ences. She also discusses the difficulty in getting those who have had bad experiences to speak out about their problems. Laabs (1998) cites Larry Cabler (IBM) who believes a common mistake leading to outsourcing failure occurs when a firm doesn't engage in detailed planning, and decides to outsource a function that it doesn't really understand. In the case of Fairfax County (Virginia, USA) outsourcing resulted in a negative experience. Fairfax County, who provide maintenance of County vehicles, made the decision to contract one of its four garages. The Equipment Management Transportation Agency (EMPTA), who had recently been restructured, was responsible for these garages, including the maintenance of 1300 school buses.
             Fairfax County decided to minimise risk by initially only selecting one garage to outsource, and did research to determine which of the four garages should be tested first. They developed incentive schemes for the contractor, involving outlining a target cost system for each year stipulating what would happen should the selected
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