New Champaign, IL Engine 151

[Roto-Ray]

Rick, a couple of points:

 

As someone who spent over a year to convince the purchasing departments in both counties I protect to use HGAC (this is the primary way we now purchase apparatus), it's worth mentioning the HGAC is not a competitively bid process.  Each manufacturer simply gives the HGAC folks a price to build a vehicle to meet the very generic specs that HGAC puts out every two years.  It's much like the GSA - nothing but a pricing schedule.

 

At work, we actually do a hybrid approach - we select 3 to 5 manufacturers to provide us a proposal and price on the vehicle(s) we're purchasing, but they're required to use the HGAC pricing schedule.  Because the manufacturers have so much leeway in the pricing when they're calculating the "unpublished options" (HGAC term), this keeps them more fair and honest.  This has created a far easier selection process for us.

 

Also, most people know that my VFD purchased a Rosenbauer Commander (EXT [Minnesota] body) in January, and we're really happy with the cab and chassis, so I'm always curious to see what other firefighters/engineers don't like about it?

 

Thanks bro...