Suffolk Water Authority digital car auctions a success

Auto dealers take note. You have a growing competitor: The Suffolk County Water Authority.

The authority used to hold public auctions to sell its decommissioned cars and trucks. At the last public auction before March 2009, the authority sold 37 vehicles, generating $29,125 in proceeds.

Since then, the authority has gone digital, and each time a vehicle is decommissioned, it is placed online, ready for bidding.

A total of 59 vehicles have been sold since March 2009, generating $84,667 in proceeds.

"The benefits now are that it's all on the Internet and anyone can see it," said authority chief executive Jeff Szabo. "And the vehicles don't sit around waiting" for months to be auctioned.

The authority's site is scwa.com.