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The measly $10 for a 4 hour shift for a meal makes a lot of sense to me. I know for instence in my dept. when we are on a snow stand-by or something of that sorts every 4 hours everyone gets a meal. As long as the people in the car are making all of the calls in that 4 hour span i think they should at least be given money for some kind of meal.
I agree. The $10 you are making every 4 hours are for the purpose of meals. How many times have you been at the firehouse and a meal was cooked for a company meeting or a dept meeting? This is the same principle they both use depts funds for food except now instead of the meal being cooked and prepared for you they give you the $10 and you decide where you want to go to eat.
I have to admit the $ for something you are volunteering to do does seem a bit out there. Thats like volunteering to be one of the guys that hands out water to marathon runners as they whiz by, and then expecting to be paid based on howmany bottles you handed out. If you are going to volunteer do it because you want to provide the service you signed up for.
I disagree with that. You can't mix apples with oranges. Totally different scenario. You don't have to take the money, its optional. I'm sure if you were at a company function for 4 hours you would expect to be fed. If someone is in the fire service for the money/benefits they are defiantly getting ripped off. Sure there are benefits in the fire service, but nothing compared to the time, energy and countless meals we miss with our families to go out and help a complete stranger. I don't wake up at 4 am for a signal 9 in the hope of gaining any benefits. The money is kind of like your department saying thanks for helping us, lunch is on us. If someone is doing it for the money, please inform them that some departments DO hire people to man their fly car, and pay a lot better than $2.50 an hour. Well said Hooker and Commander.
Last edited by FDAMT : 03-13-2008 at 04:54 AM.
Reason: misspelled word
My department has both an EMS and Safety "fly car." The EMS fly car is manned as much as possible to provide "first responder" care before the ambulance gets to the scene and it also insures that an EMT/AMT will be responding. For instance: Daytime, my department is reliable with getting a crew but not always a code. If the EMS car is manned it is a guarantee that an EMT/AMT is responding unless you have multiple alarms at the same time. There is no set schedule with regards to the EMS car. When it is available, EMTs/AMTs are encouraged to man the car. With regards to the Safety car, it is manned on a 12 hour tour basis with a monthly schedule. It is not as easy with the EMS car due to not as many medical personnel. For taking either the EMS or Safety car, members are given one credit for every four hours that they take the car.
I agree we shouldn’t need a reason to take a fly car more than wanted to help your community and get medical aid faster to a scene. Like many departments mine to gives $ per time taken. It is 1$ an hr up to a max amount per quarter of the calendar year. They also use the car to help with reimbursing ems personnel who have taken medic classes in that you have 2 years that you have to give back 350 hrs a year and you get reimbursement for your class, while also giving your time and services to the community.
But seriously, the fly car is a great program if the department does it right. The problem comes when the department complains that no one takes the car, but keeps making stupid rules about who is elegible to take it.
Honestly, whats the difference between having a firematic function or standby and being provided a meal and taking the flycar and being provided a meal? I don't know if my department has a policy like that in place, but once qualified I plan to take the flycar regardless.
hey nowhere wana b a good little f/f ha.... bring up that members who take the car should be filling out reports on it bc i can guarantee that there is about 6 lights out on our car, thats the only problem i see with sharing our fly car with the neighboring dept. not that its only them cuz our guys do it too, but the its a P.O.S. and no one takes care of it why should i.... its called taking pride in what your doing and being the bigger person who steps up and and does the right thing instead of the usual "whatever" attitude.... srry got alittle emotional there haha
I don't know about getting paid to take the fly car even if it is only a small token amount. I would think saving $4 a gallon of gas as you go and do your errands and shopping is more than worth the time you put in.
We just put our NEW fly car in service about a month ago. I think response has gone up from it. The incentive to take it is that it is new! However MANY problems arise from having it. For example we have people fighting to drive the flycar not the ambulance... a call goes out and everyone runs to the flycar NOT THE BUS!! you cant have that. I use it as much as i can... but then get accused of never going on the ambulance. However most of the time that i use it there is a crew on (driver and tech) and I THINK (you can disagree with me if you want) it would be stupid for me to go on the bus with the tech and have two people in the back and then miss a call... rather i stay in service and take 2nd signal 9's. Dont get me wrong if that PT is going down hill i would gladly ride... but i truly think it is stupid for two techs to be in the back with a stable PT on a BS call. And to everyone in my department who has THIS problem with me... talk to me in person rather then just going around and complaining to others. Sorry all for going off topic
We just put our NEW fly car in service about a month ago. I think response has gone up from it. The incentive to take it is that it is new! However MANY problems arise from having it. For example we have people fighting to drive the flycar not the ambulance... a call goes out and everyone runs to the flycar NOT THE BUS!!
That's an issue with SOP's. It should be written somewhere that, unless there is no qualified ambulance driver present, the bus rolls before the fly car---when the fly car is at the station.
We just put our NEW fly car in service about a month ago. I think response has gone up from it. The incentive to take it is that it is new! However MANY problems arise from having it. For example we have people fighting to drive the flycar not the ambulance... a call goes out and everyone runs to the flycar NOT THE BUS!! you cant have that. I use it as much as i can... but then get accused of never going on the ambulance. However most of the time that i use it there is a crew on (driver and tech) and I THINK (you can disagree with me if you want) it would be stupid for me to go on the bus with the tech and have two people in the back and then miss a call... rather i stay in service and take 2nd signal 9's. Dont get me wrong if that PT is going down hill i would gladly ride... but i truly think it is stupid for two techs to be in the back with a stable PT on a BS call. And to everyone in my department who has THIS problem with me... talk to me in person rather then just going around and complaining to others. Sorry all for going off topic
that's common in almost all departments when they get a new fly car...everybody wants it but that goes away after a few months..and for a BS call there really is no reason having 2 techs in the back...the only extra person in the back should be someone who is a person in tech class or just observing...i personally think having that "extra hands" on a BS call just gets in the way
My department doesn't do EMS, and I have no EMS experience. I stumbled upon this thread becasue I saw it on the home page, so forgive my ignorance in asking this question:
You have a fly-car to take out and what not and that sounds like a really great idea, but why a fly car? Why not just take the ambulance out and drive that around for a few hours? Is it more of a maneuverability thing? I can imaging running errands in an ambulance or parking it infront of your house would be difficult.
My department doesn't do EMS, and I have no EMS experience. I stumbled upon this thread becasue I saw it on the home page, so forgive my ignorance in asking this question:
You have a fly-car to take out and what not and that sounds like a really great idea, but why a fly car? Why not just take the ambulance out and drive that around for a few hours? Is it more of a maneuverability thing? I can imaging running errands in an ambulance or parking it infront of your house would be difficult.
Thanks for asnswer my stupid question!
the fly car is staffed usually by 1 person and responds from whenever they are and gets there to provide patient care ASAP....the ambulance brings the crew in who is responding to the station...it would be hard to bring the ambulance out for errands and home because its big and you'll need to bring the rest of the crew with you
Why take the fly car?
