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Issued: February 2001

SUMMARY

We found that City vehicles spend an appreciable number of days past due for preventive maintenance (PM) service. For example, the average annual days late for PM in FY00 for City vehicles ranged from 52 days for solid waste vehicles to 158 days late for police vehicles. Fleet PM procedures do not currently include emission control systems checks. Timely inspection and maintenance (I&M) of emission control systems could significantly reduce the City fleet’s contribution to ground-level ozone. For example, I&M can reduce hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by as much as five to 30 percent.

Using EPA data and our analysis of days late for PM, we estimated annual additional emissions resulting from late I&M for three City departments (Solid Waste, EMS, and Police) in three pollutant categories (hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide). This was done to serve as a proxy for the results of late PM check-ups. We determined that late I&M (and, inferentially, late PM) results in significant additional toxic emissions per vehicle. For example, late I&M can result in as much as 3,823 pounds of additional emissions of carbon monoxide per EMS vehicle annually.

Ground-level ozone can cause health problems ranging from relatively minor symptoms to chronic illness and hospital admissions. In addition, health care costs associated with ozone related illnesses can be high. Based on 1998 national costs and population estimates, we allocated to Austin its share of national costs associated with ozone related illnesses. According to this allocation, Austin residents, businesses, and government agencies spend $113.5 million annually on these health problems.

Recommendations:

We made four recommendations: (1) in order to improve the proportion of PM performed on schedule, the Fleet Officer should take the necessary steps to have Fleet’s management information system (MIS) ready, by the end of FY 01, to schedule PM recommended by the manufacturer for the vehicles that Fleet maintains and repairs; (2) in order to ensure compliance with the PM program, the Fleet Officer should follow-up with department and City management as necessary; (3) in order to reduce the ground-level ozone contributed by the City’s vehicles and equipment, the Fleet Officer should implement an emission I&M program to begin in FY 02; and (4) in order to ensure compliance with the emissions system I&M program, the Fleet Officer should follow up with department and City management as necessary. Management concurred with all four recommendations.

Click here to go to our audit request form to request a hard copy of this report (Report No. S99130AQ)

Click here to download the full text of the Impact of Vehicle Preventive Maintenance on the City's Air Quality audit (Size: 503 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files.

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