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We
have received clarification from State of Oregon Department of Administrative
Services on who is allowed to use/drive vehicles that have been rented from
Enterprise, National and Hertz using the state contracts. If you have questions
please let me know. *********************************************************************************** There
seems to be some confusion whether or not non-state employees can operate the
vehicles provided under the Enterprise/National and Hertz Price
Agreements. I am sending this email out as clarification as to who can
rent and operate these vehicles. Whenever a vehicle is rented
by the state, that rental vehicle falls under the same rules and statutes that
apply to state owned vehicles. They are as follows: Agent
means: A person or legal entity appointed in writing by a State agency to
perform specific work. An agent is not an independent contractor.
Agents, paid or unpaid, are subject to the direction and control of the
agency. An agency may not call people “agents” for the
primary purpose of justifying their transportation in a State vehicle. Employee
means: A person employed by the State of Oregon to do State business for whom
the State withholds income tax, provides workers compensation coverage, and
pays the workers’ compensation hour-tax. Under this definition,
workers provided by a temporary employment services agency and Department of
Corrections inmates are not employees. Vehicle
use and storage: No person shall drive, operate or use, authorize or
permit any person to drive, operate or use any motor vehicle as defined in ORS
283.305 for any purpose except for Official State business as defined in ORS
283.305 and by the rules of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services.
In
other words, when reserving a vehicle that is to be operated by a non-state
employee, you need to ask the question whether that person would be allowed to
operate a state owned vehicle as an agent or employee as defined above.
If the answer is no, then that person should NOT be driving a vehicle under
these price agreements. The Price Agreements state that the "traveler"
is a person who is authorized to travel by a participant, however, per ORS
283.305, the Traveler must fall into either the Agent or Employee definition.
No other individuals are authorized to operate the vehicles under
our Price Agreements with Enterprise/National and Hertz. The
primary reason is the liability involved for the person driving the vehicle,
the Contractor and the State. Our Price Agreements include
full damage and liability insurance coverage and if a person was involved in an
accident operating a rental vehicle, and it was discovered that the person was
not a state employee or agent of the state, the state could ultimately end up
being responsible for a non-state employee or non-state agent accident. Tim
A. Hay, CPPB, CGTP, OPBC Carolyn
Wooley University of
Oregon Travel
Manager 541-346-3158
phone 541-346-8078
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