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He provided a progress report on those efforts to a Blue Ribbon Task Force appointed by then-governor Dirk Kempthorne. Lowe recently announced the conclusion of those measures and challenged employees to continue to build on the principles Bower outlined.

“During this era of flat revenue and increased demand on the transportation system, it becomes even more important that we operate efficiently. We must demonstrate to our stakeholders – including policy makers and the public – that we are achieving the best results for their investment.

“I have challenged all division administrators and districts to identify ways we can accomplish more with less. And I make that same challenge to each employee. Operating at the highest level of efficiency has become a fundamental part of how we do business,” she said.

A closing report that summarizes efficiencies initiated by Bower is available for review on the department’s Intranet site at: http://intranet/exec/documents/efficiency_report.xls . The department also is preparing a report about ongoing and new efficiency measures that will be published in the near future.

Among the efficiency measures the department has implemented are:

BRIDGE INSPECTION	One-time savings of $480,000
Private consultants now perform 43% of all bridge inspection work. ITD performs the remaining inspections work at approximately 60% of the cost of consultants.
RESTRUCTURE X UTILIZE	One-time savings of $541,583 On-going savings of $400,000 annually
Continue to cross train employees.
PAVEMENT STRIPING	One-time savings of $340,000 Ongoing savings of $55,000 annually
Contracted with private contractors to perform all Interstate striping work.
EQUIPMENT BUY BACK PROGRAM	One-time savings of $2 million On-going savings of $300,000 annually
Purchased 102 pieces of large equipment (loaders, backhoe/loaders, and tractor trucks) utilizing the vendor buy-back method. For calendar year 2007 the buy-back program will save ITD $492,972 in depreciation expenses alone. An average of $300,000 per year is estimated as on-going savings. This does not include savings associated with the elimination of maintenance costs since the equipment purchased with a buy-back contract is under warranty for the duration of the buy-back period.
DMV CUSTOMER SERVICE IMPROVEMENT	On-going savings of $240,000 annually
Drafted legislation that was later enacted, allowing the department to send notification of department actions such as driver license suspensions, and registrations/title cancellations via regular first class mail instead of via certified mail. This provides an approximate savings of $4 per letter on approximately 70,000 letters annually.
CONVERT IT CONTRACTORS TO FTPs	Ongoing savings of $198,300 annually
Created two positions to replace the full-time contractors who were providing the UNIX system administration and database administration for the Oracle Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). The contract positions were previously costing ITD approximately $320,000 per year.
CONVERT MANUALS TO CDs	Ongoing savings of $135,000 annually
Converted nine manuals, 10 guide books, and two training tutorials to electronic distribution on CD rather than printing hard copies. This has generated savings of $135,000 per year in publication costs.
RESTRUCTURE INFORMATION SERVICES	Ongoing savings of $128,000 annually
Implemented a high-speed, high-capacity network connecting and automating all major department offices and installed a new data management platform for improved efficiency. The migration to client/server continues to provide benefits in sharing data among department work groups.
MOTOR CARRIER AUDITORS	On-going savings of $88,730 annually
Transferred the Audit Unit to the State Tax Commission.
MATERIALS LAB-PRIVATIZE	Ongoing savings of $80,000 annually
Streamlined functions of the two materials laboratories and eliminated duplicate functions where possible. Federal law requires the department to have two separate facilities.
LOCAL ROAD INVENTORY	Ongoing savings of $65,000 annually
Evaluated methods for self-certification by local jurisdictions for the local road inventory program. Moved the local road inventory program to the GIS Section to better align skills for in-office support for self-certification. Stopped all field-data collection conducted by ITD.
WORD PROC SERVICE CENTER	Ongoing savings of $61,600 annually
Realigned functions to streamline document production and records management processes.