February 15, 2024 • 21 mins
Gene Irvin, Fleet Supervisor of Springfield Township, shares an insider’s view on managing a municipal fleet and the benefits of using online auction platforms for handling government surplus. Gene details the nuances of vehicle maintenance within the township, shares intriguing historical facts about Springfield, and highlights the significant cost savings from shifting the police fleet to hybrid vehicles.
Get an inside look at Springfield Township’s fleet operations, underscored by Gene’s deep-seated appreciation for the community he serves. Anecdotes about unexpected vehicle fires to the emotional response of a customer underscore the sometimes unpredictable yet rewarding nature of fleet supervision. Moreover, the discussion touches upon the historical charm of Springfield Township and the financial savvy of leveraging online auctions for cost reductions and optimized asset turnover.
About the Guest:
Gene Irvin is the fleet supervisor at Springfield Township and oversees the maintenance of the township’s entire fleet. He’s worked at Springfield Township for over 11 years. Gene oversees the management of a variety of vehicles including police cars and garbage trucks, as well as landscaping equipment.
Key Takeaways:
- Gene Irvin, with over a decade of expertise, adeptly manages Springfield Township’s fleet, ensuring all vehicles are well-maintained and efficient.
- Springfield Township boasts unique history and amenities, like the old quarry park. The township was once a gift from William Penn to his wife.
- Gene has spearheaded the transition from in-person to online auctions via Municibid, highlighting the process’s convenience, higher returns, and cost savings.
- The township’s move to hybrid police vehicles has marked a substantial reduction in fuel consumption.
- Interaction with vehicle bidders reveals the humanity of the auction process, resulting in memorable stories and highlighting the quality maintenance of the fleet.
Additional Resources:
- Discover Springfield Township https://www.springfieldmontco.org
- Explore the wild world of government surplus at Municibid
- Learn more about Government Surplus Vehicles: https://blog.municibid.com/the-government-surplus-vehicle-guide/
- Looking to sell your government surplus? Learn more about how to sell: https://municibid.com/sell/
Got feedback or want to be a guest? Email us at marketing@municibid.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sophie Eden (00:00):
Hi, Gene.
Gene Irvin (00:00):
Sophie.
Good morning.
How are you?
Sophie Eden (00:02):
Doing great.
How are you?
Gene Irvin (00:03):
I'm doing good.
Thank you.
Sophie Eden (00:04):
Thank you so much for doing this interview today.
First, can you start offintroducing yourself and
Springfield Township and whatyou do here?
Gene Irvin (00:13):
Sure.
My name is Gene Irvin.
I'm employed here at SpringfieldTownship for about 11 years.
I'm currently the fleetsupervisor.
We're in charge of the entirefleet here.
Everything with wheels,everything without.
The guys bring it to us, we fixit.
Hopefully not that often.
I've been using Municibid nowfor about six years, since 2017.
I've had quite a bit of successwith it.
(00:36):
Right about now we're sitting atlike$330,000 in sales, with no
cost to us.
Sophie Eden (00:41):
Fantastic.
And when you say like you'remanaging all the fleet, that's
police vehicles
Gene Irvin (00:48):
Police vehicles, we have refuse department the
regular highway department,which is you know, heavy duty
trash trucks.
We have heavy duty plow trucksfor salting operations.
We have the medium duty trucks,you know, for everyday
operations here in the township.
The police cars, we have 14police cars in the fleet that we
have to take care of.
And then all the other essentialequipment, the weed whackers,
(01:11):
the blowers, everything elsethat you can think of.
Sophie Eden (01:14):
Yeah.
Can you tell us a bit aboutSpringfield Township?
What's it known for?
What's its claim to fame?
Gene Irvin (01:20):
so Springfield Township has a lot of little
cool things if you get out andaround.
There's an old quarry thatfilled in that's now one of our
parks.
It's, it's completely filled inwith water.
There was a storm, I don't evenremember when it was, back in
the 1950s.
It knocked the pumps out, so itflooded out.
And the township acquired that.
There's a, Stotesbury used to bea, a big estate back in the day.
(01:43):
I can't remember the guy's firstname, but he was a big
architect.
He built the Stotesbury Estatesas well as the Linwood Garden
Estate.
And that's the guy thatactually, the grandson perished
on the Titanic.
I'll shut that off.
You're right because thecompressor will probably come on
Sophie Eden (02:03):
For everyone listening.
We're with a Gene in-person andwe're in Springfield townships
vehicle maintenance workshop.
They have a beautiful facilityhere.
Okay.
Gene Irvin (02:15):
So there's a lot of old cool history in it There's
actually up and when more someof that Stokesbury Estates is
still up They bought it build abunch of townhomes in it and the
old fountains and some of theold walls and the gardens are
still Standing.
Sophie Eden (02:26):
Wow.
That's amazing.
Gene Irvin (02:28):
so pretty cool.
Sophie Eden (02:29):
What do you love the most about your community
here?
Gene Irvin (02:32):
I mean, I guess there's a lot to love.
I mean, it's it's very smallhere It's six miles radius Just
shy of 20, 000 people.
So A lot of, you can walk toeverything and anything.
And if you can't walk to it,it's a five minute drive.
Like, literally it sounds likean old country thing.
But it's, it's the truth.
It's very small here.
A lot of little communitythings.
(02:52):
We got community day coming uphere the first week of October.
That's always a good thing.
That's down at one of our otherparks.
But I mean, I've lived here inthis township now for about 29
years.
Sophie Eden (03:02):
What would you say is a like little known fact
about Springfield Township thatpeople visiting might not know?
Gene Irvin (03:10):
So Springfield is actually, Springfield Township
is actually William Penn's giftto his wife.
Back in the 1600s or whateverthat was, 1700s.
Yeah, that was his gift to hiswife, was Springfield Township.
Sophie Eden (03:25):
Wow, that's a pretty unique gift.
Gene Irvin (03:26):
that's pretty cool.
Sophie Eden (03:28):
Very neat.
