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Page Last Update
11/22/05 |
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Pool Vehicle
Non Availability updated
02/16/2011
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If a pool vehicle is not available you have several options:
Use another fleet's motor pool (Department of Administration pool at 201
S. Dickinson St.).
Use a Departmental Vehicle (a fleet vehicle that is not part of the pool)
if one is available to you.
Use the University contract for in-state car rental (because the rental
originates here, even if you are traveling to an out of state destination).
Drive your own car (see reimbursement issues below).
Travel on a different day.
Contact the Fleet Program Officer for help/advice at 262-5689 or
fleetmanager@fpm.wisc.edu.
Use Another Fleet
In the UW Madison Fleet web portal, if a given request for a vehicle
does not result in a confirmed reservation, "Try a different fleet"
was available online but is no longer offered. At some
point it may return but for now, travelers must make their own
arrangements at other state fleets.
To reach the Department of Administration fleet at 201 South Dickinson
Street, dial 266-8757 or browse to the
DOA Motor Pool Web Request in order to inquire about reserving vehicles.
Departmental Vehicle
Consult with your department's administrative management to determine
if this option is available to you, and/or other departments in your
Division/College or inquire with the Fleet Program Manager about referrals
at fleetmanager@fpm.wisc.edu.
University
Rental Car Contract
Visit the
UW Madison Travel Expense Reimbursement Page for details on how to go about renting a
car using the current mandatory contract.
If You Drive Your Own Car
If you drive your own car, you have several options for reimbursement:
You can elect not to claim reimbursement.
You can claim reimbursement at one of two rates, the 'low rate' and the
'high rate'.
The 'low rate' owes its existence to State Statute
20.916(4)(e), shown below in quotation marks:
"When an assigned or pool state-owned automobile is available and
tendered to an employee, and the employee exercises the option to use the
employee's privately owned automobile on state business, the mileage
allowance shall be at a rate equal to the approximate cost per mile of
operation of state automobiles, including depreciation, as determined by
the secretary of administration."
The low rate is announced periodically by DOA in the form of a memo signed
by the Secretary. In the state's Compensation Plan, Section F, 3.05
(3), the state's rules about determining the low rate or high rate
reimbursement are found. Since this is the fleet web site, not
affiliated with travel reimbursement, we will not elaborate further except
to advise you on documents you must obtain in order to claim the 'high
rate', called Non-Availability Slips (NA Slips). Visit the
UW Madison Travel and Expense Information page for details on how to go about claiming
reimbursement.
The 'high rate' is set by the Legislature via a special standing committee
called the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JoCER, pronounced like
'joker'). Since the Joint Committee is created by state law and
comprised of members from both the State Assembly and State Senate, its
actions on this topic have the force of law. The rate is published
in the Compensation Plan section F also known as the Uniform Travel
Schedule Amounts. UW Madison travelers should view UW policies in
the
UW Madison Travel and Expense Information page.
To determine whether or not "an assigned or pool state-owned automobile is
available and tendered to an employee", it is presumed that a pool car is
available unless a person can show that it was not. NA Slips are
documents issued by the fleet to show that a pool unit was not available
on a given date. Current rules require Madison based travelers to
obtain NA slips from both the UW and DOA fleets or else the 'high rate'
for reimbursement is not available.
Based on motor pool records dated 11/22/2005 and earlier, the occurrence
of non-availability at the same time in both UW and DOA fleets is not a
common event, absent special cargo or passenger needs. Generally, a
car of some kind is available to use. Vans are often fully booked on
weekends. The attributes of a trip are important in determining
non-availability.
NA slips
UW fleet and DOA fleet will generally not issue back-dated NA Slips
without clear proof that they were in fact warranted, so travelers should
obtain these prior to their trip. DOA will only issue NA slips upon
request, dial 266-8757 to inquire about this.
UW Fleet allows travelers to obtain NA slips for themselves via the web
portal. If a given request for a vehicle does not result in a
confirmed reservation, the traveler is offered several options. One
option is "Send me a non-availability email for this request". By
choosing this radio button and clicking on 'submit', an email is sent to
the address reported one screen earlier about the trip requested.
The email contains a non-availability certification and the details of the
trip requested. Each non-availability email is specific to one
vehicle type only. Since a traveler must obtain supervisory approval
on a Travel Expense Report, they should obtain enough discrete
non-availability sheets to show that various vehicle types that may meet
the travel requirements are not available. The decision on how many
different vehicle types might be used rests with the traveler's
supervisor. Alternately, dial 262-1307 to inquire about
obtaining a hand written NA slip from UW fleet staff.
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