Fleet Asset Management Audit 2025 Report

6/9/2025 Road Maintenance, Operations and Fleet

Why this Audit Matters

This audit reviewed processes and controls around fleet asset management to ensure they are adequately designed and operating effectively. This audit is important because it evaluates whether Fleet’s processes and controls are well-designed and functioning effectively in a controlled, consistent, and cost-effective manner, ultimately safeguarding City resources and supporting operational effectiveness.

Fleet Services manages the procurement, maintenance, and disposal of vehicles and equipment for City of Brampton operations, excluding Fire and Transit. These assets support essential services such as road maintenance and parks operations. The Fleet Administration team, part of the Public Works and Engineering Department, is responsible for managing the full lifecycle of fleet assets.

The City uses FleetFocus M5 software to track all fleet assets, including usage, maintenance history, and costs. M5 also generates reports to support operational planning, such as annual lifecycle assessments that help identify vehicles for replacement. These assessments consider factors such as age, usage, and vehicle condition. Replacement recommendations are reviewed and submitted through the annual budget process, where priorities are adjusted based on available funding. When budget constraints exist, vehicles in the poorest condition are prioritized for replacement.

The City maintains an internal pool of approximately 30 vehicles to provide temporary replacements when needed by user departments and uses external rentals during peak periods. When vehicles are flagged for replacement, they are decommissioned, prepared for auction, and removed from the system.

Internal Audit discussed the following improvement opportunities with Fleet Management.

1. Monitoring of Vehicle Utilization Needs to be Enhanced

Vehicle utilization is monitored through a report that combines data from M5, the asset management software, and the Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system to capture vehicle mileage.
In 2024, the report showed that 27% of light-duty vehicles recorded under 5,000 km, and 25% of heavy-duty vehicles under 2,000 km, suggesting potential underutilization. Further review of the vehicle utilization monitoring process found:
No formal definition of underutilization exists.
No systematic process is in place to follow up on vehicles with low mileage; reviews are informal and not documented.
Not all vehicles have a functioning AVL unit. In 2024, 25 had no mileage data, and 11 showed “Not Used” despite usage in M5.

2. Review Controls for New Vehicle and Equipment Requests Needs to be Improved

All new asset requests must be accompanied by a New Vehicle/Equipment Request form approved by the user department’s Supervisor, Director and Commissioner before submission to Fleet for review and final sign-off.

None of the 5 request forms had proper approval. Business unit Commissioner, Director, and Supervisor signatures were missing on all forms; 3 also lacked the Fleet Manager’s signature.
Not all request forms were fully completed. 1 was missing the Fleet services recommendations section, and another was marked “No” for procurement due to ‘low utilization’ but was still added to the budget without explanation.

3. Tracking of Equipment Locations in M5 Needs to be Enhanced

M5 lists the user departments but not the actual equipment locations, making it difficult to know where assets are stored or used.
The physical inventory count found several equipment units were at locations different from the “User Department” shown in M5.
For example, the system lists a 2012 John Deere Gator (Unit FW12229) under Fleet Maintenance, but it was actually found at the Susan Fennel Recreation Centre during the physical count.

4. Fleet Data Provided for Insurance Purposes Needs to be Complete and Current

Each year, Fleet provides an asset list to Risk & Insurance, who then forward it to the broker to ensure coverage under the City’s blanket insurance policy. Only vehicles included on the list as of January 1 are insured for the upcoming year.
A review of the asset list sent to Risk & Insurance team in 2024 found that:

35 active vehicles (25 rentals and 10 City owned) were missing from the insurance list sent to the Risk & Insurance team in August, with no final year-end update.
6 of the vehicles were acquired before 2024, with the rest being added in the last 3 months of 2024.

5. Updating of Disposed Fleet Assets in M5 Needs to be Improved

When a vehicle nears the end of its useful life and is removed from service, its status should be updated to “Decommissioned” in M5. Once the vehicle is sold at auction, the status should then be changed to “Disposed” in M5 to ensure it is removed from the active asset listing.
During the inventory count at the end of April, a unit sold at auction in January 2025 was still showing “Active” in M5 at Memorial Arena.
A review of 7 units auctioned off in January 2025 found that as of May, 4 were still “Flagged for Disposal” and 3 were still “Active” in M5, although they should all be “Disposed”.
Additionally, 3 tractors sold in December 2023 are still marked “Flagged for Disposal”, although they should all be “Disposed”.

6. SOPs Need to be Developed to Standardize Fleet Administration Practices

Fleet Administration currently lacks formal standard operating procedures (SOPs).
While some forms are used to support key tasks, they do not provide clear or complete guidance.
SOPs are needed for core functions, including asset replacements, new acquisitions, procurement, disposals, and rental car management.

Implementing the recommended actions and addressing gaps in performance will benefit the city by enhancing operational consistency, strengthening internal controls, and improving the overall efficiency and accountability of the City’s fleet management activities.

Why this Audit Matters

Background

What We Found

How Recommendations Will Benefit the City

Agenda Items