Gene Irvin (03:29):
Yeah.
Sophie Eden (03:29):
Do you have favorite season here in
Springfield Township, orfavorite project that you've
worked on here?
There's
Gene Irvin (03:37):
favorite season is the summer.
Just, I'm not a cold weatherperson.
But there's always something todo here.
The summer I just enjoy becausewe're outside.
All the guys are outside.
That's when the trucks get themost use is the summer.
All the projects going on,paving projects, park projects.
Again, cutting the grass at allthe parks.
That's my favorite time of yearhere.
(03:59):
Right.
And I'm not complaining withthat.
No,
Sophie Eden (04:05):
Why do you think it's important for
municipalities to sell theirgovernment surplus?
Gene Irvin (04:11):
So once we started using Municibid, we realized how
what a good return we weregetting on our equipment.
We were taking it to a privateauction.
We were paying fees that werequite high.
It seems like everybody jumpsright on our stuff because they
know it's been well maintained.
I try and sell everything withall the service records and
history.
Everything that comes in there,what I allow them to look at it,
(04:32):
inspect it, read through therecords and all the records
leave with them.
Like I said, I just think we'regetting a very good return with
Municibid.
Sophie Eden (04:40):
And can you tell us about your maintenance system
for the vehicles?
Gene Irvin (04:45):
Sure.
So we mean, so what we do hereis everything.
Mostly everything gets servicedon hours because it's so small,
the township that we don'treally get the miles on the
vehicle.
So we do everything on a 300hour service.
For people that don't knowanything about hours, GM and
Ford and all the manufacturersfor every hour.
(05:05):
It's 33 miles.
That's how they do thatequation.
So we'd service everything bythe hours.
We got a couple vehicles that wedo on mileage.
You know, we have a chief thathas a take home car, so that car
normally gets a little moremiles on it.
Like the public works foremanhere and the director they do a
lot more driving than most ofthe guys here, so those get done
(05:26):
on miles instead of hours.
Sophie Eden (05:28):
And can you tell us a bit about, like, your day to
day here and like, what'sinvolved with maintaining a
fleet?
Gene Irvin (05:35):
So, the day to day here is really not set in stone
because you can come in and havethe whole day planned.
So, here's the story for you.
Yesterday, we're in hereworking, and one of the drivers
calls us with a trash truck.
When we went out, the trashtruck was on fire, the inside of
the truck.
So we had to dump it out in theparking lot.
We had to get the fire companyout to put the fire out.
So that took your whole morningday to day operations and threw
(05:57):
it right out the window.
Because that took us until about11 o'clock in the morning.
Sophie Eden (06:01):
wow.
Gene Irvin (06:02):
I mean normally we try and plan, look at what we
got the night before.
Right now we're doing all thewinter maintenance equipment.
We'll get them in, inspect them,change the oil, get the plows
ready and put them away.
So.
We do have a kind of set instone day to day, but you never
know.
The guys come in, the belt's offthe truck, whatever it is.
(06:24):
I mean, there's always somethingto do.
Sophie Eden (06:26):
Yep, you're there whenever something
Gene Irvin (06:29):
we're here to put the fire out.
Literally.
Sophie Eden (06:33):
I hope that's not a common occurrence.
Gene Irvin (06:35):
it not.
It's only the second time I'vebeen here for 11 years, so.
Sophie Eden (06:40):
Okay, that's pretty good.
Gene Irvin (06:41):
Right, that's good, I'll take that.
Sophie Eden (06:43):
what were some of the challenges that you faced
with selling your surplus priorto using Municibid?
Gene Irvin (06:51):
Mostly it was the fees that we were getting
charged.
I went to one of the auctionsone weekend, and one of our
trucks came up.
It was the next one on thebidding block,
Sophie Eden (07:01):
And this was an in person auction?
Gene Irvin (07:04):
It was over in Norristown, and when they
brought the truck up for bid,the the auctioneer went into how
the frame was cracked, and thisand that, and said how the truck
was in really bad shape, andnone of that was true.
So that's when I decided we hadto find somewhere else to do
that.
And we had been looking intoMunicibid in like 2016.
And it took me about a year forthem to convince them because
(07:26):
that's the way it's always beendone is you went to this
auction.
So we actually sold the PublicWorks Director's car, Tahoe, on
there the first time.
That went to another township,to another public works
director.
And right from there we didn'tturn back.
Like, we got a great turnover onit.
And the director was happy, thedirector at that point.
And we never went back.
Sophie Eden (07:46):
That's wonderful to hear.
Did you or, the committeeapproving you know, using
another auction service, haveany hesitations about using
Municibid or any concerns aboutmaking the switch?
Gene Irvin (07:59):
Like I said, the director that was here at that
time was a little hesitant.
Just because, you know, he wasan older school guy.
And that's how we always did it.
You sold it at this auction.
That's what you did.
You drove it over there, droppedit off, and you waited to hear.
You didn't even know how muchyou got to it.
got for it till like three weeksafter the auction when they sent
you what it went for their cutand they sent you the checks
like so it turned into a nobrainer once he saw that we
(08:23):
didn't pay any fees and againlike i said i think we're
getting great prices for ourvehicles so at that point it
never became a hesitation wehave to get everything approved
through the commissioners forthe sell the vehicle and once
commissioners Got wind of whereit was trying to sell them.
Everything was just, theyapprove everything right away
now without a problem.
Sophie Eden (08:43):
That's wonderful.
So it's been easier process now.
Gene Irvin (08:47):
yeah,
Sophie Eden (08:47):
That's great to hear.
And what would you say, like, ofthe items that you've sold over
the years?
Which item have you got, like,the best return for?
Gene Irvin (08:57):
So we had a 2000 Ford F 350 bucket truck here.
They purchased the vehicle backin 2007 for$21,000.
We sold it in 2021 for a$20,500.
So
Sophie Eden (09:13):
Woo!
Gene Irvin (09:14):
Literally they lost 500 hours on the truck that they
used for what, 11 years?
