The liquor and spirits producer Wuliangye Group has announced that it will auction off the majority of its fleet of company vehicles to save money and bring the state-owned enterprise in line with new government regulations regulating the use and misuse of public vehicles.
The auction, which began on Jan. 11 and will run through the end of February, is expected sell off over 500 of the company's cars and buses. Over the weekend, Wuliangye was already able to auction off 173 vehicles for about 14.2 million yuan, and last Monday's auction sold nearly 90 vehicles for 6.68 million yuan.
The auction has drawn interest from around the nation with over 1,000 applicants signing up to participate prior to the opening day. Prices have varied widely for the cars being sold, but the highlight of the auction so far was the sale of a 2006 yellow Hummer H3 for 502,000 yuan after starting off at 200,000 yuan. Wuliangye officials say that they will retain around 200 vehicles for comany use after the auction is complete.
Wuliangye announced the auction on Jan. 2 as a way to reduce costs, eliminate unnecessary expenses, and conform to the guidelines announced by the State Council last November which require government and state-owned entities to control their usage of vehicles at the public's expense. The use of vehicles by government and state-owned entities has been widely criticized as being disorganized, susceptible to misuse, and wasteful. According to reports, 2 million vehicles were being used by public officials in 2013.
As an alternative to using company vehicles, Wuliangye will institute a travel reimbursement policy in which employees who had prior use of company vehicles will be reimbursed anywhere from 800 to 2,500 yuan for their travel costs provided that they keep receipts of their expenses and file them in a timely manner. This new system of travel reimbursement is expected to save over 10 million yuan according to Wuliangye officials.