delivery of the services that they provide. This proposal reduces the current downtime from thirteen (13) calendar days to a normal downtime of one (1) business day. However, if the accident occurs on Friday afternoon and the following Monday is a City observed holiday, then a maximum of three (3) calendar days would be realized.
2) Reduction in Staff Time - Staff currently spends an average of nine (9) hours per week on the process for each vehicle requiri...
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