Sophie Eden (09:19):
That's brilliant.
Gene Irvin (09:20):
it was great.
And a guy drove all the way downfrom Martha's Vineyard.
It shows you everybody's lookingat the site.
He drove down from Martha'sVineyard, picked it up and, and
took it back.
And I've never heard a bad wordabout it.
So we've had people as far asOhio come pick up Vermont Erie.
We had a young lady come outfrom Erie and pick up a Tahoe.
It was an old police car.
I tried to explain that to her,but she got here and she cried.
(09:43):
I was like, oh no.
And she was so happy with thevehicle, she
Sophie Eden (09:46):
Oh.
Gene Irvin (09:47):
was, I didn't know what to do.
She literally walked in the shopand started crying.
And I looked at the other guy Iwork with here, Will, and I
said, is she crying becauseshe's upset?
And I said to her, her name wasFaith.
I said, Faith, is theresomething wrong?
She goes, I love this car.
I'm like, okay.
So it was pretty good.
I've met a lot of.
(10:07):
Interesting people and had someinteresting conversations on the
phone for people bidding on thevehicles.
It's a good experience.
Sophie Eden (10:14):
Because that was her first time seeing the
vehicle in person because shewas traveling so far.
Yeah.
Gene Irvin (10:20):
Yeah, I think she said it took her like seven
hours to get here.
Sophie Eden (10:23):
Wow, that's a haul.
Gene Irvin (10:24):
Yeah.
Sophie Eden (10:26):
that's amazing.
And it sounds like it was evenin better condition than
Gene Irvin (10:30):
Yeah, I mean, again, we try and stay on top of
everything.
We do everything in house here.
Like I said, with the serviceintervals, we're always on them.
Like I said, right now withdoing all the winter equipment
some of them may actually not bedue for the oil change, but
because it's been since lastyear, we do the oil and go over
it, adjust the brakes and do allthat just to make sure they're
ready.
Sophie Eden (10:50):
what are some of the regular maintenance that you
do for the police fleet?
Gene Irvin (10:54):
The police fleet is, it's mostly tires, brakes, oil.
Fortunately the fleet'srelatively new.
We rotate the cars every fiveyears.
That's why we have so many ofthem on Municibid.
Right now we're transitioningover to hybrids.
So the services have really gonefarther out.
Like the service interval hasbecome longer in time because it
(11:15):
takes them that much more timeto get 300 hours on it than it
used to when they'd leave themidling for, whether it's cold
out or whatever.
The cars now that, you know,because it's all hybrid, it's
running on the battery insteadof the engine.
Sophie Eden (11:27):
is the whole police fleet moving to hybrid or are
you doing, okay.
Gene Irvin (11:31):
So the commissioners in the, you know, in the well,
future is for everything to beelectric here, but I mean,
that's years upon years away.
We do upfit all the police carshere in house.
So it's nice.
Like, you know, when the, whenan officer comes in, he's having
a problem with the computers.
Usually the modem needs to berebooted.
They don't know where that's at,but we do.
(11:52):
So it's nice.
Sophie Eden (11:54):
Can you think of what your best experience using
Municibid has been?
Gene Irvin (12:00):
I guess everything because I can't come up with a
bad experience.
Jackie has been a great help forme.
She's helped me with a lot oflittle issues.
She's helped me with one rightnow.
But always her with support forme.
I'm sure she's with everybody,not just me.
But I like to think I'm gettinga special treatment sometimes.
But yeah, so I think everyexperience I had, have had with
(12:21):
Municibid since the start hasbeen awesome.
I've not had any Nothing badwith Municibid.
So I guess that's how I'm goingto answer that for you.
Sophie Eden (12:30):
Jackie's awesome.
I'll let her know too.
Yeah, she loves all our sellers.
She really cares deeply, yeah.
Have you had any experience withMunicibid that made you laugh?
Oh, yeah,
Gene Irvin (12:42):
I mean, well, that one there with Faith picking her
car up from Eerie crying.
I wasn't sure.
I do get a lot of them.
Some of them I'll get on thephone for a while.
I'm like, all right, let's, youknow, let's get to the point
what you want.
Don't tell me what you're goingto build it as and You know, 35
minutes into the conversation,I'm like, what do you want to
come look at?
They're like, no, I don't wantto look at it.
I'm like, okay.
So now it's, there's definitelybeen a lot of funny phone calls.
(13:06):
A couple of the in person thingshave been kind of funny.
But yeah, I mean, no badexperiences.
So I think the, the probably thegreatest impact is the higher
return on our products thatwe're getting instead of running
it through the auction.
You know, getting a lot, a lotof money for the vehicles to go
back into the tax baseimprovements around the building
and stuff.
Sophie Eden (13:25):
features that you like about Municibid?
To is
Gene Irvin (13:31):
well, I mean, I guess the best features are that
you basically run your ownauction.
Like you guys set it up for us,but we put in there everything
from start date, to end date, topickups inspections to look at
the vehicles, phone calls.
I mean, I think that's the bestpart of that.
Sophie Eden (13:48):
Yeah, so you're able to list items you go.
Gene Irvin (13:50):
so when we had the auctions, you had to have it
there by a certain date.
You dropped it off and then,like I said, you waited to hear
what you got for it, orwhatever.
Sophie Eden (13:58):
Yeah, and when you were using in person auctions
before, like about how longwould it be from when you'd
taken a vehicle out of serviceto put up for auction to when it
actually, like,
Gene Irvin (14:11):
So their auction was only two times a year.
So you had vehicles sometimessitting around here for six,
seven months, until you actuallygot to take it there.
And then you took it there, youdropped it off.
Like, it was a big yard, so youactually dropped it off with,
with the auction.
A thousand other vehicles justsitting out in the yard and you
waited to hear what you got forit to where here we have control
of the whole situation.
Sophie Eden (14:33):
less depreciation time of the vehicles too.
