Purpose

To identify the rules concerning the financial reporting of vehicles.

Applicability

All Oregon State University owned vehicles.

Background Information

The Oregon State Legislature has mandated an annual fleet review to document the utilization of all government owned vehicles.  Oregon State University must also report this information to the OSU Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Risk Management Division for insurance purposes.  All state-owned vehicles licensed for road use, regardless of value, are capitalized and added to the Fixed Asset Inventory.  Accurate record keeping facilitates the production of these mandated reports.

Policy

Departmental purchases of vehicles using state, local, or sponsored funds must be made in accord with applicable federal and state law and Board of Regents’ and university policy.

Purchasing New Vehicles
Vehicles have to be purchased off of state price agreements or bid out through the Procurement and Contract Services (PaCS).  Purchases may also be coordinated through Transportation Services.  Transportation Services will assist with (1) properly titling the vehicles, (2) making sure vehicles meet state standards for safety, (3) outfitting vehicles with medical kits and flare kits, and (4) can issue a credit card for the purchase of fuel (see Voyager Card).

Purchasing Used Vehicles
Under OAR 576-008-230(m), used vehicles may be purchased for up to $10,000 without going through the open bid process.  However, purchases over $5,000 are still covered by the delegated authority rule and must be processed through the Procurement and Contract Services (PaCS).  This includes vehicles purchased from Ag Research Foundation or OSU Foundation funds.

Donated Vehicles
Vehicles received as gifts must also be added to inventory.  Follow the procedures outlined in PRO 207: Gifts to properly acknowledge the Gift and add it to inventory.  The OSU Foundation’s policy on donated vehicles requires the vehicle's value to be verified using a blue-book search.  The lesser of the donor’s value or the blue-book value will be used as the inventory value. 

Asset Information
See PRO-Ex1: Creating an Asset Record from a Banner Invoice for information required for the asset record.  In addition to the regular information required for equipment, the ‘E’ license plate number is also required for the Fixed Asset Record for vehicles.   See  PRO 1002: Inventory Records Maintenance for record management requirements for vehicles. 

Title Requirements
Departments are responsible for filing the necessary paper work to acquire title to their vehicles.  Forms are available online at the DMV website.  All OSU vehicles must have State of Oregon license plates.  Vehicles for on-road use must have an "E" plate, which has an "E" as the first letter in the license plate.  Vehicles for off-road use must have a "N" plate, which has an  "N" as the first letter in the license plate.

All Department-owned vehicles are to be titled as follows: 

Department Name
In care of Property Management
644 SW 13th Street
Corvallis, OR 97333-4238

Should a department receive a title to a vehicle, please forward it to Property Management for safekeeping and to facilitate the disposal of vehicles.

Procedure

Applicable to General Departments/Units

Applicable to Service Center and Auxiliary/Units

Vehicle Purchases Via OSU Foundation or Ag Research Foundation Account and Not Processed Through Banner

Additional Information

See the Motor Pool web site for additional information on basic vehicle rules and regulations.

See the Vehicle Incident Prevention Project (VIPP) Toolkit on the State of Oregon Risk Management Web page.