709 State Vehicles To Be Sold at Auction

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Property Assistance Agency (LPAA) announced today that it would sell more than 700 underutilized state vehicles at auction. The auctions could generate anywhere between 0,000 and .4 million for the state.

“These vehicles are not being used often enough to justify the cost of maintenance,” said Ruth Johnson, Deputy Commissioner of Administration.  “We continuously evaluate state inventory to ensure we are spending taxpayer dollars appropriately.  At this point, it just doesn’t make sense to retain these vehicles.”

Of the state’s more than 11,000 vehicles, 1,421 are currently considered underutilized. That means they have been driven less than 15,000 miles over the last 12 months.  State analysts have calculated that it costs more to maintain a vehicle that is driven less than 15,000 miles than to compensate employees for other methods of transportation when necessary.  However, all underutilized vehicles will not be sold.  Half of the identified vehicles will remain in their agencies to assist with the needs of each division.

Agencies with underutilized vehicles were notified this week and have two weeks to deliver the vehicles to LPAA.  The vehicles will then be evaluated and sold at auction in early 2015. Depending on how the vehicles were originally purchased, up to 90 percent of the sale could be returned to the state.  Information about public auctions can be found at http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/lpaa/.