Gene Irvin (14:36):
That, and like I said, I think that when they
realize that the vehicle is hereat a municipality, that they
know that it's been wellmaintained, it's not just been,
you know, it's not somehomeowner that didn't take care
of their vehicle that gotdropped off at the auction and
waiting to see what they can getfor the vehicle.
Sophie Eden (14:52):
The vehicles that you're maintaining, what would
you say is like an averageamount that you're putting into
the vehicles,
Gene Irvin (15:00):
Cost wise, you mean?
So I mean,
Sophie Eden (15:02):
Right.
We
Gene Irvin (15:04):
probably the biggest cost is the trash trucks with
brakes and, you know, the brakedrums.
Being that we're only six milesradius here, they're always on
and off the brakes, so they gothrough brakes quite often.
But we don't have any really bigcosts, high costs.
I mean, most of us all, like yousaid, tires, brakes, oil changes
you know, belts, hoses.
(15:25):
Just regular maintenance stuffthat gets maintained more often
because it's used more oftenhere than your regular residence
car.
Sophie Eden (15:33):
sometimes with the police vehicles, like a common
concern with bidders is thatthey're kind of being run into
the ground and getting like veryheavily used.
You're seeing these vehiclesevery day, and you're looking
under the hood with them.
what's your take on?
whether or not they're gettingabused, so to speak.
Gene Irvin (15:52):
So I think it all depends on where you're at as
well.
You know, we're close toPhiladelphia, their cars are
getting abused.
We're here, our cars aren'tgetting abused.
I mean.
It's an everyday car.
That's what you're trying toexplain to some of the bidders
that, you know, a lot of themhave a lot of hours on them that
may not have as many miles asthey think are on them.
But the cars here are surely arenot abused because we're such a
(16:13):
small township.
Sophie Eden (16:14):
And like for some people, used to just buying a
car from a dealership, not usedto dealing with hours.
Do you think they should be,really concerned about, high
hours on a vehicle?
Gene Irvin (16:25):
So I, I don't think you'd have to be concerned.
I always express and I put in,you know, the auction to how
many hours are on it, but Ialways put in there, they've
been serviced regularly.
I mean.
On the gas cars, we were dumpingthe oil out of those cars every
two and a half to three weeks.
That's how, that's how quickthat would happen.
Like I said, now that we're overto the hybrids, it's getting
(16:47):
stretched out farther, but theengine's not sitting there
idling as much.
Sophie Eden (16:50):
With moving your police fleet over to hybrid are
you excited about thattransition
Gene Irvin (16:57):
I was a little leery about it when it first happened.
So the first one we had had itsissues because it was the first
model year.
Had a bunch of little issues andit was kind of frustrating.
But as we've moved on It's, it'sturned into a, other than the
service work being longer, we'renot working on them every two
weeks, three weeks, as far asthat goes.
(17:17):
But they just did a study thatover a two year period, they
saved 33, 000 gallons ingasoline in the 14 vehicle.
Sophie Eden (17:27):
That's phenomenal.
That's a big cost
Gene Irvin (17:29):
that's a big cost
Sophie Eden (17:30):
right?
Because the servicing, would yousay is about the same cost to
maintain
Gene Irvin (17:36):
Yeah.
It's the same.
Yeah.
All the oil and filter is thesame, whether it was the
gasoline, not hybrid, and nowthey're the hybrid with the same
gasoline engine.
It's just now the gasolineengine's not running as much,
because it's running on battery.
Sophie Eden (17:51):
That's brilliant.
That's a huge cost savings.
Gene Irvin (17:53):
So, yeah, very big cost savings.
And like I said, the serviceintervals have gone.
We just did two cars the otherday and we checked how long it's
been.
It's been two months since wehad them in.
But in that two months we haveto, so the hybrids were starting
to switch over to mileageinstead of hours.
So you have the regular gas carin 300 hours would go about 1,
(18:15):
600 to 2, 000 miles.
So now the hybrids are going 4,000 miles that we're doing them
on, but they're only going 150hours.
Sophie Eden (18:23):
Wow.
Gene Irvin (18:24):
so it's cut it down dramatically.
Sophie Eden (18:27):
That's brilliant.
Gene Irvin (18:29):
so it's definitely a big cost savings for the
department.
Sophie Eden (18:32):
One concern with the, electric vehicles overall
has been, the batteries and thepotential for fire.
I know you have some experiencewith fires, but how has it been
so far with the hybrid vehiclesand the batteries?
Gene Irvin (18:48):
So far we haven't had any issues.
The one that I was saying, thefirst one, that actually had to
have a battery done, but it wasunder warranty.
So, my only concern for thefuture is what we do with those
batteries.
And nobody seems to have givenme an answer on that yet.
Sophie Eden (19:02):
be determined.
Gene Irvin (19:03):
To be determined, right.
They tell you you don't have toworry about it for 10 years.
I say, well in 10 years, what dowe have to do with the battery?
Sophie Eden (19:08):
hmm.
Yeah.
Well,
Gene Irvin (19:10):
that's my only concern so far.
Sophie Eden (19:12):
Yes, we'll find out in 10 years.
Gene Irvin (19:16):
Right.
Sophie Eden (19:17):
Would you recommend Municibid to other
municipalities?
If so, why?
Gene Irvin (19:23):
Absolutely, I have.
I've had a couple ofmunicipalities switch over to
Municibid.
On recommendation, they calledand asked how easy it was, what
was involved, what the feeswere, and I explained to them
there's no fees.
Yeah, I've probably, I'veprobably got three or four
townships to switch over.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's a greatexperience, it really is.
(19:43):
It couldn't be any easier, andlike I said, it's not costing us
anything, it's great.
Yeah.
Sophie Eden (19:48):
crazy to hear that you were getting charged with
the other in person auction aswell as the buyers.
But yeah, astounding.
Gene Irvin (19:57):
that's pretty crazy.
Sophie Eden (19:58):
What advice do you have for other municipalities
who are looking to sell theirsurplus or maybe looking to just
get started with that process?
