SUNBURY -- Northumberland County could save up to $30,000 a year by implementing a fuel management program for its 120-vehicle fleet.

The county commissioners asked consultant Frank Brown, a member of Commissioner Vinny Clausi's transition team, to find a way to more efficiently manage the county's fuel spending.

Brown said he reviewed fuel expense reports from previous years and found that about 10 percent of the county's vehicles were being filled with premium gas when they should have been getting regular, costing the county thousands of dollars.

"Not that they're doing anything wrong," he said. "You don't know whether that's a mistake. There could be a lot of reasons why."

To avoid incurring these unnecessary expenses in the future, the county will implement the Voyager Fleet Systems fuel management program. Brown recommended Voyager after reviewing 19 other programs.

With Voyager, the county can set specific controls for each gas card it issues to county employees, dictating how many gallons of fuel they can pump in a single purchase and what type of fuel they can use.

The controls won't prevent someone from going over the limits set by the county, he said. "You could override it. But that's the reason for the fraud alert."

If a county employee exceeds the limits set by the county, Voyager's on-call fraud hot line notifies the county immediately. The county would still be responsible for whatever was put on the gas card, Brown said, but it would know right away who violated the restrictions.

"Right now, it's better than what we've got, which is nothing," he said.

And because Voyager is a member of the state's cooperative purchasing program, it will cost the county nothing to implement it, according to Brown.

He hopes to have the program in place by Aug. 1.

Brown projected the county will pump 128,000 gallons of fuel in 2008. He was not sure how much the county spent on fuel in 2007.

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