AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — The City of Amarillo is considering a pilot program with D&M leasing to address the vehicle fleet problem.
According to City of Amarillo Director of Public Works Donny Hooper, the city has 507 vehicles that are due or past due to be replaced. COA detailed that replacing 507 units would cost the city $19 million.
Currently, the city has $5 million budgeted to replace 15 units in the fire and solid waste departments.
The reason for the extensive backlog is due to the pandemic.
“This all really began back when COVID began and we had problems with the manufacturers being able to continue with production of automobiles,” said Hooper. “That’s what started it all and still to this day, we spent a lot of time catching up with manufacturers being able to produce enough vehicles to go back and replace vehicles that were ordered in 2021 22.”
According to Hooper the city has ordered 55 vehicles for public safety alone between 2021 and 2022 and has yet to receive those vehicles.