Fleet Size and Replacement Criteria Please consider the following questions from a system wide perspective, relying on other station and/or county resources where appropriate. Answer the questions in the space provided below, preferably by typing the response within this document. 1. What criteria does your station use to determine when a particular piece of apparatus needs to be replaced? o Zone Cars & Ambulances: CARS utilizes a formula that factors in mileage, age of the vehicle, and maintenance costs for determining suitability for replacement of ambulances and zone cars. i. The most heavily weighted factor is mileage. The majority of CARS responses occur within the urban ring of the county and the city. These roads are heavily congested, requiring a great deal of stop-and-go driving. These conditions are extremely hard on the ambulances. Over the last decade, it has been determined that CARS ambulances are best suited for replacement between 100,000 and 120,000 miles. Beyond this mileage, it has been found that reliability drops significantly. This mileage criteria is also on par with most other urban/suburban departments operating non-medium-duty Type 1 ambulances as well as response cars. ii. The second weighted factor is maintenance costs. Over the last decade, CARS has determined that maintenance costs for ambulances increase significantly when the vehicle exceeds 100,000 miles and/or 5 years of age (these two criteria occur at approximately the same time). With the increased maintenance costs comes a decrease in reliability. The combination of increased maintenance costs and decreased reliability make it prudent to replace the ambulance. iii. The third weighted factor is age of the vehicle. Age alone does not provide a direct correlation to reliability or maintenance; mileage is a far more accurate gauge. However, with increased age does come a decrease in features and standardization. As with any other technology and product, improvements occur over time. While most of the changes that occur in the ambulance market are evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary, it is still desirable to maintain a fleet of ambulances that are not excessively aged in order to strike a balance of being up to date with cost effectiveness. Furthermore, CARS strives to maintain a level of standardization within its fleet. This includes both the equipment as well as the physical ambulances. Minor refinements are made to the ambulance design over time in order to increase functionality and/or performance. Ambulances within the fleet should be within one-to-two generations of the current spec in order to maintain an order of standardization.
o Heavy Apparatus: CARS utilizes a formula that factors in mileage, age of the vehicle, and reliability for determining suitability for replacement of heavy apparatus. i. The most heavily weighted factor is mileage. The majority of CARS responses occur within the urban ring of the county and the city. These roads are heavily congested, requiring a great deal of stop-and-go driving. These conditions are extremely hard on the all apparatus, especially large/heavy apparatus such as heavy squads. Over the last two decades, CARS has been determined heavy squads are best suited for replacement between 65,000 and 85,000 miles. Beyond this mileage, it has been found that reliability drops significantly. This mileage criteria is also on par with most other urban/suburban departments operating heavy apparatus. ii. The second weighted factor is age of the vehicle. With increased age comes a decrease in features and performance. As with any other technology and product, improvements occur over time. While most of the changes that occur in the ambulance market are evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary, it is still desirable to maintain a fleet that are not excessively aged in order to strike a balance of being up to date with cost effectiveness. NFPA recommends that heavy apparatus have a life-span of 20 years: 10 years as a front-line piece and 10 years as a reserve piece. CARS recognizes the fact that being a volunteer agency it is not feasible to replace front-line heavy apparatus every 10 years. Consequently, CARS looks at the total age of the vehicle to estimate replacement: 20 years for a heavy vehicle (heavy squad) and 10 years for a medium vehicle (water rescue). iii. The third weighted factor is reliability. There are far fewer heavy apparatus (heavy squad, TRT vehicles, water rescue vehicles). As a result, there is a far greater impact on the system when one of these vehicles is unavailable due to maintenance. These vehicles must be as reliable as is reasonably possible. Additionally, these vehicles take much longer to spec, build, and replace should a catastrophic failure occur. This being true, trends in the operation and reliability of the vehicle must be tracked and assessed in order to anticipate the need for vehicle replacement. Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5"
