Fleet and engineering strategy

The Service relies on its fleet of operational and support vehicles to be able to undertake its activities across Nottinghamshire.

Our ambition

Our fleet and engineering strategy supports our ambition to be an outstanding fire and rescue service in the following ways:

• By operating a resilient fleet of appropriately equipped vehicles, that all colleagues can trust, which are aligned to risk and enable our teams to deliver our services and respond to emergencies
• By managing and maintaining our fleet effectively, ensuring it is reliable, available when required and efficiently used
• By investing in research and development to ensure we provide the most appropriate vehicles and equipment needed to tackle the current, emerging and future risks, taking account of the health and safety of colleagues
• By minimising the carbon footprint of our fleet through the increased use of electric vehicles and alternative fuels, contributing to a more sustainable future

Where we want to be

During the life of this strategy, we aim to:

• Review the standard and specialist response vehicles model

  Our model of fire appliances and specialist response to emergency incidents must reflect the current and emerging risks across the City and County, with a proportionate, well-trained and equipped response

• Ensure the service has the necessary vehicles to undertake operational response, operational training, prevention and protection activities

  Our vehicle fleet encompasses a range of heavy vehicles including pumping appliances, specialist rescue and technical support vehicles. We also maintain a light fleet of vans and cars, some of which are used as pool cars for general support, and others which are equipped for small scale or specialist incidents, for example the rural firefighting unit. The government has set a target for sales of all new cars and vans to be zero emission vehicles by 2035, with a ban on the sale of petrol/diesel cars from 2030. The Service has already started to replace its light fleet with electric or hybrid vehicles and this is set to continue. The solution for the heavy fleet is less clear and not a priority consideration in the lifetime of this strategy

• Upgrade the fleet management system

  Our current fleet management system is ageing and likely to go out of support soon

• Re-tender the fleet maintenance contract

  We outsource all our vehicle maintenance to a third-party contractor. The current contract is due to expire in 2027/28

• Conclude a two-year trial of HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) diesel as a replacement fuel for our fire appliances

  If successful, this will pave the way for expanding the use of this fossil-free fuel throughout our heavy vehicle fleet

Operating context and drivers for change

The composition and disposition of our operational fleet is determined primarily by our statutory duties. We undertake a strategic assessment of risks of fire and other emergencies, including a detailed fire cover review, to understand the exact nature of the risks across our area. This allows us to determine the quantity and type of vehicles needed, and where they are best located, now and in the future. The risk assessment is reviewed regularly, as an integral part of our community risk management planning.

We currently maintain an operational fleet comprising:

• 30 frontline pumping appliances
• 2 Aerial Ladder Platforms, 2 Special Rescue Units, Command Support Unit, Welfare unit, Water/foam bowser, MTA vehicle
• National resilience assets - High Volume Pump and Hose Layer

We must provide sufficient resilience to support business continuity, alongside our training requirements. As a minimum, we must provide:

• 6 reserve fire appliances, with core equipment
• 2 driving school appliances
• 2 training school appliances, complete with equipment

Appliance bays must accommodate specialist and national resilience vehicles. Ideally, wholetime stations should have an additional bay for a special or reserve appliance and to allow for a change over to a reserve fire appliance. This approach also allows for future proofing, if changes in fire cover are required.

The composition of the light vehicle fleet is based on requirements to support other activities, such as our prevention and protection work, estates maintenance, and other statutory duties such as hydrant maintenance.

The current light fleet comprises:

• Station vans
• Fire investigation vehicles
• Light fleet/pool cars/Principal Officer vehicles

Any new vehicles or major refurbishment programmes must comply with the following:

• Health and safety legislation
• NFCC Transport Officers Group
• National/international standards such as BS1147
• Vehicles manufacturer and industry standards

There is also an extensive legal framework governing the procurement of vehicles and services. S

trategic drivers for change:

• Government targets for decarbonisation, to achieve a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030 and a net-zero state by 2050
• Need to improve contaminant management, to reduce the health risks to colleagues
• Drive to improve efficiency and effectiveness

Resources/ delivery model

Our fleet and engineering services are managed and delivered through a small team based at JHQ.

All routine maintenance is planned and scheduled, and outsourced to contractors, tendering for which is undertaken every 5 years to ensure continuing value for money. Round the clock support from workshops and suppliers is available to attend and rectify most defects. This includes vehicle recovery for those eventualities where the vehicle can't complete its journey or be brought to a station or workshop for further assessment.

The team play a lead role in capital projects for vehicle replacement and refurbishment and in the identification, implementation and oversight of a range of collaboration arrangements.

Current collaboration partners include:

• Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service - provision of the Environmental Protection Unit, located at Stockhill station and a Water and Foam unit, located at Worksop station
• Nottinghamshire Police - provision of access to the Welfare Unit, located at Stapleford station, use of water rescue boats located at Newark and Highfields stations, access to bunkered fuel across all sites, use of VIA facilities, driving school capability and capacity
• Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire FRSs - provision of fire dog car

Delivering the strategy

Over the life of this strategy, we will deliver the following:

Outcomes

The successful delivery of this strategy will result in:

• Reduction in carbon emissions
• Increased the availability of the fleet for emergency response
• Efficiency savings in fleet maintenance costs
• Improvements in the welfare provision for first responders

We will measure success in the following ways:

• Monitor planned and reactive maintenance spend
• • Utilise data to identify efficiencies e.g. fuel usage, EV charging data