The board finally gave you the go-ahead to solicit bids for your new pumper. But once the euphoria wears off, you realize you have to prepare a specification to communicate your minimum requirements to potential bidders. So how do you do that?

You could use the specs from your last purchase, but they probably don't meet the latest NFPA requirements. You could develop a brand-new document with a laundry list of basic requirements. Or you could draft a 50-page-plus document with all of the requirements defined in great detail. Do you delegate the project to a handpicked committee, or do you take on the job yourself?

The answers to these questions are critical to the outcome of the final product. No one needs to remind you that you are the one with the five bugles. If this thing goes sideways, you are the one who has to answer — to the board and to the taxpayers — why the purchase became a train wreck, so you have to do it right.

Here are some suggestions that just might keep your bacon out of the frying pan.

Don't Do it Yourself

First and foremost, unless you or your firefighters are attorneys, automotive engineers, structural and mechanical engineers, designers, and experts in fire-apparatus design, don't write your own specs. There are people who are much better suited to fulfill these roles and who will keep you out of trouble.

You may need the expertise of your attorney to develop the boiler-plate section of the specs to meet your local requirements. In this area, you normally will find items such as bond requirements, non-collusion statements, delivery requirements, terms of payments, and service center requirements.

Meanwhile, automotive, structural and mechanical engineers and designers who know anything about fire apparatus aren't just growing on trees, and like the attorneys, are very expensive.

So what do you do? Your best bet is to set up a three- to five-member committee with people you can trust to complete the project in a timely manner and who have some years on the job so that they know what they want and need. But also be careful here. There is a huge difference between want and need. If you have an unlimited budget, then the difference is not so important, but if you have a budget to meet, then the wants have to be kept to a bare minimum.

Charge the committee to bring you three lists of items. Title the first list "Need to Have." These are mission-critical items or features that they can't live without, such as the size of the pump and tank, general size of the compartments and basic chassis design. The second list is titled "Nice to Have." These are items that are not mission-critical, but if you have the funds, you might want to include them. These could be features that make the unit more user-friendly or items that could have been used a half-dozen times in the last two years. The third list is what you will get if somebody's rich uncle dies and leaves you the keys to the vault: "Wish List."

Talk to Vendors

Now you have a basis from which to work. Your next step is to invite fire apparatus vendors to meet with you and your committee. The committee should be ready to hand each sales rep the three lists. Let them tell you how he can meet the needs that you have listed. These meetings really are interviews for both parties involved. The committee will need to write a report for you of its findings from each meeting; keep in mind that this process could take two meetings for each vendor. To speed the process, send each vendor your lists well in advance of the first meeting so its rep can be prepared to talk about your specific needs and wants when he arrives.

Prior to the first vendor meeting, develop a point system by which to rate the vendors. Usually a 100-point system works best, but any system will work as long as it is consistent. Inevitably, some committee members will have a strong bias toward one manufacturer and they will attempt to sway the rest of the committee. Don't let it happen. You can mitigate some of the bias by carefully selecting who you appoint to the committee and who you choose as the chairman. Set the rules for the rating system early, and make it clear that no biases will be allowed. Remember, you have the last and largest vote. The committee will be making a recommendation to you, and they should be able to justify their recommendation with data and sound reasoning.

Make Your Selection

Once the vendors have been interviewed, you've physically looked at their products (perhaps by visiting their manufacturing facilities), and the committee has made its recommendation, you have to select the preferred vendor. Bring them in for a meeting, in which you, the department head, set the course for the final specifications. This vendor's rep will be the one who writes the draft of your specifications. You have to make it clear that he does not have carte blanche to write a spec that no one else can meet. You want him to write an all-inclusive, detailed spec that contains all of the items from your first list. Any vendor will be glad to provide you with this service, as it does give him a slight advantage over the rest of the pack — and that is what you want. After all, he has been selected as your preferred vendor. This in no way gives him the short road to the order. He has to be competitive at the bid table, and he has to perform against the detailed specs — the same as any other vendor would.

Before you have the rep finalize the specs and price, there are certain features that you will want him to include in the boiler-plate section of the specs. In this section, the specs should include language that sets the rules of the bids. It should give the exact date, place and time that all of the bids must be delivered. The specs should be in a sealed envelope clearly marked with what the envelope contains. They also should require the bidder to state the location of the factory where the product will be built, the number of attendees allowed on inspection trips that are paid for by the contractor, and whether a pre-construction conference will be held. It is strongly suggested that the contract to build the apparatus be one between your purchasing authority (town, city, village, county, etc.) and the fire-apparatus builder. Contracts between your organization and a dealership for the vendor can be tricky if the vendor and dealer separate while your vehicle is in production. In any and all cases, demand a performance bond.

Get Price Estimates

What you need now is an estimated price for the spec the rep produced that contains your entire "Need to Have" list. Understand that the rep will not give you the exact bid amount; he will pad it some to give him a cushion and to avoid disclosing his final price prior to the bid date. That's OK, because now you know how close your specs are to your budget. If you are under budget, you can add some or all of the "Nice to Have" items. Don't worry about letting a vendor know your budget number. If anything, they are going to try to give you as much bang for your buck as they can and stay at or under the budget. Remember, they still have to compete for your business, regardless of whether they know the budgeted amount.

When the rep is finished with the draft specs, get the Microsoft Word version of the document so you can make the final corrections to it and take it from the draft stage to the final stage. Read the spec cover to cover, twice. If there is something in the spec that you don't understand or that you aren't sure needs to be in there, question the rep. If you aren't satisfied with his answer, get another's opinion — or simply take it out. If you choose the latter, you may get some flak from the other vendors that the specs favor another manufacturer. But they have the ability to bid the project, take exception to the action, and then explain why they can't meet the detail of the spec. You have an obligation to them and your taxpayers to consider their exception to see whether it will materially affect the final design and mission of the vehicle.

The end result is that you should have a reasonably open spec that contains all of the items you need to have, and that allows other vendors to submit bids, take exceptions and make clarifications that you will honestly consider when evaluating all of the bids. A useful means of evaluating the bids is the same point system you used to select the preferred vendor earlier.

This is usually a rewarding process that is fair to everyone involved, especially when you keep in mind that it is the board and the taxpayers you ultimately have to satisfy.

Dan Little previously served as E-One's vice president of North American sales.

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Quick Tips

Don't do it yourself. Form a committee to determine needs and wants.

Sit down with vendors. Let them tell you how they can meet those needs.

Don't be afraid to tell vendors your budget number. If anything, they are going to try to give you as much bang for your buck as they can.

Read and re-read the spec. If there is something that you don't understand or aren't sure needs to be in there, don't be afraid to ask.