Gene Irvin (20:08):
I mean, anybody that's not using the site is
really missing out.
I know there's a couple othersites out there, but we've had
nothing but good luck on thissite as far as auctions going
right away.
Yeah, anybody that's not usingthe site's missing out.
If anybody's still dropping offat the in person auction it's,
it's just losing money that theyshould be putting back into
(20:28):
their budgets.
Sophie Eden (20:30):
Wonderful.
Is there anything else overallthat you'd like to share, either
about Springfield Township oryour experience with Municibid?
Anytime
Gene Irvin (20:39):
Springfield Township is a nice town to live in, end
of visit, a couple of littlethings.
Any, any township that has aquestion, or again, I think the
school district now has switchedover and used Municibid for a
couple of things because Iexplained it to them.
Anybody that has any questions,I would be more than happy to
answer for them.
Sophie Eden (20:55):
Oh, thank
Gene Irvin (20:56):
It's been a great experience.
Sophie Eden (20:58):
Oh, wonderful.
Thank you so much, Gene.
I really appreciate it.
Gene Irvin (21:02):
Thank you.
Hi, Gene.
Gene Irvin (00:00):
Sophie.
Good morning.
How are you?
Sophie Eden (00:02):
Doing great.
How are you?
Gene Irvin (00:03):
I'm doing good.
Thank you.
Sophie Eden (00:04):
Thank you so much for doing this interview today.
First, can you start offintroducing yourself and
Springfield Township and whatyou do here?
Gene Irvin (00:13):
Sure.
My name is Gene Irvin.
I'm employed here at SpringfieldTownship for about 11 years.
I'm currently the fleetsupervisor.
We're in charge of the entirefleet here.
Everything with wheels,everything without.
The guys bring it to us, we fixit.
Hopefully not that often.
I've been using Municibid nowfor about six years, since 2017.
I've had quite a bit of successwith it.
(00:36):
Right about now we're sitting atlike$330,000 in sales, with no
cost to us.
Sophie Eden (00:41):
Fantastic.
And when you say like you'remanaging all the fleet, that's
police vehicles
Gene Irvin (00:48):
Police vehicles, we have refuse department the
regular highway department,which is you know, heavy duty
trash trucks.
We have heavy duty plow trucksfor salting operations.
We have the medium duty trucks,you know, for everyday
operations here in the township.
The police cars, we have 14police cars in the fleet that we
have to take care of.
And then all the other essentialequipment, the weed whackers,
(01:11):
the blowers, everything elsethat you can think of.
Sophie Eden (01:14):
Yeah.
Can you tell us a bit aboutSpringfield Township?
What's it known for?
What's its claim to fame?
Gene Irvin (01:20):
so Springfield Township has a lot of little
cool things if you get out andaround.
There's an old quarry thatfilled in that's now one of our
parks.
It's, it's completely filled inwith water.
There was a storm, I don't evenremember when it was, back in
the 1950s.
It knocked the pumps out, so itflooded out.
And the township acquired that.
There's a, Stotesbury used to bea, a big estate back in the day.
(01:43):
I can't remember the guy's firstname, but he was a big
architect.
He built the Stotesbury Estatesas well as the Linwood Garden
Estate.
And that's the guy thatactually, the grandson perished
on the Titanic.
I'll shut that off.
You're right because thecompressor will probably come on
Sophie Eden (02:03):
For everyone listening.
We're with a Gene in-person andwe're in Springfield townships
vehicle maintenance workshop.
They have a beautiful facilityhere.
Okay.
Gene Irvin (02:15):
So there's a lot of old cool history in it There's
actually up and when more someof that Stokesbury Estates is
still up They bought it build abunch of townhomes in it and the
old fountains and some of theold walls and the gardens are
still Standing.
Sophie Eden (02:26):
Wow.
That's amazing.
Gene Irvin (02:28):
so pretty cool.
Sophie Eden (02:29):
What do you love the most about your community
here?
Gene Irvin (02:32):
I mean, I guess there's a lot to love.
I mean, it's it's very smallhere It's six miles radius Just
shy of 20, 000 people.
So A lot of, you can walk toeverything and anything.
And if you can't walk to it,it's a five minute drive.
Like, literally it sounds likean old country thing.
But it's, it's the truth.
It's very small here.
A lot of little communitythings.
(02:52):
We got community day coming uphere the first week of October.
That's always a good thing.
That's down at one of our otherparks.
But I mean, I've lived here inthis township now for about 29
years.
Sophie Eden (03:02):
What would you say is a like little known fact
about Springfield Township thatpeople visiting might not know?
Gene Irvin (03:10):
So Springfield is actually, Springfield Township
is actually William Penn's giftto his wife.
Back in the 1600s or whateverthat was, 1700s.
Yeah, that was his gift to hiswife, was Springfield Township.
Sophie Eden (03:25):
Wow, that's a pretty unique gift.
Gene Irvin (03:26):
that's pretty cool.
Sophie Eden (03:28):
Very neat.
Gene Irvin (03:29):
Yeah.
Sophie Eden (03:29):
Do you have favorite season here in
Springfield Township, orfavorite project that you've
worked on here?
There's
Gene Irvin (03:37):
favorite season is the summer.
Just, I'm not a cold weatherperson.
But there's always something todo here.
The summer I just enjoy becausewe're outside.
All the guys are outside.
That's when the trucks get themost use is the summer.
All the projects going on,paving projects, park projects.
Again, cutting the grass at allthe parks.
That's my favorite time of yearhere.
(03:59):
Right.
And I'm not complaining withthat.
No,
Sophie Eden (04:05):
Why do you think it's important for
municipalities to sell theirgovernment surplus?
Gene Irvin (04:11):
So once we started using Municibid, we realized how
what a good return we weregetting on our equipment.
We were taking it to a privateauction.
We were paying fees that werequite high.
It seems like everybody jumpsright on our stuff because they
know it's been well maintained.
I try and sell everything withall the service records and
history.
Everything that comes in there,what I allow them to look at it,
(04:32):
inspect it, read through therecords and all the records
leave with them.
