A major television news station in the Virginia/Maryland area recently aired a multi-week covert study of a major county fire/emergency department's use of take-home department vehicles. Reporters and camera crews followed, observed, photographed and filmed department personnel. They coupled this surveillance data with information they obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and had a battery of questions for a senior-ranking department leader. The officer did an admirable job of presenting himself as a competent department representative. He did, however, lack an up-to-date grasp on the details, which made the department's control and management of take-home vehicles appear weak and disorganized.

If your department issues take-home vehicles to any paid staff members — especially in this economy — expect the media to come knocking on your door. Be ready for them with facts, figures and justifications.

Notice I wrote take-home vehicles for paid staff. Many areas of the country issue or provide full-time vehicle access to volunteer chiefs, safety officers, squad officers and even EMS providers; however, vehicles assigned to volunteers and vehicles assigned to paid employees — no matter the paid employees' ranks — are two different issues with their own unique parameters.

Also, I'm not saying that fire departments should second-guess decisions because the media may have something to say about it. But we must be prepared to respond to their reasonable — or even unreasonable — requests because they do control how any issue gets presented to the viewing or reading public.

Gaining Public Support

Residents want prompt, skilled and efficient emergency services. They understand that the word “emergency” often means that the outcome of an incident depends on the proximity of specialized equipment, including vehicles, and the skilled people and equipment inside said vehicles being deployed promptly. Members of the public who do not support take-home vehicles or speak out against them do so for a few reasons. Once we understand the reasons and make sure our organizations are operating properly, we will significantly reduce public scrutiny of this issue.

One of the reasons some members of the general public do not support take-home cars is jealously. These individuals may harbor feelings that public employees already receive better salary and benefits — or at the very least, greater job security — than they do and feel the take-home vehicle is just another slap in their hard-working face. After all, John Q. Public has to pay for his wheels and all of the associated expenses to commute to and from work. These individuals often feel that they are not only funding day-to-day transportation for government employees, but also may feel they are funding their personal or recreational transportation during those same employees' off time. This is why good public education is important, as is running a tight ship when it comes to managing your fleet.

Another reason some members of your general public may be hesitant to support take-home vehicles is the age-old “chiefs and indians” argument. Whether you are from a small town or a large county, you will need to answer how many individuals in command or support positions are truly needed to respond during those first 15 to 30 minutes of a serious incident to warrant having a 24-hour-a-day take-home vehicle. Clearly there are individuals we need critically; however, as budgets get tight and public scrutiny increases, there are going to be individuals who may need to respond, but not immediately.

If you currently have individuals with take-home vehicles whose roll at an incident involves relief crews or clean up, whose service may not be critical until 60 minutes or more into the incident, or who aren't expected to have immediate access to specialized equipment, they may have time to report to the station to pick up a vehicle and then proceed to the scene. Only you can determine how that concept fits your current or future operations.

What You Are Providing

If your department is going to provide take-home vehicles, you should have a clearly written vehicle specification based on department need and type of job the individual who will be using the vehicle does.

Many individuals in the fire service have made a strong case for full-sized SUVs for many emergency responders who regularly work in command and management. Obviously, officers who are expected to log many miles in responses; deal with inclement weather or off-road situations; and carry EMS equipment, air packs, and accountability or incident-command supplies probably need a full-sized SUV, while a sedan may work for senior managers who do not routinely respond to incidents unless they climb to multiple alarms. Mid-sized sedans or small SUVs may be perfect for investigators, inspectors or instructors.

Regardless of what you purchase and assign, you must have a written vehicle specification and stick to it year after year. You also should have a clear and concise replacement policy. Vehicles never should be replaced simply because an officer wanted a new vehicle or because there was a new hiring. Vehicles only should be replaced when it is time, based on age, mileage, condition or calendar. By calendar, I mean a policy similar to that of a fire department I consult for, where they budget and plan for the purchase of a new full-sized SUV every year-and-a-half. They have a total of four take-home vehicles assigned to staffers. By purchasing one every 18 months, the oldest of the four vehicles never gets older than 6 years and the department is able to budget properly for the purchases. Their policy states that the vehicles get handed down in order of rank every 18 months, which is mechanical and takes all of the emotions and personalities out of the process.

