As a proud GenX '71 model, wiser and seemingly wider every year, I thought it would be fun to share what change has meant to all of us in our career. I started my career in the automotive field as a general service tech at a Company Owned Goodyear store in sunny Valdosta, Ga. It was the early 1990's and our biggest fears were the end of the carburetor and the onset of fuel injection and computer controlled engine management. Oh where, oh where did my vacuum gauge go? Oh where, Oh where could it be? Dwell Meter? How about that Simpson Analog Meter in the black leather case? No way will that little Hyundai car last here in the USA! Toyota would never be in a Law Enforcement Fleet much less NASCAR! Insane. Actually it would be insane today if they hadn't. Einstein is credited with coining "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results". I'm not quite old enough to have heard the direct quote but one amongst us (Gary Lentsch) might have, and besides the internet is a reliable source of something. Youtube is your daily supplement for experience. Experience today is less of a commodity than has become the spirit of welcoming change and the willingness to try new things. Sometimes, I miss the days of manually mounting and dismounting truck tires on the shoulder of I-75 with lovebugs, gnats, and the occasional lock ring being my only foes. 100 degrees outside, no cloud in sight, and a GENTLE breeze supplied by snowbirds whizzing by, coming from the gray skies of the Rustbelt on the way to Florida's beaches. Of course it only took about 700 or so of those workdays to motivate one to enter into management. So what has change meant to me, for me, and in my career? Change means OPPORTUNITY. Fuel injection and computer controls put me on equal footing with the more experienced and tenured technicians around me. It was equally new to everyone and I actually understood it. Change = OPPORTUNITY. Burning the candle at both ends, 7 days per week, while running a multi-location chain of automotive repair stores, a fleet manager of 31 years retires at a local Sheriff's Office. Someone asks me to participate in the oral boards for replacement candidates and instead I apply for the job. Change = OPPORTUNITY. Now my Saturdays are spent on the water in the Gulf of Mexico or on the Plains of Auburn, Alabama. When I took over as fleet manager with a fleet full of Crown Victoria PI's, and with everyone buying sedans, we chose the Tahoe PPV and everyone gasped..." too expensive", "poor fuel economy", each of you have either heard it or asked it. We chose to use Derive for idle reduction and our MPG was much improved over the CVPI. Where are those sedans? When we replaced my Impala fleet, we pushed for the Camry Hybrid. 53 mpg compared to 19 mpg. Cost effective at $24,584 and a proven commodity. Yet everyone gasped... not a pursuit vehicle. Have you looked at your pursuit policy lately? It was the most sustainable decision. I am as proud of fielding the Camry Hybrid in 2019 as I was in issuing the Tahoe PPV in 2017. In light of the social unrest across the world today, CHANGE is certainly coming. Budgets and Policies are being reworked as I key these words. We must all be WILLING to change, we must be ABLE to accept change, and we must be EFFECTIVE in implementing change. We will have new OPPORTUNITIES. What might we do different to get a new and
improved result?
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Timothy E. Coxwell CAFM CPFP
Fleet Management Division Director
Leon County Sheriffs Office
Tallahassee, Florida
coxwellt@leoncountyfl.gov850-544-8787
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