Like I said, I just think we'regetting a very good return with
Municibid.
Sophie Eden (04:40):
And can you tell us about your maintenance system
for the vehicles?
Gene Irvin (04:45):
Sure.
So we mean, so what we do hereis everything.
Mostly everything gets servicedon hours because it's so small,
the township that we don'treally get the miles on the
vehicle.
So we do everything on a 300hour service.
For people that don't knowanything about hours, GM and
Ford and all the manufacturersfor every hour.
(05:05):
It's 33 miles.
That's how they do thatequation.
So we'd service everything bythe hours.
We got a couple vehicles that wedo on mileage.
You know, we have a chief thathas a take home car, so that car
normally gets a little moremiles on it.
Like the public works foremanhere and the director they do a
lot more driving than most ofthe guys here, so those get done
(05:26):
on miles instead of hours.
Sophie Eden (05:28):
And can you tell us a bit about, like, your day to
day here and like, what'sinvolved with maintaining a
fleet?
Gene Irvin (05:35):
So, the day to day here is really not set in stone
because you can come in and havethe whole day planned.
So, here's the story for you.
Yesterday, we're in hereworking, and one of the drivers
calls us with a trash truck.
When we went out, the trashtruck was on fire, the inside of
the truck.
So we had to dump it out in theparking lot.
We had to get the fire companyout to put the fire out.
So that took your whole morningday to day operations and threw
(05:57):
it right out the window.
Because that took us until about11 o'clock in the morning.
Sophie Eden (06:01):
wow.
Gene Irvin (06:02):
I mean normally we try and plan, look at what we
got the night before.
Right now we're doing all thewinter maintenance equipment.
We'll get them in, inspect them,change the oil, get the plows
ready and put them away.
So.
We do have a kind of set instone day to day, but you never
know.
The guys come in, the belt's offthe truck, whatever it is.
(06:24):
I mean, there's always somethingto do.
Sophie Eden (06:26):
Yep, you're there whenever something
Gene Irvin (06:29):
we're here to put the fire out.
Literally.
Sophie Eden (06:33):
I hope that's not a common occurrence.
Gene Irvin (06:35):
it not.
It's only the second time I'vebeen here for 11 years, so.
Sophie Eden (06:40):
Okay, that's pretty good.
Gene Irvin (06:41):
Right, that's good, I'll take that.
Sophie Eden (06:43):
what were some of the challenges that you faced
with selling your surplus priorto using Municibid?
Gene Irvin (06:51):
Mostly it was the fees that we were getting
charged.
I went to one of the auctionsone weekend, and one of our
trucks came up.
It was the next one on thebidding block,
Sophie Eden (07:01):
And this was an in person auction?
Gene Irvin (07:04):
It was over in Norristown, and when they
brought the truck up for bid,the the auctioneer went into how
the frame was cracked, and thisand that, and said how the truck
was in really bad shape, andnone of that was true.
So that's when I decided we hadto find somewhere else to do
that.
And we had been looking intoMunicibid in like 2016.
And it took me about a year forthem to convince them because
(07:26):
that's the way it's always beendone is you went to this
auction.
So we actually sold the PublicWorks Director's car, Tahoe, on
there the first time.
That went to another township,to another public works
director.
And right from there we didn'tturn back.
Like, we got a great turnover onit.
And the director was happy, thedirector at that point.
And we never went back.
Sophie Eden (07:46):
That's wonderful to hear.
Did you or, the committeeapproving you know, using
another auction service, haveany hesitations about using
Municibid or any concerns aboutmaking the switch?
Gene Irvin (07:59):
Like I said, the director that was here at that
time was a little hesitant.
Just because, you know, he wasan older school guy.
And that's how we always did it.
You sold it at this auction.
That's what you did.
You drove it over there, droppedit off, and you waited to hear.
You didn't even know how muchyou got to it.
got for it till like three weeksafter the auction when they sent
you what it went for their cutand they sent you the checks
like so it turned into a nobrainer once he saw that we
(08:23):
didn't pay any fees and againlike i said i think we're
getting great prices for ourvehicles so at that point it
never became a hesitation wehave to get everything approved
through the commissioners forthe sell the vehicle and once
commissioners Got wind of whereit was trying to sell them.
Everything was just, theyapprove everything right away
now without a problem.
Sophie Eden (08:43):
That's wonderful.
So it's been easier process now.
Gene Irvin (08:47):
yeah,
Sophie Eden (08:47):
That's great to hear.
And what would you say, like, ofthe items that you've sold over
the years?
Which item have you got, like,the best return for?
Gene Irvin (08:57):
So we had a 2000 Ford F 350 bucket truck here.
They purchased the vehicle backin 2007 for$21,000.
We sold it in 2021 for a$20,500.
So
Sophie Eden (09:13):
Woo!
Gene Irvin (09:14):
Literally they lost 500 hours on the truck that they
used for what, 11 years?
Sophie Eden (09:19):
That's brilliant.
Gene Irvin (09:20):
it was great.
And a guy drove all the way downfrom Martha's Vineyard.
It shows you everybody's lookingat the site.
He drove down from Martha'sVineyard, picked it up and, and
took it back.
And I've never heard a bad wordabout it.
So we've had people as far asOhio come pick up Vermont Erie.
We had a young lady come outfrom Erie and pick up a Tahoe.
It was an old police car.
I tried to explain that to her,but she got here and she cried.
(09:43):
I was like, oh no.
And she was so happy with thevehicle, she
Sophie Eden (09:46):
Oh.
Gene Irvin (09:47):
was, I didn't know what to do.
She literally walked in the shopand started crying.
And I looked at the other guy Iwork with here, Will, and I
said, is she crying becauseshe's upset?
And I said to her, her name wasFaith.
I said, Faith, is theresomething wrong?
She goes, I love this car.
I'm like, okay.
So it was pretty good.
I've met a lot of.
