I love it when maintenance makes the prime time news.

Check this out:

CBS 2 Investigates: Lacking FDNY Truck Maintenance

(CBS) NEW YORK Is the city’s fleet of garbage trucks better maintained than our fire trucks? Top union officials certainly think so...

...Cassidy said part of the problem is the fire department's preventive maintenance program. He produced internal fire department documents that show the preventive maintenance checklist has just 25 items. He said mechanics spend only two and a half hours per truck to get the equipment back in service.

“Their preventive maintenance program is a disaster,” Cassidy charged.

Not only do we not pay our hero's very well - we do not maintain their resources very well either!

Terry O

I seem to like to be the "devil's advocate".

• Do the garbage truck has more moving parts than a fire truck?
  
• Do garbage truck's technology is older than fire truck's?

There could be reasons for the longer PM task lists.

The fire trucks are pampered a little more I think. They sit a little more also and sometimes don't leave the property for days but the firemen wash them, polish the brass run the pumps and do a lot of checks. The union rep may want a mechanic assigned full-time at the fire station or better still build a maintenance shop in back of every fire station staffed with multiple mechanics.

The garbage trucks must comply to standards and be free of hydraulic leaks else someone will raise mortal H_l_ that the leaking oil would wreck havoc on their pet worm. The garbage truck see a lot of start/stop driving and abuse and a lot of service. We always want more garbage than fires.

The other consideration is I think: more quality goes into the fire truck than the garbage truck.

Number of lines alone is not a good way to judge two tasks lists. Not necessarily more lines means better maintenance. For the press the fire truck and the garbage truck are trucks, but for a Maintenance proffesional they are two different pieces of equipment, why the tasks list would be the same.

A side by side analysis to check content and level of detail of the tasks list is my suggestion. We could find something like:

One line task list:
100 Verify level and refill if necessary the following fluids: ___ motor oil, ___ transmission fluid, ___ coolant, ___ brake fluid, ___ window washer solution.

vs.
Five lines task list:
100 Verify motor oil level, refill if necessary.
110 Verify transmission fluid oil level, refill if necessary.
120 Verify coolant level, refill if necessary.
130 Verify brake fluid level, refill if necessary.
140 Verify window washer solution level, refill if necessary.

I seriously doubt that one mechanic with a checklist of 189 items will do a better job.
If I had to fill in a checklist of 189 items, I would concentrate on the 50 the boss would check for sure, and do pencill-whipping on the other ones. Looks to me an invention of paperwork-pusdhers.
Quantity does not replace quality, and I doubt that the boss of the mechanic would verify the execution of these 189 "activities"

quote:

For the press the fire truck and the garbage truck are trucks

1)Probably the firetruck has a limited time for service, the nature of the firefighting activity requires almost 100% preparedness, It would not sound good to the community "the truck was being serviced that is why we were late"

2) About the garbage truck, I can't imagine a mechanic coming close to the hydraulic system of a garbage truck with the smell of work and doing a good job. I would demand at least a 2 hour desanitizing and perfume job on the truck before it comes into the service bay

quote:

Originally posted by svanels:
2) About the garbage truck, I can't imagine a mechanic coming close to the hydraulic system of a garbage truck with the smell of work and doing a good job. I would demand at least a 2 hour desanitizing and perfume job on the truck before it comes into the service bay

Yes, bring the fire truck to the garbage truck maintenance area to wash down in/out the garbage truck with the fire hose.