August 13, 2026
Vehicle & Travel Services completed one million reservations while optimizing utilization and improving service
The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget Vehicle & Travel Services team (DTMB VTS) was recently featured in NAFA Fleet Management Association’s magazine, FLEETSolutions, for hitting the one million completed reservation milestone with its motor pool program, as well as their ability to refine the motor pool program to better fit the needs of state departments and employees. Recognizing utilization and service challenges, VTS launched a program in 2010 that vastly improved fleet utilization and satisfied drivers through vehicle sharing.
Michigan manages more than 10,000 vehicles – including state police motorcycles and Class 8 and 9 semi-trucks, specialty equipment, sedans, vans, trucks, and SUVs. About 238 vehicles are part of the motor pool program, but the one million completed reservations mark comes from the team’s work across state departments. They have demonstrated that vehicle sharing makes the difference.
“In addition to assigning vehicles to individual departments, we use a rental system to reduce the number of vehicles needed by a department,” said Scott Martin, analyst for VTS.
Previously, VTS depended on a manual process for reserving vehicles.
“When I got here in 2005, it was a paper-intensive manual process,” said Joel Scott, analyst for VTS. “We had an in-house database where people would go in and reserve vehicles, and then they’d get handed a piece of paper when they came to pick up the vehicle. When they brought it back, they’d turn in the paper with the ending odometer. We would then manually type in all those odometer readings.”
Today, all motor pools use an automated kiosk and key box and are managed remotely online.
“We’ve supported departments across the state by giving them access to the vehicle-sharing system so they can manage their own reservations,” said David Hofmeister, VTS motor pool/consulting manager. “It started with one county expressing interest, and word spread from there. Now, 28 Department of Health & Human Services county locations and eight Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy locations are using motor pools.”
The VTS fleet team operates much like a commercial business, with a focus on customer service. A critical part of keeping these internal customers happy is communication. VTS sends out surveys to anyone who has used a motor pool vehicle each month to collect feedback. The team also sends out a motor pool newsletter that shares the ideas that have been implemented from those survey responses. In addition to maintaining high-quality vehicles in the motor pool, another important aspect of motor pool team’s strategy is utilization; the utilization target is about 70%.
“There’s a misconception that you want to be at 100%,” Scott explains. “But if you’re always at full capacity, you’re turning people away. The goal is to find the right balance, enough utilization to be efficient but with enough availability to handle demand as it fluctuates.”
As a data-driven operation, the Michigan fleet team regularly benchmarks shared motor pool vehicles against assigned vehicles to evaluate overall operating costs and efficiency. Vehicle consultants and analysts review the full fleet and provide departments with quarterly and annual reports to support informed decision-making.
Looking ahead, the focus is on continuing to strengthen and refine a fully integrated, data-driven statewide motor pool network, optimizing utilization, improving service, and setting the standard for vehicle sharing in government. This means building on the success of the program while continuing to strategically expand based on where demand exists across the state.
NAFA Fleet Management Association is the world’s largest membership association for individuals who manage the vehicular fleet and mobility responsibilities for their employers. Learn more at NAFA.org.
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