Yoon pushes for Zipcar upgrade to city fleet

But City Councilor Sam Yoon, who is running for mayor, says he wants the city to get on the Zipcar bandwagon, and adopt a version of the popular program, much the way Washington, D.C., did earlier this year.

Yoon plans to introduce a City Council measure today that would enroll Boston in the FastFleet program, a newly launched division of Zipcar that allows government workers to reserve government cars online and drive them when needed.

Washington, which in April became the first municipality to adopt the program, eliminated 360 of its 1,560 cars by sharing them among workers, officials there said, saving an estimated $1 million annually.

Yoon believes the company, which charges about $30,000 for software and $125 per month per vehicle, could save Boston at least as much money by allowing the city to get rid of up to a third of its 875 passenger cars.

"It's a system that's going to save the city money, and it will mean fewer cars actually on the streets," said Yoon, who met with a Zipcar executive Saturday to discuss the program. "It will save our environment, and it will ensure that we're more efficient."

Not to be outdone, officials from Mayor Thomas M. Menino's administration said they have already begun talks with Zipcar about bringing FastFleet to Boston or enrolling city workers in the traditional Zipcar program so they can share cars during the day. The talks began several years ago and resumed about three weeks ago, they said.

"We're much beyond the conversation stage of rolling up our sleeves and looking at options because both parties want to make something happen and want to utilize the best practices in the field and be more efficient," said James W. Hunt, the city's chief of environment and energy.

Scott Griffith, chief executive of Cambridge-based Zipcar, said Boston is one of 120 cities that are looking to buy FastFleet. "We're very bullish on this," he said. "We think this is exactly where forward-thinking cities are going."

The program works much the same way as Zipcar, using a city's existing cars instead of a pool of new vehicles. Workers go online to reserve a car when they need it, then use a wallet-size card to unlock the door. The keys are left inside, but the car won't start unless the driver uses the access card.

Washington, which budgeted $100,00 for the program this year, has 600 employees sharing 67 cars in various departments - enabling workers to make occasional trips to Capitol Hill or daily rounds for property inspections. Officials hope to expand the program in the coming years.

"We're having a fantastic review from just about every employee that reaches out to us," said Ralph Burns, Washington's vehicle control officer. "In most programs, you only hear when something isn't working. In this program, we have people e-mail my office saying: 'This has been fantastic. Where have you been? This is the best thing I've ever seen.' It's been overwhelming."

Boston's current fleet of vehicles received less enthusiastic reviews in a recent report prepared by four students at the Kennedy School of Government who examined its operations for a public finance class.

The students found that the average city car is about 10 years old and that several departments have more cars than needed. For example, the law department, management information services, and assessing department log fewer than 10 miles a day on their cars, the report said.

The report also said the city was spending more to maintain many of the cars than the cars were worth.

And the students cited a 2006 city report that said only 44 percent of the fleet received preventive maintenance.

City officials said they were reviewing the report, which the chief of administration and finance, Lisa C. Signori, called "student work under a limited timeframe with limited data."

Still, she said: "I think there is definitely room to further optimize the fleet."

To encourage maintenance, Signori said the city was making sure that its garage on Frontage Road performs regularly schedule maintenance in a day, so cars aren't tied up for long periods. The city may also prevent workers who have not brought cars in for scheduled maintenance from fueling up, by deactivating their gas cards, she said.

Ideas to reduce the city fleet have been batted around for years. But now that Boston is grappling with a fiscal crunch, city officials said they are seriously interested in changes, if Zipcar can deliver a proposal that will save money.

"There's a cost to it, so the question is: Can the efficiency and savings cover the costs?" Signori said. "And it's hard to know," until the city sees Zipcar's plan.