DGS’s Chichi Nyagah-Nash, Abrar Abukhdeir, and David Martin attended the Government Fleet Expo and Conference (GFX) in New Orleans, where Chichi and David also hosted a training session about incentivizing employees, called “Incentivizing Employees: How Baltimore Avoided Over $900K In Costs Over 12 Months”. They explored how DGS created a program to incentivize fleet employees to make individual changes to their performance, with the avoided costs shared with them in the form of a bonus.  Over a six-month pilot, the team saw increased employee ownership of processes and more than $400,000 in the avoidance of certain projected costs without negatively impacting the quality of service provided. Since then, the agency has avoided over $1 million in costs with staff receiving performance improvement checks worth over $500,000 in total; over $2,000 each! 

GFX, now in its 12th year, is the largest annual conference of public fleets in the nation. Chichi and David were able to receive fleet-specific training geared toward their specific needs, connect with peers in the fleet community and discuss daily challenges and solutions, and get hands-on with the latest vehicles and technologies for the industry. GFX is designed for fleet managers, procurement specialists, analysts, maintenance supervisors, and others who work with fleets to leave with new ideas, knowledge about new vehicles and technologies, steps they can take to improve their fleets and save taxpayer dollars, and new colleagues they can call on for guidance.