New Vehicle Hire System

The division is set to launch a new centralised pool vehicle hire service at Clayton campus from the beginning of next month.

The new service is expected to lead to substantial savings over the cost of the current method of providing vehicles for staff use.

Under the new system current departmental vehicles will be separated into two categories, being tools of trade vehicles and normal passenger vehicles. The first category vehicles will be retained in location by each individual department on a long term lease and the second category vehicles will be moved to the pool vehicle hire operation for short term hiring and these will be located on the gravel car park.

Registered users will be able to book online. A confirmation email will be sent to the hirer and he or she will need to present the signed email along with a valid driver's licence and their staff ID card before collecting keys to their chosen vehicle.

At the time of booking the hirer's supervisor will be sent an email notifying them of the booking.

It will be possible to book vehicles by the hour, daily or for long trip and long term use. Different cost rates will apply for the various types of hire.

Simon Berhang, a former supervisor with the vehicle fleet management and leasing company, Orix, has been appointed by the division to head up the new service. He will be assisted by Mathew Hall who has transferred from Campus Services at Caulfield.

"We are going to consolidate the vehicles owned by the university and maximise their utilisation to reduce expenditure. We expect it to reduce costs substantially for faculties and other users

"We understand this will be quite a change for the many staff who currently use pool vehicles but we are going to make this change as easy as possible and provide a service people want to use.

"There will be a 24 hour lead time and vehicles will be clean, serviced and ready to go."

Three bays outside building 70 are being set aside for the pick-up and drop off of vehicles.

Hire charges will be applied via Direct Debit to the user's nominated fund. The user's Resource Manager will receive an emailed statement of charges incurred.

The vehicles in the pool will include large sedans and wagons, light sedans and wagons, dual-cab 4x2 and 4x4 utilities, as well as Tool of Trade vehicles.ends