Written Use Policy

Once, government-sector use of take-home cars was modeled after the private sector, where the vehicle basically was an employee perk that an executive negotiated into his salary and benefits package — a deal, so to speak. Often this deal provided all-day use of the vehicle for both personal and business tasks without any questions.

In today's world, your department should have clearly written policies that outline the appropriate use of the vehicle. This should include your department or municipality's definition of official business and clear direction on who should be allowed to ride in the vehicle. It also should define the locations that the vehicle should not be seen parked at, because they would be deemed inappropriate or not in the best interest of the public image of your municipality.

When developing your use policy, your organization also should be developing a written criteria to justify who in the organization gets a take-home vehicle and why. The policy should identify individuals by title and not by name. This means that as a staffer moves through the ranks or changes positions, the statement “John has had a car for as long as I can remember” isn't the only criteria for the assignment of a vehicle to John. And when “John” loses his take-home car, he can be told clearly and without any “personal” issues that while he had a take-home car as deputy chief, the training chief does not receive a take-home car.

This clear policy also can help your staffers through changes in senior management or elected officials. If a take-home vehicle by policy is assigned to the deputy chief, it should be harder for a newly elected official to strip “Deputy Chief Joe Smith” of his take-home car because of politics.

Your assignment policy should be subject to annual review by you or a group of key staffers to make sure the needs of your department have not changed, thereby changing the need for the amount of take-home cars. The department also should have a policy to deal with staffers who carry a title with the benefit of a take-home car but who choose to live a considerable distance from the department. If you have a member with a daily round-trip commute of 75 miles or more, the validity of an “emergency response” justification can come under fire. It might be best for these staffers to take a pass on the take-home car voluntarily, or for the department to set a policy under which the employees make their extended commutes in their personal vehicles and then use their department vehicle while at work.

Also in event that two senior staffers are married or living together, take every step to address carpooling whenever possible to prevent two official take-home cars from being parked at the same residence overnight and making the identical daily commute at taxpayer expense.

The department may be better served by operating a number of pool cars that are signed out by staff when needed, rather than having a large fleet of take-home cars on the road.

Regardless of whether you employ pool cars or issue take-home cars daily, log books or sheets must be completed and should be reviewed weekly for accuracy. There is nothing more embarrassing when a reporter requests those records under FOIA and gets a stack of log sheets that are almost blank, have only a starting or ending mileage or unreadable data. Entries like “official business” or “personal use” are meaningless. The date, driver's name, starting and ending mileage, starting and ending time, and a description such as “city hall meeting” or “inspection at Engine 2 quarters” are appropriate.

Showing Gratitude

If your department or municipality is going to provide take-home cars, make sure those who have them are required to properly care for the car. While I do not mean using their own money for oil changes or maintenance. drivers who benefit from the convenience of having the vehicle should be responsible for washing the vehicle regularly and keeping it smoke or tobacco free and reasonably clean inside, so that anybody in street clothing should be able to sit in the vehicle without getting dirty. They should show both their employer and their residents who provide the vehicle that they value it and appreciate the benefit.

Also make sure your department's priorities and the priorities of your senior management are correct. If you are closing firehouses, laying off firefighters, delaying tool and/or equipment purchases or holding rigs together with duct tape, you might really want to evaluate your take-home vehicle policy. Examine future purchases to replace aging take-home vehicles, or at the very least keep the take-home vehicles another year to make sure your staff has the equipment they need to do the job and keep the community safe.

Of course, command and management staff is vital to a safe, coordinated fireground effort; however, four brand-new SUVs at a scene with a pumper that cannot even hold water in its tank is a problem.

Michael Dallessandro is a life member of the Grand Island Fire Company and currently serves on the board of directors. He developed the six-hour RESPONDSMART safe apparatus driver program and the six-hour Volunteer and Combination Fire Department Leadership and Professional Conduct Academy. Dallessandro works full time in public school district management and consults regularly for fire departments and municipalities on management and personnel matters. He can be contacted at MPDBUS1@aol.com.

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