CINCINNATI — Cincinnati city officials are working to dig out of a lingering fleet maintenance issue, with hundreds of vehicles either past their useful life or in need of priority replacement and no clear plan yet to address them all.
A "State of the Fleet" presentation Tuesday revealed the scope of the problem: 119 vehicles currently meet the requirements for priority replacement but do not have a replacement on order. Another 376 are considered "out-of-lifecycle" with no current plans for repair or replacement yet.
Fleet considered out-of-lifecycle meets two out of the three following criteria, while priority replacement meets all three:
- Vehicle age
- Vehicle mileage
- Life-to-date maintenance costs (the criteria is met when 75% or more of the acquisition cost has been spent on maintenance)
Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long has earmarked more than $17 million in the proposed budget to capital fleet replacement, a $4 million increase over last year. But the cost to replace vehicles greatly outpaces that proposed allocation.
Fleet Services Manager Liam Norton said the city is beginning to turn a corner after years of underfunding.
WATCH: Here's what was presented at Tuesday's "State of the Fleet"
"Over years, this is kind of compounded, and we're at a point now where we're starting to get back out of that rut that we've been in and I think eventually the goal would be to get to a proactive approach," Norton said.
Norton described what a proactive approach would look like — anticipating when high-value equipment like fire trucks will near the end of their service life and placing orders years in advance to account for long lead times.
"If we have a fire truck that will be near the end of its life in the near future, and we can get that thing on order knowing that it has a two or three-year lead time, that's the spot we need to be in," he said.
Currently, 123 pieces of equipment are within the procurement process or on order. A majority of vehicles being replaced meet the requirements for priority replacement.
To help prioritize which vehicles get replaced first, Fleet Services is leaning into a new internal data dashboard that tracks life-to-date costs, mileage, engine hours, major component replacements and overall age. Norton said the goal is to target equipment that is furthest out of its lifecycle and carries the highest risk of downtime.
"We want to try to make an impact on the highest cost and the highest risk pieces of equipment," Norton said. "The goal is we target those, and we can allocate the money as soon as possible to replace that rather than maintain it."
Norton said the $4 million budget increase is significant.
"When you look at what that $4 million can buy us and how it can impact the department, it's major," Norton said. "I'm thrilled to see that our efforts are being heard, and that it's recognized that we can make a bigger impact here, and it really impacts all the different departments across the city and the residents overall."
The fleet's struggles came into sharp focus in January 2025 following Winter Storm Blair, which put a sizeable number of the city's winter fleet vehicles out of service. Norton said his team worked extensively ahead of last winter to prepare snow trucks for service, and that new snow trucks are expected to arrive as part of the current equipment on order.
David Funk, the former president of the city mechanics union who retired in January 2025, said he stays in contact with mechanics still working on the fleet. He said many describe the work as an uphill battle.
"These guys are expected to, you know, keep this equipment running with outdated, outdated equipment, getting parts for them is hard, and then the lack of manpower to get the work done," Funk said.
Norton said Fleet Services will use the new data dashboard to create a more effective vehicle replacement strategy and optimize the overall size of the fleet — a step he believes will help the city's budget go further each year and lead to a newer fleet citywide.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
