FLEET
ADDITIONS TO THE FLEET The DFB Service Support Unit has done excellent work to oversee the seamless integration of seven new ambulances into the fleet.
SUMMER 24 FIRECALL
D
ublin Fire Brigade took delivery of seven new Mercedes Benz Sprinter ambulances this year as part of its Fleet Replacement Programme, significantly reducing the average age of its 14 frontline ambulances. Each new vehicle has already been designated to stations across the city and county, and is the result of months of planning, preparation and production by the Service Support Centre in Stanley Street, otherwise known as Logistics. The Department headed by A/C/O Richard Hedderman with Third Officer John Guilfoyle, and D/O Martin Cooke overseeing day to day management, plays an essential 24/7 role in keeping a full complement of frontline vehicles on the road at all times, and the introduction of several new vehicles and subsequent cascading of older vehicles to other areas has required an enormous amount of work. “With 14 EMS vehicles on the frontline, it would be very unusual to be able to get seven new ones in
a particular year, so this has been a big event for us,” T/O Guilfoyle tells me. “There is a huge amount of work involved in procuring these new vehicles, from working with the National Ambulance Service to try to secure funding and allocation, to strategic planning with management, before we can even go and order them. “Every year myself and A/C/O Hedderman sit down and have an annual review of the fleet,” he tells me. “We see what our allocation is, we begin the planning, some of which is around the build and schedule, making sure each vehicle arrives the way we ordered it so it is specific to our emergency service requirements.
BESPOKE “Every vehicle has to be bespoke, and needs to be planned in great detail. We don’t have off the shelf vehicles, so before they arrive with us, we have project build meetings with the coach builder. There is a six-month process with a detailed specification that could include up to 600 features
