A Project to Reduce the Number of Accidents Involving Fire Service Vehicles Coursework

Aim

The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of strategies that would enable a fire service to reduce the number of accidents involving its vehicles. This problem has long attracted the attention of policy-makers and administrators since such risks can pose a threat to the lives and health of many people. Furthermore, they inevitably entail great damage to the equipment and subsequent repairmen costs. This plan is aimed at providing solutions to this problem.

Objectives

The main objective that has to be attained is to improve the efficiency of fire vehicle drivers and provide them with technologies that allow them to avoid accidents. In this case, the measure of success will be the number of accidents that occur when firefighters respond to the call or return from an emergency. Overall, there are several solutions to this problem:

1. To provide additional training to the vehicle drivers so that they were able to reach the emergency site as quickly as possible while avoiding accidents (Hargett, 2005, p 25).
2. To make more extensive use of technologies available to drivers; in particular, we need to speak about GPS (Global Positioning System) navigators that enable the drivers to map out the most optimal route.

Business Case

Benefits

Provided that this project is implemented successfully, the fire service will be able to obtain both qualitative and quantitative benefits. The qualitative benefits include the reduced risks for the life of firefighters, as well as civilian drivers and pedestrians. Additionally, this project will help the fire service diminish the cost of repairing both vehicles and equipment. Finally, it should be noted that the fire service often has to pay compensation to the civilians for the injuries and damages that they sustained. This plan will allow them to avoid this risk.

Costs

The costs, associated with this project can be divided into four large groups: 1) the cost of the training program; 2) the procurement of GPS navigators; 3) material costs – stationery, printing as well as office rental. 3) the compensation to each member of the project team. However, at this point, it is too early to estimate the exact amount of money that has to be invested into this project because it is necessary to determine which kind of training program should be offered to the drivers and which one gives the best price-quality ratio. Furthermore, we need to ascertain which kind of GPS device should be purchased, and most importantly where it should be purchased.

Tasks

This project will include a wide range of activities which can be presented in the following way.

Preliminary stage

1. Preparation of project initiation documentation.
2. Milestone. Acceptance of this project by the administration of the fire rescue service.
3. Initial research of the problem.
4. A series of interviews with firefighters and administrators.

Development of the training program

1. Assessment of different training programs available to firefighters.
2. Consultations with professional associations and governmental officials.
3. Milestone. The selection of the training program and its approval by the administrators of fire rescue service.

Procurement of GPS navigators

1. Assessment of different GPS devices available on the market.
2. Consultations with governmental experts.
3. Milestone. Evaluations of offerings made different vendors of GPS navigators. Probably some of them provide discounts to wholesale buyers and it will be possible to buy this devices at a wholesale price.

Implementation stage

1. Milestone Training offered to each of driver of fire vehicle.
2. Milestone. Procurement and installation of GPS devices.
3. Follow-up assessment.

Precedence Chart

At this point, it is vital for us to demonstrate how these activities will be organized. It can be done with the help of a precedence chart.

Staffing

The project team will consist of project manager, project coordinator, HR manager, and a group of interviewers. However, one should also take into account governmental and private experts that will assist us with the implementation of this plan.

Risk management plan

There are several risks that we should be aware of; they are as follows: lack of financial resources for the project, unwillingness of administrators to accept this project and provide proper funding, and the failure of the project to yield the expected results. These risks can be minimized through:

1. In-depth research of the problem and finding sufficient evidence supporting the plan;
2. Assessment of the driver’s needs;
3. Meticulous planning of the training program;
4. Evaluation of different GPS devices available to the drivers.

We need to make sure that each of these steps contributes to the solution of the problem.

Documents management plan

The documents, related to this project will be placed into the following categories:

1. Financial documentation (receipts and price catalogues);
2. The results of our research concerning training programs;
3. Charts, diagrams, and other statistical information of related to the plan;
4. Reports about the team’s progress.

These documents will be accessible primarily to the administrators of fire rescue services; there will be both hard and soft copies of these documents.

References

Hargett. Ernest. 2005. Preventing Emergency Vehicle Accidents in the Philadelphia Fire Department. Philadelphia Fire Department. Web.

Rohr. David. 2003. Developing a Comprehensive Driver Training Program for the Fairfax Country and Rescue Department. National Fire Academy. Web.