Let’s face it, purchasing a new fire truck is expensive! That may be rather obvious especially as prices have trended significantly upward with time. Of course, fire apparatus initial purchase prices are just one real cost factor. There are many other soft and hard costs to consider with the initial procurement process and the complete service life of a new rig or a replacement fleet.
To start, there’s all the soft costs associated just with going through the purchasing process. After a truck committee has done their due diligence and conducted extensive research, this includes carefully defining the fire apparatus specification. No simple task! This initial work will likely require hundreds if not thousands of hours invested. Then, if a formal public bid is mandated, additional purchasing soft costs include a pre-qualification of bidders, evaluation of bidders, and the final award process. All these can truly escalate the initial cost just with buying a new fire truck!
Once the new fire apparatus is ordered, built, delivered, and put into service (perhaps an 18 to 24 month process), other serious cost considerations come into play. These become more of the added hard costs. Examples include proper preventative maintenance as well as on-going service and parts needs beyond the apparatus OEM’s warranty period. Then there is the occasional minor incident that requires things like replacing a body compartment door or rub rail, replacing broken lights, minor paint repairs, etc.
With all these total ownership cost challenges, and knowing that your new apparatus today will require replacement before you know it, how can you manage your fleet to optimize long-term value; make sure you have a near-term plan to get the latest fire apparatus and related technologies for safety and reliability; and know best how to budget for future retirement of fire apparatus? Believe it or not, it’s actually a rather straightforward path that works in many other vehicle and equipment markets.
The answer is a guaranteed buyback agreement that locks the future price you will receive for the given fire truck so that it can be readily transacted through the used fire apparatus secondary market. Not to be cliche but this is an absolute “win win” scenario for all parties.
The city or county fire department has a contractual commitment to purchase the fire apparatus for a locked price at a designated future date. This fundamentally ensures sound fiscal planning for a municipal budget. Furthermore, it creates a clear path to be sure that you are able to have future funds to help source the new replacement apparatus and any new technologies that come to fruition in the years ahead.
Who can do this? Working with your new apparatus OEM of choice and when applicable, their respective dealers, Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus (BMFA) is your commercial partner to get it done. BMFA does the heavy lifting with the guaranteed future price contract so that there is certainty with your apparatus fleet replacement plans. With years of experience in the secondary fire apparatus industry, and executing over 500 used fire truck transactions each year, BMFA has the expertise to determine realistic future residual values and takes the risk to simplify everything for the fire department.
Too good to be true? Initially, to some it may seem so - but, again, this is done everyday in other vehicle and machinery markets. The key is having the data and insights with used fire apparatus to be able to place a firm future valuation and then equally be able to place the preowned fire truck with multiple future prospective customers. That’s the business of a trusted partner like Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus - and we can bring everything together for you!
To learn more visit us or contact us today via www.firetruckmall.com Even better, speak directly with our President, James Wessel or Vice-President, Billy Claunch to help tailor a program ideally suited to your fire department.
