Why are some truck companies listed in reverse?

[FyreFyter]

This may be a really dumb question, but it's been bugging me

I've noticed that some departments display their truck companies as TRUCK 7 and others as 10 TRUCK. Is their any reason they are different?

[Nine3Probie]

I will go out on a limb and guess that most Ladder companies have an official designation within their department. Continuing the guessing game, Truck 10 or 10 Truck would be like a nickname, akin to calling Robert either Bob or Bobby. Somewhere the nickname was applied and stuck.

Now, what else is bugging you?

[ChicagoFF]

No secret designations here - truck 10 is truck 10. I think fdny says it backwards and I would assume that the others who do are copying them.

[ElectricHoser]

Something of tradition in some places.

IIRC, as an example, the official FDNY names for units are Engine 20, Ladder 30, etc. In the houses and on the job, they are 20 Engine and 30 Truck.

I lived in Duluth MN for a while. All engines and ladders are referred to by number first. 1 Engine, 2 Engine, etc. They have three ladders, but on the radio they are 1 Tower, 4 Quint and 8 Truck. Only the rescue (Rescue 1), duty chief (Squad 251) and peripheral/staff units are otherwise.

Everyone has their own way, and there is not always an explainable reason except that it has always been that way - or as a result of some Chief along the way who wanted to leave his/her "mark".

[HotTrotter]

NIMS is working to fix that

[BLSboy]

It all depends on where you are.

Where I am, I am the only one who says "five six Engine", or" five six Truck"
From my previous dept in Jersey, we called our apparatus that way...."four seven engine", or "47 Engine."

Does it matter? No.
Some people get all wound up over it.


Hakuna Matata.

[DFW333]

This may be a really dumb question, but it's been bugging me

I've noticed that some departments display their truck companies as TRUCK 7 and others as 10 TRUCK. Is their any reason they are different?

I always thought it was for the trucks that drove backwards to fires....

[CALFFBOU]

I always wondered this too.

I think it really comes down to is- Someone thought of it, it stuck and its been like this ever since.

Totally a stupid way of doing things.

[BoxAlarm187]

Totally a stupid way of doing things.

Why's it stupid? What's it hurting? Guess it's just another one of our "east coast" things.

[emt161]

It's pretty much slang from what I've seen.

Totally a stupid way of doing things.

Go climb a wooden ladder or something, will ya? Lol

[Dickey]

Tradition.

It was that way 100 years ago, and it will be that way for another 100 years. Just the way we do things. Don't question it, just do it.

To each his own I guess, doesn't really hurt anything as long as everyone you mutual aid with knows whats going on.

[nyckftbl]

No secret designations here - truck 10 is truck 10. I think fdny says it backwards and I would assume that the others who do are copying them.

You know...Ive been trying to think of something funny to say after your little backwards comment. Im at a loss. Damnit!

[CALFFBOU]

Why's it stupid? What's it hurting? Guess it's just another one of our "east coast" things.

Nothing to do with East Coast, its done here in the Bay Area.

Some people still say "10 Truck" or "5 Engine" just because its always been that way. Nothing to do with operations, ICS or clear text.

Give me a good reason for it and I'll back it.

[ehs7554]

What's really wrong with it?

For instance
You may say Engine 5 to dispatch .....etc.etc.etc....
You could say 5 engine to dispatch....

If you are on an airporrt and wanted to talk to someone you would open up with who you wanted first..such as

O'Hare Tower this is flight 555..etc..

Doesn't that seem backwards too???

I really can't see how anyone could be bothered by this. If you call the public line at my firehouse, I may just say 2's, firehouse 2, hello....whatever.......as long as the point gets across.

[BoxAlarm187]

Give me a good reason for it and I'll back it.

'Fraid I don't have a good reason for it, it just doesn't seem to hurt anything. That's all.

[DonSmithnotTMD]

If you are on an airporrt and wanted to talk to someone you would open up with who you wanted first..such as

O'Hare Tower this is flight 555..etc..

Doesn't that seem backwards too???

Actually that makes more sense to me

[BoxAlarm187]

If you are on an airporrt and wanted to talk to someone you would open up with who you wanted first..such as

O'Hare Tower this is flight 555..etc..

Doesn't that seem backwards too???

Interestingly enough, a couple of the departments in my area (including my volly county) do this. "Dispatch from Engine 2" is standard communication for us.

[ehs7554]

Interestingly enough, a couple of the departments in my area (including my volly county) do this. "Dispatch from Engine 2" is standard communication for us.

I too have done this......Another thing I have done, should dispatch be busy, is just say my unit number ie:Quint 2 and wait for them to respond before I go on with my message.......

Or maybe I will say "Number 2 Quint"

[CALFFBOU]

To me, it makes a lot of difference. Communication in this job is very, very important.

Can you imagine a Firefighter down and his/her broken or limited radio traffic is- "I am on 10... (blank)" Was that 10 truck or 10 Engine? I don’t know.

It comes back to just proper English. Do we say "Mr. Smith" or "Smith Mr."? It’s more of putting thing in a proper category.

Please take another look at our very recent wildfires in California. Engines, patrols, BCs, dozers, helicopters and other various types of apparatus were sent here to assist in the conflagration. Classifying every piece of equipment by its "type" vs. # makes a world of difference.

Can you imagine if 50 engines rolled into your incident and trying to log, track and assign all of this equipment by number first? It would be a headache. But if the IC says- "Give me 10 engines on the West side!" Then it would be easier. Chief was that 10 engines or unit 10 engine? You break the units down as needed via t-cards. All of the engines are red, trucks are orange, etc. Can you just imagine 1000+ vehciles or various types coming into your state and trying to track it my numner system first vs. its' type. You could get lost with 3412 engine, 4658 engine, 332 engine, 12 patrol, etc. Rather put them in to banks of type 1 engines, type 3, patrols, dozers.

ICS overall is easier when you break things down into categories. Remember, we got this system and other tactics from the military. The military will use categories as well- Tanks, Humvees, and aircraft.

Pretty much everything in life is by a category first, followed by this model #- Ford F-150, Chevy 1500, Sig Sauer P226, Glock 17, Pierce Arrow, Scott 4.5, etc...

It just comes down to proper English and category. Tradition can’t be the catch all for everything, or you'd never be reading my posting here on a computer screen. ie- "We don’t need those fancy-smachy computers! Paper and pencil is tradition!!!"

-Bou

[snowball]

It all depends on where you are.

Where I am, I am the only one who says "five six Engine", or" five six Truck"
:

Clearly this is against the rules as you are "freelancing" and those antics will not be tolerated!!