Chelan PUD Ranked Among Best Fleets in North America

The National Association of Fleet Administrators recently ranked Chelan County PUD as the 24th best-performing fleet out of more than 38,000 public fleets in North America.

The utility's fleet consists of over 1,000 pieces of equipment, like line trucks, cranes, tugboats, backhoes and more.

Senior Communications Strategist Rachel Hansen said, "Really that is because Chelan County is the third largest county in Washington State. We have all four seasons, and we have an array of different kinds of environments like lowland marshes, shrub steppe, and forested mountains and waters. So to effectively work in those different kinds of areas, we have a huge fleet."

Fleets were judged on criteria such as accountability, use of technology, team collaboration, creativity in addressing challenges and culture.

Chelan PUD first made the rankings list as an honorable mention in 2017, thanks in large part to improvements made by Fleet Services Supervisor Lance Knudtson.

"In the last few years, we became the first utility in the state to test and use biodiesel, which helped reduce emissions." added Hanson, "We're also 45% below average for net fuel use and 43% lower than average for fuel expenses."

Total fleet costs for the utility were 36 percent below industry average last year.