Minimum Cost Fleet Sizing for a University Motor Pool

Many diverse types of organizations, including public agencies, own fleets of vehicles to service work-related travel by employees. The University of Tennessee system operates such a fleet to facilitate the institutional travel requirements of administration, faculty, staff, and students. Nearly 900 vehicles of various types are located at the Knoxville campus to provide this service. Although the majority of these vehicles are permanently or semipermanently dedicated to specific functions (e.g., maintenance, safety and security, utilities, etc.) a large number are maintained on a demand basis to support University travel to off-campus meetings, field projects, and the like. As of 1976, the demand or dispatch fleet consisted of 145 passenger vehicles. An cost/effectiveness analysis of the motor pool's operations, with a specific focus on the size and composition of the dispatch fleet is presented.