FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Marilyn Rawlings, Lee County Fleet Management
               (239) 338-3233

LEE COUNTY GOVERNMENT FLEET RANKED #1 IN NORTH AMERICA!

FORT MYERS, Fla. (January 23, 2004) - Lee County Fleet Management has been recognized as the #1 fleet operation in the North America, according to a nationally recognized ranking and upcoming article in the Feb.-March issue of Utility Fleet Management Magazine (www.ttnews.com/ufm/).

The distinction comes just two years after the county's fleet division was ranked the second most-efficient fleet operation in America and concurrently with a rigorous certification process administered by Fleet Counselor Services that took nine months to complete and rated the organization on 18 criteria.

The ranking is done annually by Tom Johnson of CCG Systems and is published in one of the industry's major trade journals. Johnson rates fleets by seven common qualities: A High Trust Culture, High Technology, Acknowledgment of Accomplishments, Accountability, Collaboration, Creativity, and Celebration.

"We're ecstatic," said Marilyn Rawlings, Lee County's Fleet Manager. "It has been a team effort - 30 employees working toward excellence had everything to do with this. We're just trying to absorb that out of 93,000 public fleets and all the private ones, we're number one."

Lee County Government's Fleet Management Division maintains more than 1,200 vehicles that are used by the county's 25 departments and divisions each day in providing services to residents. The fleet includes everything from passenger cars, light duty trucks and commercial work vans to ambulances, graders and super-duty construction trucks and equipment. The division employees 30 and has an annual operating budget of $6.3 million. Among its accomplishments:

• Has completed the fleet certification-testing program to be an Industry Competitive Fleet Management Operation.
• Has earned the Blue Seal of Excellence from the National Institute of Automotive Service Repair (ASE).
• Was the first fleet in Florida to completely eliminate hazardous waste from its operations by recycling, using environmentally safe materials and modifying operations procedures.
• All employees have completed leadership-training continuing education.
• Maintains a state-of-the-art fleet management software system to track inventory, fuel, operations and maintenance.
• Implemented a fully funded vehicle replacement program for vehicles, increasing revenues from vehicle disposal through auctions and turning a $1.5 million annual deficit 10 years ago into an annual surplus.