Editor’s Opinion | Chris Mc Loone
At different times during the past two years, other authors and speakers and I have advocated that fire departments must look at their fire apparatus replacement schedules and adjust their processes for the purchases to reflect the current fire apparatus purchasing atmosphere. This largely consists of two areas: the purchasing budget and the purchasing cycle.
The purchasing budget is the easy one and the difficult one. We all know that fire apparatus costs have increased. I’m not going to get into all the reasons why, but we know they have increased, and we know we have to plan accordingly. Knowing costs have changed is the easy part-finding the money and how much of it for the budget for replacement is the hard part. Right now, we don’t have a very good idea of what a rig will cost in five to 10 years. There are many variables that factor in. One factor that we expect clarity on soon involves engines that comply with new EPA regulations. We should have more information on how these new engines impact the overall purchase price and overall design of new fire apparatus. This all rolls into the purchasing cycle.
We know that right now trucks being delivered are generally from orders placed two to four years ago. The part of the purchasing cycle that must be tweaked is when you start planning for the next rig. Right now, you cannot plan for a new rig to replace a current one in two years. For departments with specs that don’t generally change for their large fleets, it’s a little easier except for adjusting to the two to four years. But for departments whose specs could change from purchase to purchase, the planning must start sooner.
For example, a few weeks ago, my fire company held its annual “Chief’s Meeting,” where the chief lays out his plans for the upcoming year for the operations side of the fire company. Toward the end of the meeting, the deputy chief put up a slide regarding replacing our current rescue truck. The truck is nine years old. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we covered in these pages how Weldon outfitted and equipped its loaner rescue (shown) so the then-current rescue could go to its new owners (“Fire Company Moves Fast to Keep Rescue Truck in Service,” March 2016).
Starting now is way out of the normal cycle. But, considering today’s lead times and costs, the work must start now if we expect to take delivery in five to seven years (hopefully sooner) when the truck is 14 to 16 years old.
This is the reality many of us are facing right now. It is critical to begin planning early to ensure the delivery time is what we expect. The money? That’s a little harder. Who can predict what the truck itself will cost in five to seven years, not to mention the equipment we will need to carry if we replace a significant portion of the cache? Along with all this, and what I did not mention above, is scrutinizing how the next fire apparatus you purchase will be used. Most importantly, and one of the hardest decisions for some departments to make, is WHO will be using it? Look at your data. If the rig being replaced leaves the firehouse with a driver, officer, and three to four people in the back of the truck, do you really need 10 seats? Where can you save money? Take rescue trucks, for example. If you planned the last one to be an all-hazards vehicle, can you remove some equipment you rarely, if ever, used in lieu of reducing the size of the box or opening up storage for other equipment you use more? These are the types of things you have to look at to ensure you’re buying the right rig, for the right price, in the right time frame. It’s very odd for me to be looking five to seven years into the future for the next rig and starting the planning now, but this is where we are at in the fire service right now.
