County officials are debating an offer from a private company that could give the county a newer fleet of vehicles at less cost.

Enterprise Fleet Management recently met with county legislators to discuss what it calls open-ended equity leases that are designed for the county to pay as little as possible by paying based on how much they use the vehicles. Enterprise Fleet Management would set up the bidding process to get new vehicles into the county fleet, though the county would make final decisions on brands or models of vehicles it wants.

The county’s vehicle fleet is aging quickly, with 41 percent of the county’s light and medium duty fleet more than 10 years old. The county also has no replacement plan for its fleet. Knowing this, Enterprise Fleet Management’s offer to lease a bunch of vehicles at a low cost sounds good. Perhaps Enterprise’s suggestion is truly a win-win proposition. Enterprise Fleet Management Services officials have criss-crossed the state pitching their service to county governments, with at least Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Otsego and Mifflin counties signing up and seeing no problems.

As is the case with any offer that sounds too good to be true, it’s worth taking some time to fully discuss Enterprise Fleet Management’s offer. The ability to lower spending on the county’s vehicle fleet would certainly be a good thing given the likelihood of spending increases in the District Attorney’s office and the county fly car system, to name a couple. In addition to considering Enterprise Fleet Management’s offer, perhaps it’s time for the county take a harder look at the non-industrial vehicle fleet, the overall number of vehicles the county has, who uses them and for what purpose. Would it be less expensive to have some employees use their own personal vehicles and receive a mileage reimbursement? Would using personal vehicles make employees think twice about a trip’s necessity?

This seems like as good a time as any to make sure the county is using its fleet dollars as wisely as possible.