A coalition of north Georgia cities and counties hopes to save money by buying fuel in bulk for its government cars.
It may be the first arrangement of its kind in the state. The 14 governments involved include several from metro Atlanta, and a handful in northeast Georgia, such as Jackson County.
The idea is to band together, and lock-in better prices on gas that will run the communities fleets of vehicles. Just last summer, the budgets of many local governments were stressed when fuel prices spiked to more than $4 a gallon.
Len Bernat is purchasing manager for Jackson County. He says his county benefits from the larger county government of Gwinnett leading this coalition:
The co-op will consider bids from fuel distributors sometime next month. Projected fuel savings for the coalition as a whole could be nearly $1 million.
It may be the first arrangement of its kind in the state. The 14 governments involved include several from metro Atlanta, and a handful in northeast Georgia, such as Jackson County.
The idea is to band together, and lock-in better prices on gas that will run the communities fleets of vehicles. Just last summer, the budgets of many local governments were stressed when fuel prices spiked to more than $4 a gallon.
Len Bernat is purchasing manager for Jackson County. He says his county benefits from the larger county government of Gwinnett leading this coalition:
"Our advantage is, we'll be able to piggy-back off that price. So I'm getting the advantage as if I had that same number of vehicles in my fleet and that same usage, without having to show that usage."Individual local governments can opt-out of the arrangement if they find better deals on their own.
The co-op will consider bids from fuel distributors sometime next month. Projected fuel savings for the coalition as a whole could be nearly $1 million.
