Prioritizing Apparatus Maintenance

[reesec78]

Our Fire Dept. has one mechanic assigned to fire apparatus. A shop secretary is suppose to schedule all apparatus appointments. Unfortunately she does not understand the fire service or our needs. We have three shifts, and all engineers on each shift think their apparatus problem is the priority. Do any of your departments have criteria to assist in prioritizing apparatus maintenance? Thank You.

[FWDbuff]

If it is immediately dangerous to life and health, the apparatus is placed out of service by the company officer. It is then up to the senior-level administrative personnel to make arrangements with the motor pool for repairs. Whether that happens immediately or is a prolonged matter is no longer in the individual company's hands. What is important however, if that it is indeed an emergent need, that the driver and company officer refuse to operate the vehicle in questions.

If it is a non-emergent item (blown light bulb, etc.) then write it up and submit it through the chain of command.

[rm1524]

A major issue with a truck and the officer or driver can take the truck OOS. They notify the on duty chief. A minor issue, it is written up, and it goes to the operations chief and he then places it on the list to be looked at/ fixed.

[FIREMECH1]

How many rigs do you have??

Is there someone that the mechanic reports to, outside from the secretary??

Honestly, the secretary shouldn't be the one handling the repair requests, other than pushing paperwork. You should have someone above the mechanic, that knows and has experience with repairs, and what should be prioritized.

FM1

[CanadianFyrTrks]

Apparatus maintainence should be upmost priority for all fleets, from the reserve engine to the first due (pride of the fleet) each vehicle should receive proper amount of service.

Speak with other departments of similar size (including population) to see what they do for service intervals, consider an older vehicle might require more than others and prioritizing problems should be considered, have an outside auditor assess your fleet (Not a dealer!!!!!)

IMHO, I think this department has or is about to have alot of issue on the horizion if they don't look at this in a serious fashion

[MColley]

As already stated obviosly anything that is a danger to life or operation of the vehicle should be delt with first. I would then look at other major issue that could/does put the truck out of service. Say in a rural area the loss of a priming pump. I would consider major stuff O/S items, such as pump issues, and engine issues. Other than that I would conisder stuff on an as need basses. For example a broken mirror would get prioity over a light burnt out/not working. Not something that would stop the truck from working properly.

Maintaning a small fleet of vehicles myself I am learning how to deal with issues as they come up. Something Major might come up as I am doing something minor and I simply leave what I am doing and deal with the major problem. But being the only mechanic on duty and the fleet manager I just make the decissions myself. The only other thing would be spare trucks which we have none of here I have to fix major issues right away to get the truck working again.

In the dept. I am part of our mechanical division has a very knoladageble manager the corodantes all repairs. But if a truck goes out of service it is delt with right away if it can't be fixed within a couple of hours a replacment truck is provided to us untill the problem is solved. General maitnance gets put on hold to repair the out of service unit.

Now in saying that our fire dept has a huge mechanical division with 24/7 on call mechanics so all other reapirs don't just stop if a truck goes out of service mechanics are just reasinged