2. What do you feel is the appropriate fleet size for your station (i.e. number of engines, tankers, brush trucks, ambulances, rescues, etc.)? Include some justification for each. o Zone Cars: Three (3) or four (4) i. CARS strives to maintain a fleet of three zone cars. These zone cars serve as primarily as response vehicles. They are staffed with ALS providers, squad operators, TRT personnel, and WRT personnel. With the current call volume, it is not uncommon to have all three cars staffed with personnel. With the projected increase in call volume over the next several years, the addition of a fourth zone car should be considered o Ambulances: Eight (8) i. The minimum desired fleet size for CARS ambulances is eight (8). It is not uncommon to have five (5) trucks on calls dispatched out of the McIntire Road station as well as an ambulance staffed at Berkmar. With the high volume of calls and the mileage accrued by the ambulances, it should be assumed that one ambulance will most likely be out of service for routine maintenance (tires, oil changes, brakes, rotors, shocks, cooling, etc.) Additionally, ambulances that are out-of-service for mechanical failures are often out of service for longer periods of time than regular vehicles due to the difficulty in acquiring parts and the specialized skills required to work on them. As a result, it should be considered that one ambulance will frequently be out of service for repair work. When this vehicle is not out of service, it can be housed as a second unit at the Berkmar station, providing the live-in crew a unit as well as the unit utilized by ACFR for precepting their personnel. o Supervisor Vehicles: Two (2) i. Duty Chief: CARS utilizes a Duty Officer program to ensure round-the-clock oversight of all CARS operations. The person fulfilling this role requires a vehicle with unique capabilities (command) ii. Chief: The CARS chief plays both a significant operational and administrative role. These roles require frequent traveling. o Administrative/Utility Vehicles: Two (2) or Three (3) i. OMD Car: It is desirable to have a vehicle readily available (as a take home car) for the OMD in order to allow for ready responses to large or critical incidents. ii. Support Pickup Truck: CARS owns and operates a multitude of trailered vehicles (boats, command trailer, treatment trailers, Deleted: Deleted:
gators, etc.). A large pickup truck or SUV is required to pull these vehicles. iii. Admin Vehicle: At any given time there are 10-20 CARS members enrolled in training classes. These classes frequently required travel. Furthermore, day-to-day CARS operations routinely require errands and administrative-type traveling. o Large Apparatus: Five (5) i. One (1) Heavy Squad. CARS performs over 50 vehicle extrications every year. Many of these extrications occur on large highways and involve multiple and/or large vehicles. Additionally, the CARS heavy squad responds to dozens of structure fires in the city and county ever year, assuming the role of the second-due truck company. ii. One (1) Medium Squad. Many of the roads in Albemarle County are narrow, winding, and/or unimproved. These roads are frequently the location of serious motor vehicle accidents. Additionally, these roads provide limited or difficult access and are often unsuitable for larger apparatus. A smaller, four wheel drive squad is more suited for these locations. iii. One (1) Technical Rescue Squad. The CARS Technical Rescue Team is the primary technical rescue team for the Charlottesville- Albemarle area as well as the surrounding counties. The team has full capabilities for: rope rescue, confined space, trench rescue, concrete collapse, and wood frame collapse. The equipment required for these specialties takes up a great deal of space. A dedicated unit is required to carry this specialized equipment. iv. One (1) Water Rescue unit. The CARS Water Rescue Team is the primary water rescue team for the Charlottesville-Albemarle area (in conjunction with SVRS WRT) as well as for the surrounding counties. The team is fully equipped to perform: swift water rescue, diver rescue, and ice rescue. The large cache of equipment needed to perform these specialized rescue necessitates a dedicated vehicle. v. One (1) Mass Casualty unit. CARS operates the only mass casualty unit in the region. This vehicle is capable of treating 600 patients. The Charlottesville-Albemarle region contains many target hazards (I-64, UVA, CHO, etc.) that necessitate having a mass casualty response capability. o Boats: Three (3) i. Two (2) Zodiac boats 1. One (1) large 2. One (1) medium/small ii. One (1) hard-hulled boat o Trailers: Three (3) i. One (1) TRT support trailer 1. Trench and building collapse equipment
ii. One (1) Special events trailer 1. Bike team equipment 2. Standby equipment 3. Command post 4. Task Force II support iii. One (1) medical treatment trailer 1. Field treatment of injured persons a. Special events b. MCI c. Task Force II support o ATV/Utility Vehicles: Three (3) i. Two (2) John Deere 6x4 Gators 1. Patient transport vehicles ii. One (1) ATV 1. Logistics/command 3. What specialty capabilities does your station need to provide (i.e. haz mat, extrication, etc.)? o Vehicle Extrication i. Heavy Tractor trailers, busses, construction equipment, etc. ii. Light Passenger vehicles o Technical Rescue i. Rope Rescue 1. High Angle 2. Low Angle ii. Trench Rescue iii. Confined Space Rescue iv. Wood-Frame Building Collapse v. Concrete Building Collapse o Water Rescue i. Swift Water ii. Dive Rescue iii. Ice Rescue o Mass Casualty o Special Event Coverage i. Races
ii. Sporting Events iii. Mass Gatherings o Thomas Jefferson EMS Task Force II i. Primary Agency For OEMS TF-2