Inspection Report: INS-O-15-01

October 7, 2014

Government Vehicle Utilization at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Department of Energy (Department) national security laboratory managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).  LLNL's mission is to ensure the safety and security of the Nation through applied science and technology.

To assist in achieving its mission, LLNL maintains a transportation system, which cost approximately $3.7 million in Fiscal Year 2013.  This transportation system included approximately 770 vehicles, 554 bicycles, and 4 taxis on LLNL's one-square mile campus.  In January 2011, the Secretary issued a Department Memorandum, Management of Fleet Inventory, challenging the Department to reduce its fleet inventory by 35 percent without sacrificing critical mission elements but ensuring cost-effectiveness across all Department sites and field offices.  To comply with the memorandum, NNSA embarked on a complex-wide effort to right-size its fleet to include a review of site requirements, budget, and inventory.  Given the focus on ensuring that transportation systems were cost effective and efficient, we initiated this inspection to determine if LLNL's on-site transportation system was being effectively managed.

We found that LLNL had not adequately considered all available options to reduce the cost of its on-site transportation system.  Specifically, we found that LLNL's fleet leveling process did not consider maximizing the use of other transportation modes when determining the minimum number of vehicles needed to satisfy programmatic requirements.  As such, LLNL may have missed an opportunity to reduce its fleet of approximately 770 vehicles.

Therefore, we made recommendations designed to assist management in developing appropriate courses of action to improve the annual fleet leveling processes. 

Topic: Management & Administration