Editor’s Note: Campus Findings is a weekly column about things on campus that trigger the curiosity of the Iowa State community. Carrie Sutton, junior in journalism and mass communication, will investigate the inquires each week and post her findings. Submit inquires to [email protected].

What come in many forms and are used for many purposes, but can only be used by a select few? University vehicles.

Vehicles that bear the “Iowa State University” logo on their sides are used by faculty and staff for official use only, said Larry Matchie, plant services supervisor.

The ISU Transportation Services Policies and Rates brochure states, “undergraduate students are allowed to drive university vehicles if they are university employees and meet the guidelines in the Office Procedures Guide.”

Matchie said the drivers must have valid driver’s licenses and use the vehicles for university, not personal, trips.

Pat Grabau, Transportation Services dispatcher, said she cautions drivers against taking family members with them because they are not official passengers.

“The only children you should see [in the vehicles] is University Childcare or for field trips,” Grabau said.

Grabau said some people call to rent pickup trucks to move with, but she said that is “not quite legal.”

“They can move university office furniture, but not their bed or personal stuff,” she said.

Matchie said Transportation Services rents out its 389 vehicles the same way private rental companies rent out vehicles. Grabau said the charges for the vehicles depend on the type of vehicle and the length of the rental.

According to the Transportation Services brochure, prices range from $14 for the use of a compact sedan for 35 miles or half a day to $32 for the use of a one-ton pickup for 70 miles or one day. Additional charges are applied for extra mileage.

Grabau said about 30 to 40 vehicles are rented each day, and some vehicles are used more than once a day for two half-day rentals.

Grabau said most of the vehicles are used to go to the Des Moines, Kansas City or Omaha airports, but some have been driven to such places as Canada, Arizona and Washington, D.C. She said the vehicles are used for faculty conferences in other states, class field trips, outdoor recreation trips and many other events.

“[ISU] Extension also uses them a lot to go all over the state,” she said.

Matchie said Transportation Services fuels, services and attaches the logos on its vehicles, but other departments such as Campus Services and Building Maintenance service their own vehicles.

Grabau said the Transportation Services site, located north of the railroad tracks on Haber Road, looks like a gas station.

“Sometimes we get people who pull in to get gas for their [personal] vehicles,” she said.

Matchie said to purchase new vehicles, the three regent universities make packets describing the vehicles they need to buy and send the packets to car dealers on a special list. He said the dealers submit their prices and the universities accept the lowest bids.

Matchie said the dealership ISU buys its cars from varies each time.

“They keep it fair,” he said. “It’s not always local.”