As a leader in the Forest Service, safety is always top of my mind, especially during this time of year when employees are engaged in field work and responding to wildfires. It is up to all of us to identify improvements that create and support safe working conditions. As we have seen with the recent tragic events, driving remains as one of the most dangerous activities we engage in on a daily basis. It is our goal, using tools like telematics, to improve overall safety for employees when they are driving on the job.

Over the last year, the Engineering, Technology and Geospatial Services national fleet program has worked with program areas and our union partners to develop a telematics program and related policies. Fleet telematics is a vehicle-mounted device with GPS technology that collects and records vehicle operational data. Using this technology will help improve the safety of our vehicles and for our employees who operate them. Data collected will improve preventive maintenance and identify vehicles with potential maintenance issues like check engine lights, drained batteries and low tire pressure. Telematics will also improve firefighter safety by linking fire vehicle location data to real-time incident mapping. It is our collective responsibility to operate government vehicles safely and lawfully and to use those vehicles appropriately to support the Forest Service mission. As such, the telematics data may be utilized when it supports the need to promote our core values.

In addition to the safety benefits of telematics, our fleet management program will have a new set of tools for modernizing fleet management. These devices will directly support planning efforts with automated trip data collection to evaluate vehicles’ operational histories for range, charging and cost constraints. With this information, the Forest Service will be able to accelerate adoption of environmentally sustainable fleet options and the charging station infrastructure needed to support them. This will ensure we are prioritizing investments in the right locations and the most cost-efficient ways.

This government-wide strategy using fleet telematics also responds to the August 2022 White House Council on Environmental Quality Implementing Instructions for Executive Order 14057, "Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability," that requires agencies to “deploy telematics and collect and use fleet operational data to inform fleet planning and vehicle acquisition strategies.”

The continued partnership and memorandums of understanding between the Forest Service and the National Federation of Federal Employees and the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3253, will ensure the program is managed through an efficient and equitable process. This program will modernize our fleet management system, reduce costs, meet sustainability goals and policies, and foster every opportunity to make our vehicles, employees and public as safe as possible as we continue to deliver the Forest Service mission. For more information and the current status of the telematics deployment, please visit the National Fleet Telematics SharePoint site.

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