Ithaca College

Submitted on behalf of Rick Couture, associate vice president for facilities.

I am writing to remind you of an enhancement to the College’s rental vehicle program, which will offer faculty, staff, and qualified students additional options when no College vehicles are available or other rentals would be more convenient.

The College has entered into an agreement with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to provide a rental vehicle program for College-related travel for staff, faculty, and students as a complement to the College’s fleet of vehicles. Complete details on the Enterprise rental program, including rental rates, will be available on the College's Travel Services website.

IC Travel Services

Some of the benefits of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car program are

• Free pickup and delivery to your home or office within a 30-mile radius of an Enterprise rental office
• Free parking at the Enterprise rental office
• Free unlimited mileage for rentals within New York State, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey
• 200 free miles per day, cumulative, for travel outside New York State
• Specially equipped handicapped-accessible vehicles, with hand controls, available by request
• Enterprise rental offices in Ithaca, Cortland, and 20 other central New York locations
• Special nationwide rates for out-of-town rentals at air travel destinations, etc.
• Special rental rates are available for personal rentals
• 24-hour AAA roadside assistance and accident assistance
• Single easy method of payment with College travel card or traveler’s personal credit card

There are a number of changes to the College's in-house rental vehicle program. These changes are being implemented to help streamline the administrative aspects of operating the fleet and to maximize the availability of the vehicles for use by members of the campus community. These changes include

• All vehicle rental requests need to be processed online. Please go to the Office of Facilities website for full details on rental procedures and the rental form. It has been the request of various departments that the Travel Authorization Form (TAF) is filled out prior to requesting a vehicle. Therefore, when requesting a vehicle, you will be directed to the TAF. Once the TAF has been filled out, there will be a link available to access the Vehicle Request form.

• Requests must be received online a minimum of 24 hours in advance of the desired vehicle pickup time.

• Vehicle keys will be available for pickup and return at the rental office (located in the garage building) from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and also weekdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the facilities building. If the vehicle is being returned outside those hours, the key return will be at the Office of Public Safety dispatch area. Additionally, key pickup at the public safety dispatch area will be holidays ONLY.

• Weekend and holiday rental requests must be received by 9:00 a.m. on the last business day prior.

• 10-passenger vans will no longer be available, effective March 1, 2009. They have all been replaced with 7-passenger minivans.

The College has also modified its guidelines relating to who can travel in College or Enterprise vehicles. As a general principle, only Ithaca College faculty, staff, and students should occupy College-owned or –rented vehicles.

However, there may be special circumstances when a spouse, member of another college or university community, or other individuals will join a College representative to a common business purpose destination. These situations should be the exception, not the norm, and when they do occur, the person or department renting the vehicle should inform the Office of Rick Management in advance.

If you have any questions on the College's vehicle program, please contact Tim Unger, rental agent and assistant mechanic, or Morgan Swanhart, supervisor of transportation and grounds equipment, at 274-3772 for assistance.

Thank you.

Rick Couture
Associate Vice President for Facilities