(10:07):
Interesting people and had someinteresting conversations on the
phone for people bidding on thevehicles.
It's a good experience.
Sophie Eden (10:14):
Because that was her first time seeing the
vehicle in person because shewas traveling so far.
Yeah.
Gene Irvin (10:20):
Yeah, I think she said it took her like seven
hours to get here.
Sophie Eden (10:23):
Wow, that's a haul.
Gene Irvin (10:24):
Yeah.
Sophie Eden (10:26):
that's amazing.
And it sounds like it was evenin better condition than
Gene Irvin (10:30):
Yeah, I mean, again, we try and stay on top of
everything.
We do everything in house here.
Like I said, with the serviceintervals, we're always on them.
Like I said, right now withdoing all the winter equipment
some of them may actually not bedue for the oil change, but
because it's been since lastyear, we do the oil and go over
it, adjust the brakes and do allthat just to make sure they're
ready.
Sophie Eden (10:50):
what are some of the regular maintenance that you
do for the police fleet?
Gene Irvin (10:54):
The police fleet is, it's mostly tires, brakes, oil.
Fortunately the fleet'srelatively new.
We rotate the cars every fiveyears.
That's why we have so many ofthem on Municibid.
Right now we're transitioningover to hybrids.
So the services have really gonefarther out.
Like the service interval hasbecome longer in time because it
(11:15):
takes them that much more timeto get 300 hours on it than it
used to when they'd leave themidling for, whether it's cold
out or whatever.
The cars now that, you know,because it's all hybrid, it's
running on the battery insteadof the engine.
Sophie Eden (11:27):
is the whole police fleet moving to hybrid or are
you doing, okay.
Gene Irvin (11:31):
So the commissioners in the, you know, in the well,
future is for everything to beelectric here, but I mean,
that's years upon years away.
We do upfit all the police carshere in house.
So it's nice.
Like, you know, when the, whenan officer comes in, he's having
a problem with the computers.
Usually the modem needs to berebooted.
They don't know where that's at,but we do.
(11:52):
So it's nice.
Sophie Eden (11:54):
Can you think of what your best experience using
Municibid has been?
Gene Irvin (12:00):
I guess everything because I can't come up with a
bad experience.
Jackie has been a great help forme.
She's helped me with a lot oflittle issues.
She's helped me with one rightnow.
But always her with support forme.
I'm sure she's with everybody,not just me.
But I like to think I'm gettinga special treatment sometimes.
But yeah, so I think everyexperience I had, have had with
(12:21):
Municibid since the start hasbeen awesome.
I've not had any Nothing badwith Municibid.
So I guess that's how I'm goingto answer that for you.
Sophie Eden (12:30):
Jackie's awesome.
I'll let her know too.
Yeah, she loves all our sellers.
She really cares deeply, yeah.
Have you had any experience withMunicibid that made you laugh?
Oh, yeah,
Gene Irvin (12:42):
I mean, well, that one there with Faith picking her
car up from Eerie crying.
I wasn't sure.
I do get a lot of them.
Some of them I'll get on thephone for a while.
I'm like, all right, let's, youknow, let's get to the point
what you want.
Don't tell me what you're goingto build it as and You know, 35
minutes into the conversation,I'm like, what do you want to
come look at?
They're like, no, I don't wantto look at it.
I'm like, okay.
So now it's, there's definitelybeen a lot of funny phone calls.
(13:06):
A couple of the in person thingshave been kind of funny.
But yeah, I mean, no badexperiences.
So I think the, the probably thegreatest impact is the higher
return on our products thatwe're getting instead of running
it through the auction.
You know, getting a lot, a lotof money for the vehicles to go
back into the tax baseimprovements around the building
and stuff.
Sophie Eden (13:25):
features that you like about Municibid?
To is
Gene Irvin (13:31):
well, I mean, I guess the best features are that
you basically run your ownauction.
Like you guys set it up for us,but we put in there everything
from start date, to end date, topickups inspections to look at
the vehicles, phone calls.
I mean, I think that's the bestpart of that.
Sophie Eden (13:48):
Yeah, so you're able to list items you go.
Gene Irvin (13:50):
so when we had the auctions, you had to have it
there by a certain date.
You dropped it off and then,like I said, you waited to hear
what you got for it, orwhatever.
Sophie Eden (13:58):
Yeah, and when you were using in person auctions
before, like about how longwould it be from when you'd
taken a vehicle out of serviceto put up for auction to when it
actually, like,
Gene Irvin (14:11):
So their auction was only two times a year.
So you had vehicles sometimessitting around here for six,
seven months, until you actuallygot to take it there.
And then you took it there, youdropped it off.
Like, it was a big yard, so youactually dropped it off with,
with the auction.
A thousand other vehicles justsitting out in the yard and you
waited to hear what you got forit to where here we have control
of the whole situation.
Sophie Eden (14:33):
less depreciation time of the vehicles too.
Gene Irvin (14:36):
That, and like I said, I think that when they
realize that the vehicle is hereat a municipality, that they
know that it's been wellmaintained, it's not just been,
you know, it's not somehomeowner that didn't take care
of their vehicle that gotdropped off at the auction and
waiting to see what they can getfor the vehicle.
Sophie Eden (14:52):
The vehicles that you're maintaining, what would
you say is like an averageamount that you're putting into
the vehicles,
Gene Irvin (15:00):
Cost wise, you mean?
So I mean,
Sophie Eden (15:02):
Right.
We
Gene Irvin (15:04):
probably the biggest cost is the trash trucks with
brakes and, you know, the brakedrums.
Being that we're only six milesradius here, they're always on
and off the brakes, so they gothrough brakes quite often.
But we don't have any really bigcosts, high costs.
I mean, most of us all, like yousaid, tires, brakes, oil changes
you know, belts, hoses.
(15:25):
Just regular maintenance stuffthat gets maintained more often
because it's used more oftenhere than your regular residence
car.
Sophie Eden (15:33):
sometimes with the police vehicles, like a common
concern with bidders is thatthey're kind of being run into
the ground and getting like veryheavily used.
