By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A bill sponsored by state Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, is aimed at placing the state’s vehicle fleet under the control of a single entity and possibly affecting the number and types of vehicles in the fleet.

Through Senate Bill 57, Ward said he is looking to change the way the state’s vehicle fleet is managed.

“This is something the governor and I have been working on for quite some time,” Ward said. “Right now, the policy of managing our state vehicles is disjointed. It’s done agency-by-agency and nobody is looking at the overall condition of the fleet.”

If the bill passes, it will place the vehicle fleet under the control of the Alabama Department of Transportation’s Office of Fleet Management , and could possibly shrink the state’s vehicle fleet.

The Office of Fleet Management was recently created by an executive order signed by Alabama Gov. Dr. Robert Bentley.

“There are some agencies that may not need vehicles,” Ward said.

Ward said he, the governor and state Rep. Greg Wren, R-Montgomery, who sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives, would “like to see a savings of $10 million to $20 million over the next five to six years” by reorganizing the state’s fleet.