Editor’s Opinion Chris Mc Loone
I guess the better title for this column would be, “How much do we need to customize?” or “How much on a new rig needs to be customized?”
We’re coming up on 10 years since we began planning our current rescue truck, and I recall not arguing with but discussing with a newer apparatus purchasing committee (APC) member, who is also about eight years younger than I am, what manufacturer to use. This was the first rescue truck committee he sat on.
He had a preferred manufacturer. The two most recent rescues we owned were built by Saulsbury Fire Apparatus, a company known for building specialized rigs and known for being able to do some unique things in terms of customization. These were the rigs I knew, and it was a no-brainer for me to go with a manufacturer that would provide us with the customization we needed. Our equipment cache required it. The other APC member didn’t agree.
So, we went back and forth, not in a heated fashion. We disagreed on that point in the beginning, but he changed his mind over time. That’s not to say I was right and he was wrong—the committee could have easily gone the other way. But he began to recognize that in our case, we were going to need some custom compartmentation, and there are some companies that are more suited to providing that than others.
But, that was 2015 and 2016. Now the fire service is at a point where we are still seeing long lead times as manufacturers work to build out their backlogs. Customization might not be as high on the list of priorities at this point.
Fire departments must ask themselves if fully custom rigs are the priority in this purchasing climate and realize that there are options to getting rigs at a more attractive price point and lead time if they are willing to forego some of the customization they are used to.
I’m not suggesting that departments make wholesale changes to their purchasing procedures or their specs. Every fire department has unique first-due characteristics that require a certain level of apparatus designs specific to them. But, in the interest of keeping trucks in service and maintaining a level of service to your communities, exploring all options is critical.
Program or stock vehicles are ways departments can save money on rigs and get them sooner, but only if they are onboard with giving up customization for the time being. Everything with fire apparatus specification is a tradeoff. For more compartment space, you might have to live with a longer vehicle. For a lower hosebed, you might have to live with a smaller booster tank—especially if you are restricted by how long a truck you can have because of station space constraints. And, in the current purchasing environment in the interest of upgrading units in your fleet, you might have to live with a new rig that doesn’t exactly meet your typical spec—for the time being.
The answer to the question posed by this column is yes, we do need to customize. Unless our spec matches a program/stock vehicle, we have to customize it to meet our spec. The harder questions to answer are, to what extent should we customize and can we maintain operational efficiency if we do not customize? Right now, it is imperative that departments determine if they can—for the short term—not customize for the sake of getting a new rig sooner. If a stock or program can work operationally for your department and your need for a new apparatus is urgent, then these vehicles are viable alternatives until things stabilize.
As it turned out back in 2016, the rescue we bought did have some very customized compartments for the equipment we carry. And, that young APC member who once asked, “How much really needs to be custom?” was responsible for laying them out. He spent many hours at the manufacturer ensuring all equipment was mounted in a logical manner and walking the manufacturer through what we needed on the custom end of things. That was then. This is now.