You're seeing these vehiclesevery day, and you're looking
under the hood with them.
what's your take on?
whether or not they're gettingabused, so to speak.
Gene Irvin (15:52):
So I think it all depends on where you're at as
well.
You know, we're close toPhiladelphia, their cars are
getting abused.
We're here, our cars aren'tgetting abused.
I mean.
It's an everyday car.
That's what you're trying toexplain to some of the bidders
that, you know, a lot of themhave a lot of hours on them that
may not have as many miles asthey think are on them.
But the cars here are surely arenot abused because we're such a
(16:13):
small township.
Sophie Eden (16:14):
And like for some people, used to just buying a
car from a dealership, not usedto dealing with hours.
Do you think they should be,really concerned about, high
hours on a vehicle?
Gene Irvin (16:25):
So I, I don't think you'd have to be concerned.
I always express and I put in,you know, the auction to how
many hours are on it, but Ialways put in there, they've
been serviced regularly.
I mean.
On the gas cars, we were dumpingthe oil out of those cars every
two and a half to three weeks.
That's how, that's how quickthat would happen.
Like I said, now that we're overto the hybrids, it's getting
(16:47):
stretched out farther, but theengine's not sitting there
idling as much.
Sophie Eden (16:50):
With moving your police fleet over to hybrid are
you excited about thattransition
Gene Irvin (16:57):
I was a little leery about it when it first happened.
So the first one we had had itsissues because it was the first
model year.
Had a bunch of little issues andit was kind of frustrating.
But as we've moved on It's, it'sturned into a, other than the
service work being longer, we'renot working on them every two
weeks, three weeks, as far asthat goes.
(17:17):
But they just did a study thatover a two year period, they
saved 33, 000 gallons ingasoline in the 14 vehicle.
Sophie Eden (17:27):
That's phenomenal.
That's a big cost
Gene Irvin (17:29):
that's a big cost
Sophie Eden (17:30):
right?
Because the servicing, would yousay is about the same cost to
maintain
Gene Irvin (17:36):
Yeah.
It's the same.
Yeah.
All the oil and filter is thesame, whether it was the
gasoline, not hybrid, and nowthey're the hybrid with the same
gasoline engine.
It's just now the gasolineengine's not running as much,
because it's running on battery.
Sophie Eden (17:51):
That's brilliant.
That's a huge cost savings.
Gene Irvin (17:53):
So, yeah, very big cost savings.
And like I said, the serviceintervals have gone.
We just did two cars the otherday and we checked how long it's
been.
It's been two months since wehad them in.
But in that two months we haveto, so the hybrids were starting
to switch over to mileageinstead of hours.
So you have the regular gas carin 300 hours would go about 1,
(18:15):
600 to 2, 000 miles.
So now the hybrids are going 4,000 miles that we're doing them
on, but they're only going 150hours.
Sophie Eden (18:23):
Wow.
Gene Irvin (18:24):
so it's cut it down dramatically.
Sophie Eden (18:27):
That's brilliant.
Gene Irvin (18:29):
so it's definitely a big cost savings for the
department.
Sophie Eden (18:32):
One concern with the, electric vehicles overall
has been, the batteries and thepotential for fire.
I know you have some experiencewith fires, but how has it been
so far with the hybrid vehiclesand the batteries?
Gene Irvin (18:48):
So far we haven't had any issues.
The one that I was saying, thefirst one, that actually had to
have a battery done, but it wasunder warranty.
So, my only concern for thefuture is what we do with those
batteries.
And nobody seems to have givenme an answer on that yet.
Sophie Eden (19:02):
be determined.
Gene Irvin (19:03):
To be determined, right.
They tell you you don't have toworry about it for 10 years.
I say, well in 10 years, what dowe have to do with the battery?
Sophie Eden (19:08):
hmm.
Yeah.
Well,
Gene Irvin (19:10):
that's my only concern so far.
Sophie Eden (19:12):
Yes, we'll find out in 10 years.
Gene Irvin (19:16):
Right.
Sophie Eden (19:17):
Would you recommend Municibid to other
municipalities?
If so, why?
Gene Irvin (19:23):
Absolutely, I have.
I've had a couple ofmunicipalities switch over to
Municibid.
On recommendation, they calledand asked how easy it was, what
was involved, what the feeswere, and I explained to them
there's no fees.
Yeah, I've probably, I'veprobably got three or four
townships to switch over.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's a greatexperience, it really is.
(19:43):
It couldn't be any easier, andlike I said, it's not costing us
anything, it's great.
Yeah.
Sophie Eden (19:48):
crazy to hear that you were getting charged with
the other in person auction aswell as the buyers.
But yeah, astounding.
Gene Irvin (19:57):
that's pretty crazy.
Sophie Eden (19:58):
What advice do you have for other municipalities
who are looking to sell theirsurplus or maybe looking to just
get started with that process?
Gene Irvin (20:08):
I mean, anybody that's not using the site is
really missing out.
I know there's a couple othersites out there, but we've had
nothing but good luck on thissite as far as auctions going
right away.
Yeah, anybody that's not usingthe site's missing out.
If anybody's still dropping offat the in person auction it's,
it's just losing money that theyshould be putting back into
(20:28):
their budgets.
Sophie Eden (20:30):
Wonderful.
Is there anything else overallthat you'd like to share, either
about Springfield Township oryour experience with Municibid?
Anytime
Gene Irvin (20:39):
Springfield Township is a nice town to live in, end
of visit, a couple of littlethings.
Any, any township that has aquestion, or again, I think the
school district now has switchedover and used Municibid for a
couple of things because Iexplained it to them.
Anybody that has any questions,I would be more than happy to
answer for them.
Sophie Eden (20:55):
Oh, thank
Gene Irvin (20:56):
It's been a great experience.
Sophie Eden (20:58):
Oh, wonderful.
Thank you so much, Gene.
I really appreciate it.
Gene Irvin (21:02):
Thank you.
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