Rather, according to GSA officials, GSA focuses on providing  guidance and advice to federal agencies on utilization by (1) developing  written guidance and reviewing agencies’ Vehicle Allocation Methodology  (VAM) update submissions and (2) holding conversations with federal  agencies’ fleet managers about vehicle utilization at least annually. Agencies Use a Variety of Utilization Criteria, and Two Agencies That Could Not Determine if Some Vehicles Met These Criteria in Fiscal Year 2014 Have Taken Steps to Address the Issues

While the FPMR provide general mileage guidelines that can be used as  criteria for vehicle utilization—12,000 miles per year for passenger  vehicles and 10,000 miles per year for light trucks—it also authorizes  agencies to develop their own criteria to determine vehicle utilization  where miles-traveled guidelines are not appropriate. The  agency paid more than $1.1 million to GSA in fiscal year 2014 for  these vehicles. BIA officials could not readily provide the justifications for 282 vehicles  that did not meet utilization criteria. According to VHA officials, justifications are stored with local fleet  managers and are not readily accessible to headquarters officials. All five selected agencies took actions to reduce vehicles that did  not meet utilization criteria or pass the justification process; yet three  agencies cumulatively retained over 500 such vehicles, paying GSA $1.7  million for these vehicles in fiscal year 2014. See table 6. VHA policy does not require justification for all vehicles that do not  meet utilization criteria. As a  result, GSA may be missing a potential opportunity to help agencies  ensure that their leased fleet is the optimum size. Additionally, some agencies have not eliminated or reassigned vehicles  that did not meet utilization criteria or pass a justification review. By not  taking corrective action, agencies could be spending millions of dollars on  vehicles that may not be needed. To provide better assurance that Fleet Service Representatives (FSR) are  having conversations with leasing customers about utilization in  accordance with GSA expectations, we recommend that the Administrator  of GSA develop a mechanism to help ensure that these conversations  occur. In written comments, Interior concurred with the recommendation for NPS  to take corrective action to address each leased vehicle that has not met  the agency’s utilization criteria or successfully passed the utilization  justification process and specified the actions that NPS, as well as BIA,  are implementing or planning to enhance their leased-vehicle programs. While VA agreed with our recommendations to address underutilized  vehicles, it disagreed with our conclusion that 14 percent of VHA’s leased  fleet is “unneeded, costing taxpayers an unnecessary $3 million.”  Based  on our analysis of VA data, our report found that VHA paid $3 million in  fiscal year 2014 for leased vehicles that did not meet utilization criteria  and did not have readily available justifications. We did not state that these vehicles were unneeded. This  report assesses: (1) the extent to which GSA data on leased vehicles are  reliable, (2) GSA’s role in identifying and reducing underutilized leased  vehicles, and (3) the extent to which the assessment processes used by  selected federal agencies facilitate the identification and removal of  underutilized leased vehicles, and any cost savings that could be  achieved by reducing any underutilized vehicles. For objectives 2 and 3, we judgmentally selected five federal vehicle  fleets from five federal agencies, including the U.S. Air Force (Air Force);  U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and Bureau of  Indian Affairs; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and U.S.  Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Health Administration. These  results are not generalizable to their overarching agencies or other  federal agencies. To determine the extent to which the assessment processes used by  selected federal agencies facilitate the identification and removal of  underutilized leased vehicles, we reviewed and analyzed: pertinent  federal laws and regulations; GSA guidance that described the VAM  process; and internal policies and procedures that the selected federal  agencies use to identify underutilized vehicles in five fleets, such as fleet  handbooks; and interviewed officials from GSA and the five federal  agencies about the agencies’ responsibilities in identifying underutilized  leased vehicles. We also analyzed over 15,500 fiscal  year 2014 vehicle records from the five agencies that we reviewed.
Why GAO Did This Study

Federal agencies spent about $1 billion in fiscal year 2014 to lease about 186,000 vehicles from GSA. Assessing the utilization of leased vehicles is important to agency efforts to manage their fleet costs.
GAO was asked to examine federal processes for assessing the utilization of leased vehicles. This report addresses, among other objectives, (1) GSA's role in identifying and reducing underutilized leased vehicles and (2) the extent to which the processes used by selected federal agencies facilitate the identification and removal of underutilized leased vehicles, and any cost savings that could be achieved by reducing underutilized vehicles. GAO selected five agencies using factors such as fleet size, and analyzed over 15,500 fiscal-year 2014 vehicle records. At the five agencies, GAO surveyed fleet managers with at least 20 leased vehicles; reviewed fleet policies and guidance; and interviewed federal officials. These findings are not generalizable to all agencies or fleet managers.

What GAO Found

The General Services Administration (GSA) provides guidance to agencies to assist them in reducing underutilized leased vehicles. This guidance can be written (such as bulletins) or advice from GSA's fleet service representatives (FSR) to agency fleet managers. FSRs assist agencies with leasing issues, and GSA expects its FSRs to communicate with fleet managers about vehicle utilization at least annually. However, 18 of 51 fleet managers GAO surveyed reported that they had never spoken to their FSR about vehicle utilization. GSA has no mechanism to ensure these discussions occur and therefore may miss opportunities to help agencies identify underutilized vehicles.
While the selected agencies—the Air Force, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Park Service (NPS) and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)—took steps to manage vehicle utilization, their processes did not always facilitate the identification and removal of underutilized vehicles. Certain selected agencies (1) could not determine if all vehicles were utilized, (2) could not locate justifications for vehicles that did not meet utilization criteria, or (3) kept vehicles that did not undergo or pass a justification review. These agencies paid GSA about $8.7 million in fiscal year 2014 for leased vehicles that were retained but did not meet utilization criteria and did not have readily available justifications (see table).
Of the selected agencies, NASA and VHA did not apply their utilization criteria to nearly 400 vehicles, representing about $1.2 million paid to GSA in fiscal year 2014. However, these agencies have taken steps to rectify the issue. The Air Force, BIA, NPS, and VHA could not readily locate justifications for over 1,500 leased vehicles that did not meet utilization criteria, representing about $5.8 million. BIA and NPS are planning action to ensure justifications are readily available in the future. As of May 2015, NPS and VHA had retained more than 500 vehicles—costing $1.7 million in fiscal year 2014—that were not subjected to or did not pass agency justification processes. While costs paid to GSA may not equal cost savings associated with eliminating vehicles, without justifications and corrective actions, agencies could be spending millions of dollars on vehicles that may not be needed.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends, among other things, that GSA develop a mechanism to help ensure that FSRs speak with fleet managers about vehicle utilization, that the Air Force and VHA modify their processes for vehicle justifications, and that NPS and VHA take corrective action for vehicles that do not have readily accessible written justification or did not pass a justification review. Each agency concurred with the recommendations and discussed actions planned or underway to address them.