Under moves to slash the cost of running its annual $250-million fleet leasing service, the New South Wales, Australia, government has initiated car sharing arrangements that require officials to use commercial car hire, according to a report in Australia’s CIO magazine.

Official use of shared commercial rides will be trialed over the next six months. Agencies are invited to join their colleagues for travel, especially across highly-networked metropolitan areas. A shared model reduces administration charges and enables the government to only pay for the length of hire and the kilometres driven, according to the report.

NSW’s minister for finance, Dominic Perrottet, said in a statement that metropolitan Sydney offers a pool of high-tech car sharing services. These include the GoGet service as well as Hertz 24/7 and GreenShareCar. These services offer a more efficient alternative to the state-owned fleet, he said.
An earlier review of the government fleet by the Office of Finance and Services has helped deliver savings of nearly $14 million, according to the report.