Are Drivers-Only an Option?

With departments scrambling for help, many are trying to find unique ways to recruit and retain members. An option that has become popular is creating different classes of members, ranging from full firefighters to social members or boosters who only help with the fundraising.

One of my readers asked me about the option of bringing in members that were drivers-only …

“Dear Mr. Zigmont,

My reason for writing is that we decided to bring in those new members, being an open door fraternity as we are in the volunteer fire service. But after some driving classes and a few water in, water out at the pump panel, they are blessed as a driver. I am concerned since they have absolutely no clue what the fire service is about let alone our missions as grunts on the knob going through the front door.

I have been attempting to find out what other companies do for their driver requirements. Maybe I’m a little too narrow minded, but being a state fire/rescue instructor, it scares me to death.

Can you guide me to some reasonable driver requirements that I might have the chance to have incorporated into the bylaws? I guess it’s one of those issues that actually affects the safety of crew on the apparatus. Just because the member drives a delivery truck for a living, does not make him an instant fire apparatus driver; I can drive a 10 penny nail, but does it make me a carpenter?

Anonymous”

This is a great question and one I have debated with quite a few departments and volunteers throughout the United States. This issue is of such a debatable quality that I had trouble writing my response, and decided to provide both sides of the debate for the readers to chose.

In reviewing this situation and my reader’s questions, my first issue concerns the driver’s training overall. A volunteer professional should know more about operating a fire truck than just water in, water out. Unfortunately this is all too often the case as some departments feel that a complete pump operator course, including hydraulics, is too much to ask their members. I feel that just showing someone how to pull levers is a disservice to the members on the other end of the line and dangerous to the max.

There is only one thing that we do at every call and that is getting the apparatus safely to and from the call. While even the safest and best trained driver can still have an accident, all of our volunteer professional drivers should be competent pump operators and have to take an emergency vehicles operator course or the like before ever operating a piece of apparatus.

When it comes to taking in members who work as drivers to be drivers-only, we need to remember that there is a large difference between professional drivers who drive for a living and those whose largest vehicle they have driven is a Toyota Camry. Professional drivers have developed driving skills that can only come from driving hundreds of thousands of miles. As responding to and from fires is one of the most common sources of firefighter deaths in the United States, these professional driving skills may save lives!

But the debate gets heated over whether a driver needs experience as a firefighter to know how to operate the apparatus. I would challenge this notion by saying that a driver who is properly trained in pump operations and hydraulics, and who is under properly trained management, should be able to safely get water to the knob without knowing exactly what is going on inside. Then again, as a driver I often have so much to handle with getting a good reliable water source that I do not have the time to worry about exactly what each firefighter is doing.

Someone will probably fight this notion by saying that the driver needs to understand fire conditions to identify the needed fire flow, possible changes in condition and nozzle operation. While this is good information to know, I would go so far as to say that knowing hydraulics will ensure the proper pressures needed based upon the nozzle used — and that it’s the job of the officer to identify the fire flow needs and inform the driver of changes in condition.

The decision is tough. In my opinion, professional drivers who want to be drivers-only can be trained appropriately to do the job. But what do you think? Post your views in the member comments section below or at FireRescue1’s forum.