Despite safety concerns, House approves bill to reduce state vehicle fleet

Regional News

Audio By Carbonatix

Lawmakers and state employees could soon be taking an Uber or taxi to work instead of driving state vehicles under legislation approved by the House Tuesday.

Republican Rep. Jeff Weninger of Chandler says the state has too many cars, and state employees could save taxpayers money by using alternatives.

So his HB2440 would require the Department of Administration and other agencies that maintain independent fleets to reduce the number of vehicles in their fleet by 20 percent by 2020. Weninger had originally sought to cut the fleet by 40 percent, but amended his legislation to address concerns from opponents.

The bill would also require the agency to come up with a plan to use more third-party ride providers, such as temporary rentals, taxis or ride share companies like Uber and Lyft. And it would direct the Department of Administration to study which options are the most cost-effective.

Several Democratic lawmakers noted that not all state employees would be comfortable with taking rides from strangers, especially with unregulated services like Uber.

But Weninger said he didn’t want “to go down that road of trying to codify into law every little nuance of what somebody might object to today.”