When Publix fleet vehicles are retired from company use, Publix gives current associates the opportunity to purchase the vehicles rather than selling them at auction. In June, the full list of company vehicles available for purchase was made available on www.publix.org. And the list is updated frequently to reflect which vehicles are no longer available.

Vehicles are stored at various Publix facilities, so if you’re interested in a vehicle on the list, be sure to make note of its location and contact phone number. Visit www.publix.org > Apparel and Merchandise > Publix Vehicle Purchase Program to learn more about this benefit.

 Gaining exposure to the program

“Before this management role, I supported retail through the business analysis and reporting department for almost 10 years, and I never realized Publix offered this incredible benefit to its associates. My director is always encouraging us to be innovative, so keeping that in mind, I began my recommendation for getting greater visibility to this program.

“By increasing exposure to the program, associates could benefit and we could reduce expenses at the same time. Each year, facilities purchasing has approximately 300 vehicles to retire from company use. With only 3 percent of those vehicles being sold to associates, we were incurring auction expenses on the other 97 percent.

“As stockholders, we want to do our part in making sure we are intolerant of waste. So we began to investigate our technology options for making this information more readily available to all associates. Beginning with the end in mind, our main objectives were to maximize the benefit to all associates and reduce expenses to Publix. And to ensure success, all associates needed to have easy access to the information.

“We began discussions with various business areas to see what our options were. Together, we decided the best option would be to add the program details and list of cars for sale to www.publix.org. The recommendation was approved, and we published the information June 1.

“Since June, we’ve sold more than 50 vehicles to associates — which is a 500 percent increase from what we previously sold to associates in an entire year! So, we know our associates are happy to hear about this benefit. By having everything online, my team is able to avoid calls, so this change has helped us too. This transition has been a learning process for my team, but we’re excited about the opportunity and the difference this is making for Publix associates.

“If you haven’t already, check it out!”

— Manager of Strategic Procurement Tanya Copeland