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.