Detroit Fire Department to finally receive new apparatus

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The "white" stripes is actually the paper covering of the black stripes that has not been removed yet.

 

That's what my inital thought was but the picture I was shown had several units side by side (Well in close proximity) and two were black the rest were white and I would say 99%

sure it was not the graphics backing on it.  Not to say I couldn't be wrong but after seeing hundreds if not thousands of units in graphics install, I'm fairly confident to say that's not what I saw. 

 

Usually the backing is wider than the stripe, while what I was shown had the striping package perfectly in proportion.  This is why I don't think it was the backing material.

 

I saw this story originally on the Firehouse site. Maybe this explains some of the delays and costs. I do know that after orders have been signed even the smallest changes can cost way more the further into the build cycle you are.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFS03VpcTpU

 

Your right after order changes can be costly.  After 12 years of selling trucks it's actually sickening to me what some mfg's charge even for a simple change like adding a unit number to a vehicle in vinyl.

 

But no vehicle should ever have $40,000.00 or near that in changes after order.  The really bad part is DFD refuses to share with anyone what the changes were.  Smeal won't share either and frankly I don't

expect them to, its not thier job.  But it is the job of DFD to spend responsiably and after the bankruptcy even more so now, and there should be accountability for every penny spent.  So that's why I think they

need to come clean with what was done and for how much.  If what I have been told is correct the changes came from the managment and not apparatus committee, who from my last info a few weeks ago did

not know what changes had been made to specs.  (This was before final inspection on the first two units)

 

Remeber these are change orders so after placement of order, any things not meeting spec should have been made before the order was placed.  If an order was signed before then that's just bad business

by dealer, mfg and customer.  Really gives me the feeling of pulling a fast one trying to keep bid pricing low and changing things later after the deal is signed.   The largest amount of change orders I ever had

was around $5,000.00 and we had to try hard to get there, as the customer just wanted to use up his whole budget amount.  The problem with coming up with so many change orders, we did our job and so did

his crew and the truck was speced with just about anything it would ever need to have on it.  The solution doubleing up on Whelen M series lights when they were new on the market.

 

All in all as a local who spends tons of time and money in the "D" and someone who has family that is protected by DFD I just want them to be riding in good, safe working trucks.  But I really don't like the feeling

of how these changes were made or how they have reacted after being caught trying to make changes without elaborating on them.  Just saying making them to our spec is WAY to BROAD and not good, hell

one can say the wrong shade of red is not to "our" spec.  What wasn't to spec, why wasn't that changed before ordering and if the spec was right and build was wrong why is the mfg not picking up the cost?  If it

were up to me the only rig roaming the streets of Detorit would be a Seagrave, but it's not up to me and it seemed that DFD was being smart with these and getting the best bang for thier buck possible.  So I'm a

little let down by seeing DFD playing games again.  (Guess sometimes things just don't change)

 

Now I have worked several DFD bid's before and my honest feeling is DFD didn't have a clue as to the spec they put out.  (They were one of the most frustrating to work with as they always claimed to write their own

specs even if you could should them line by line verbage from brand X Y or Z.)  Now they want the trucks differently and so now they are paying the price for multiple changes, which would help explain why a multiple

truck order is going to delivered over several weeks and late instead of all at once.  Trust me and anyone that's worked in the industry the Mfg's want them all out the door at once!

 

Kris