Published: October 28, 2009 09:27 pm      

Sheriff submits fleet card proposal

By RORYE O’CONNOR

rorye.oconnor@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — Sheriff Roger Mulch hopes to adopt a gas card for transport vehicles that make multiple trips across state lines a week.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office would benefit from the increase in choices an Agripride Farm Services fleet card would offer, said Sheriff Roger Mulch at Monday’s Jefferson County Board Meeting.

Jerry Cook, a representative from Agripride FS, spoke to the board at Monday’s meeting. The card would charge a cent and a half per transaction, he said, but would exempt officers from Illinois state motor fuel and sales taxes. He explained a Fleet Card would enable officers to purchase gasoline for transport vehicles while outside the county from several gas stations across the country, including Shell, BP stations, Clark, Huck’s and more.

“It’s one less paperwork snafu you have to deal with,” Cook said.

At this time, when officers purchase fuel on the road, they pay all taxes and use a credit card with an interest rate, Mulch reported.

Officers make trips to St. Louis and Chicago approximately four times a week, Mulch said, and fill up the gas tank at the Jefferson County Highway Department when they return. However, Mulch said trips can fluctuate to as many as three times a day, depending on requests from the various agencies the sheriff’s department works with.

“It depends on what I.C.E. needs,” Mulch said. “The Chicago field office works with the Indiana field office.”

Mulch said sometimes round trips can take officers to suburbs of Chicago, to Chicago, and to Martinsville, Ind. before coming back to Mt. Vernon, so the fleet card would be helpful in cutting costs when buying gasoline en route.

The fleet card, if accepted by the Highway Committee and subsequently the County Board, would be implemented initially with three transport vans and one backup car.

“We’ll see how that runs, and if it’s successful, then we’ll do it with all the cars,” he said.

Washington County Sheriffs Office has implemented a fleet card with its vehicles and has seen success, Washington County Sheriff Charles Parker said.

“It works fine,” he said. “We don’t have any major problems. Since we’re tax exempt, we get a little bit of a break.”

Cook said he would gather additional information on the service, and present his information for further consideration at the forthcoming Highway Committee meeting in the third week of November.

Mulch is enthusiastic about the possibility.

“I think it probably will happen,” he said. “(Cook) is going to check on for us if there are any hidden costs we don’t know of.”