Fleet Management
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-10-29)

CYC Internal Audit Reports 2017. These reports are presented to the Audit and Governance Committee for consideration, and are also included with the agenda papers for the [relevant meetings](http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=437). 

Reports are also grouped together by calendar year and published at this York Open Data platform. Reports for other years are available at the [__CYC Internal Audit Reports__](https://data.yorkopendata.org/dataset?q=internal+audit&sort=score+desc%2C+metadata_modified+desc) datasets.

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Fleet Management 
City of York Council 
Internal Audit Report 2016/17 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Business Unit: Economy and Place  
Responsible Officer: Corporate Director, E&P 
Service Manager: Head of Operations 
Date Issued: 8 September 2017 
Status: Final  
Reference: 10870/001 
 
 
P1 
P2 
P3 
Actions 
0 
4 
0 
Overall Audit Opinion 
Reasonable Assurance 

 
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Summary and Overall Conclusions 
 
Introduction 
In undertaking its operations the council utilises a number of vehicles, across departments such as Waste, Highways and Street Services. Costs 
for the service are recharged to other departments. Fleet Services recharges of £993k were made in 2015-16. 
 
Objectives and Scope of the Audit 
The purpose of this audit was to provide assurance to management that procedures and controls within the system will ensure that: 
• 
The service meets the needs of the organisation 
• 
The cost of the service is reasonable 
• 
Vehicle usage is in accordance with best practice and all appropriate regulations and guidance 
 
Key Findings 
The key findings are that the service is in need of a full refresh of written policies and procedures to ensure that they are fit for purpose and cover 
all aspects of the care and use of council vehicles. These policies form the basis of the control environment that ensures that vehicle usage is 
efficient and helps to prevent the service incurring additional costs, for example additional mileage and maintenance and repair costs.  Once 
these policies have been refreshed they can be communicated to staff and monitoring against the policies set up. Monitoring the usage of the 
vehicles will also allow the service to ensure that the number and type of vehicles used are appropriate for the council’s needs.  
 
Of particular concerns within the refreshed policies are allocating responsibility for addressing issues with care of the vehicles and private usage 
of the vehicles to ensure that the council is compliant with regulation as well as achieving best value from council assets. There is potential for 
the council to achieve savings by reducing vehicle usage and repair costs. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
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The council has identified issues with its own procedures and is in the process of undertaking a full review of the assets and procedures of the 
fleet service.  
 
 
Overall Conclusions 
It was found that the arrangements for managing risk were satisfactory with a number of weaknesses identified. An acceptable control 
environment is in operation but there are a number of improvements that could be made. Our overall opinion of the controls within the system at 
the time of the audit was that they provided Reasonable Assurance. 
 

 
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1 Formal procedures 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
Formal procedures are incomplete. 
Staff may be unclear on correct procedures to follow. 
Findings 
The only current formal policy specifically covering vehicle use is the Health and Safety policy regarding safe vehicle usage. This does not 
cover staff behaviours such as bringing the vehicle in for maintenance within set timeframes, keeping the vehicle clean and efficient driving 
practices.  
 
The incomplete procedures also affect the service’s ability to undertake monitoring activities to ensure the fleet is well maintained and used 
effectively. This could lead to a fleet that does not meet the council’s needs and the council incurring additional expense. 
 
Agreed Action 1.1 
Procedures have been written and will be circulated and put in place once they have been 
formally approved 
Priority 
2 
Responsible Officer 
Supervisor Civil 
Engineering 
Timescale 
October 2017 
 
  
 

 
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2 Vehicle monitoring 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
Vehicle monitoring is not being carried out. 
The current arrangements do not support the aims of the 
department and do not provide best value. 
Findings 
There are 4 different tracking devices across council vehicles, which are not routinely used to ensure that vehicles are being used as expected 
and that use of the fleet is maximised.  In addition, although there are contracts in place, these are several years out of date, or have been 
rolled forward every 6 months and it is therefore likely that the council is not getting best value.  
 
A procurement exercise is planned to obtain a system that matches the council’s needs, which should include a management information 
function. Once this has been completed the system should be configured to provide the service with suitable monitoring reports to support 
services in managing the council’s fleet. 
 
Agreed Action 2.1 
A procurement exercise for a new tracking system is currently underway, which is being 
supported by Corporate Procurement. Once a tracking system is in place reports will be 
developed to generate management information relating to use and monitoring of the fleet. 
Priority 
2 
Responsible Officer 
Supervisor Civil 
Engineering 
Timescale 
October 2017 
 
  
 

 
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3 Departmental Recharges 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
There is not sufficient monitoring around the additional recharges to minimise 
costs and identify issues. 
The council is incurring additional expenditure or not meeting 
health and safety requirements. 
Findings 
The costs for vehicle usage are recharges to the services that are using the vehicles rather than being charged to a central budget. Where the 
recharges include repairs or additional charges this is indicted by a cost category and narrative.  
 
It is not documented whose responsibility it is monitor the additional charges incurred in relation to the council’s vehicles and address the issue 
appropriately. Alongside findings 1 and 2 in this report there is scope for the council to improve procedures to manage additional vehicle costs 
and address any underlying issues. 
 
Agreed Action 3.1 
In conjunction with actions 1.1 and 2.1, a new process will be put in place to highlight 
inefficiencies in vehicle usage and therefore actions to be taken to address staff well being, 
refine behaviours and reduce costs, including responsibilities for these actions   
Priority 
2 
Responsible Officer 
Supervisor Civil 
Engineering 
Timescale 
October 2017 
 
  
 

 
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Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
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Findings 
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Agreed Action 4.1 
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Priority 
2 
Responsible Officer 
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Timescale 
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Annex 1 
Audit Opinions and Priorities for Actions 
Audit Opinions 
Audit work is based on sampling transactions to test the operation of systems. It cannot guarantee the elimination of fraud or 
error. Our opinion is based on the risks we identify at the time of the audit. 
 
Our overall audit opinion is based on 5 grades of opinion, as set out below. 
 
Opinion 
Assessment of internal control 
High Assurance 
Overall, very good management of risk. An effective control environment appears to be in operation. 
Substantial 
Assurance 
Overall, good management of risk with few weaknesses identified.  An effective control environment is in 
operation but there is scope for further improvement in the areas identified. 
Reasonable 
Assurance 
Overall, satisfactory management of risk with a number of weaknesses identified.  An acceptable control 
environment is in operation but there are a number of improvements that could be made. 
Limited Assurance 
Overall, poor management of risk with significant control weaknesses in key areas and major 
improvements required before an effective control environment will be in operation. 
No Assurance 
Overall, there is a fundamental failure in control and risks are not being effectively managed.  A number of 
key areas require substantial improvement to protect the system from error and abuse. 
 
Priorities for Actions 
Priority 1 
A fundamental system weakness, which presents unacceptable risk to the system objectives and requires urgent 
attention by management. 
Priority 2 
A significant system weakness, whose impact or frequency presents risks to the system objectives, which needs to 
be addressed by management. 
Priority 3 
The system objectives are not exposed to significant risk, but the issue merits attention by management. 
 

 
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