Held at NAFA's annual Institute & Expo on Tuesday 27 April in Detroit, the awards were given to David Vasquez, the manager of fleet operations for SECO Energy, and Bob Adamsky, fleet manager for Del-Air Heating and Air Conditioning.

Mr Vasquez entered the Goill Awards with an idea that actually helped his former employer in Florida. As director of fleet maintenance for Lake County in Sumpterville, Mr Vasquez recognized that a large number of county vehicles were assigned as take-home vehicles without proper justification, with obvious impacts on the county’s fleet budget. 

As a result, Mr Vasquez developed a simplified process to justify vehicle assignments based on the percentage of commuting use versus business use. His vehicle justification model, based on NAFA’s Lifecycle Cost Analysis, calculates vehicle assignment based on the actual costs, defining cost of ownership by year, month, and mile. The model has several user-adjustable parameters, including months in service and targeted mileage, and compares those figures against the anticipated monthly usage and mileage. In addition, the model breaks down the annual and lifetime costs of business use versus commuting use and compares the cost of a County-supplied vehicle against the IRS reimbursement rate. 

Most importantly, the model has a decision-making formula that clearly states whether or not assignment of a county vehicle is more economical than employee reimbursement and whether or not an assignment can be justified based on anticipated mileage and business need. 

Mr Vasquez started out using the model to justify requests for new vehicle assignments, but ended up using it to highlight and reduce commuting use. Judges for this year’s Goill Awards commented that his idea was a great example of a simple, low-cost solution that provided great savings and better efficiency.

The other award winner, Bob Adamsky, increased his fleet’s fuel mileage by 10%, lowered fleet emissions, and enhanced driver safety by limiting his vehicles’ top speeds. In addition, he sought to eliminate the fluctuations that occur between vehicle models and drivers, by transferring performance accountability from the driver to the vehicle.

Mr Adamsky said his goal was to make the programme profitable and realise a 7% saving in four months. But when applied across his 500-plus vehicle fleet, the initiative saw a 10 to 14% improvement in vehicles' fuel economy.