Every emergency vehicle technician looks for ways to make apparatus last longer, but wear and tear, as well as environmental issues, work against this goal. Nevertheless, in the current economy, EVTs must stay vigilant in the fight to keep apparatus in service as long as possible. If your department has plenty of money and want to buy new rigs every two or three years, then just buy them, add fuel and run them until the new one comes in. But for most departments, this scenario looks nothing like the real world.

So, if you’re not in fantasy land, then from day one you had better perform preventive maintenance on your apparatus. Buy a new engine or truck and fail to do the proper maintenance and you will have a boat load of problems very quickly. Preventive maintenance of your fleet will save your department money and extend the life of the apparatus. The purpose of a PM program is to have a safe, ready-to-use apparatus in the station at all times. In this article we will examine some of the tactics that can be employed to extend apparatus life spans.

Let’s begin by looking at NFPA 1911, Inspection, Maintenance, Testing, and Retirement of In-Service Automotive Fire Apparatus. The standard requires — at a minimum — annual inspections, maintenance and testing of apparatus. It also requires that qualified emergency response vehicle technicians do the work. Often we hear that adherence to the NFPA standards is not required in every state; so, in the states that don’t require such adherence, they effectively are only recommendations. That might be true to a certain extent, but should you decide not to use NFPA 1911 as the basis for your apparatus maintenance-and-testing program, then what would you use in its place? You could write your own inspection, maintenance and testing SOPs, but would that really be easier than just using 1911?

Let’s say that you chose not to use NFPA 1911, one of your apparatus is involved in an accident and your department is sued as a result. You can be sure that the plaintiff’s attorney will find out about NFPA 1911 and then, sooner or later, ask you whether you used this document to ensure that your apparatus was safe and ready to use. If you did not, the next question will be, “Why not?” Your explanation for not using this standard might include one or more of the following:

• Your state does not adopt all NFPA standards into laws.
• Your department does not adhere to NFPA standards. 
• Your department did not have the money to maintain and test its apparatus properly. 

Whatever the excuse, the jury probably will wonder whether everything was done, within reason, to ensure that your apparatus was safe. That ends up being the burden of proof: would a prudent person have done the same thing that you did in the same situation? If the jury starts to ask why you did not do the right thing, the outcome will not be good.

Accident Avoidance

Recently the national spotlight has been cast on apparatus accidents, particularly on who was doing the preventive maintenance and what was being done. The kind of publicity that follows an apparatus accident can harm your department’s reputation and have a negative effect on personnel morale. Often, investigations and news articles paint a picture of excuses and apathy regarding the fleet’s safety. You can be sure that everyone in such a position thought that it never would happen to them.

But such scenarios can be avoided. For example, after a vehicle experienced multiple brake issues and accidents, it would have been prudent for someone to ask, “Why is this unit still in service?” Just one qualified technician or maintenance department supervisor asking that question could have prevented a line-of-duty death. The bottom line is that you must use NFPA 1911 as the basis for taking care of your apparatus. Not using the standard will cost you more money to operate your fleet, it will shorten the life span of your apparatus and it will expose your department to legal ramifications.

If you are a fleet manager, fire chief, technician or maintenance officer, you need to be familiar with NFPA 1911. This comprehensive standard covers all aspects of vehicle maintenance, including the following:

• Qualified technicians.
• Daily and weekly inspections and testing.
• Annual and semi-annual inspections and testing.
• Inspection and testing forms.
• Front-line and reserve apparatus maintenance.
• Out-of-service criteria.
• Apparatus retirement criteria.
• Annex material on how to set up a PM program.