Checklist - Apparatus, Driving and Roadway

This program checklist audits Apparatus, Driving and Roadway Operations Program (FSSMS-PRG-09), Policy - Apparatus and Driving (FSSMS-POL-12) and their procedures: specification and acceptance; inspection and out-of-service authority; maintenance, annual testing and the fleet agreement; replacement and reserve; driver authorization and training; response mode, intersections, occupant safety and backing; personal vehicle response; vehicle data and just culture; roadway scenes; collision reporting and learning; psychological safety and the accountability loop. The question in every item is whether members get to the call, work on the road and come home without a collision, a rollover, a backing strike or a strike by traffic, and whether the department can show it.

It is the program team’s instrument for the annual appraisal and for spot-audits. In the annual internal audit its items deepen category 12 (12.8 roadway operations and driving), category 18 (18.2 the apparatus inspection and test regime) and category 5 (5.7 driver and operator qualification) in 02 Audit Checklist Master Index. The audit plan states once whether these items are scored on the spare row 21 of the roll-up worksheet or inside categories 12 and 18 in place of their overlapping items, so no item is counted twice. It leaves to other categories: incident command and accountability (Checklist - Emergency Operations Safety), SCBA and PPE carried on apparatus (categories 7 and 8), cab decontamination (category 9) and the fatigue policy (category 10).

The CFAI column crosswalks each item to the 10th edition performance indicator where one applies (CPSE, 2019); core competencies are marked CC.

1. Score D, I and E for each item 0 to 3, then derive the item score (01 Audit Program section 5).
2. Both-required evidence codes (D+I, D+O, O+I) need each type before I can exceed 1.
3. Weights C3, K2, S1; L items must score at least 2 or the checklist fails its legislated floor.
4. Score = sum(weight x item score) / sum(weight x 3). The effectiveness index uses E.
5. Record a finding, owner and due date for every item below 3. Each finding takes a priority on the department’s one scale: a major nonconformity is P1 (Imminent) or P2 (Serious) by risk, a minor nonconformity P3 (Moderate), an opportunity for improvement P4 (Improvement). Every finding goes to the Corrective Action Register within five working days with the interim control, plan and closure dates its priority sets.

Loop test. Pick a defect a driver reported in the last year, such as a low-air warning that did not sound on a weekly check. Trace it: rated P1 because a brake warning is a critical control, so the unit is out of service the same shift and the fire chief and JOHSC co-chairs are told within 24 hours; register entry with fleet as owner and a plan within two working days; reply to the driver within five working days; the same component checked fleet-wide; the check sheet revised; a change notice to every station; closure verified within seven days and reported to the JOHSC at its next meeting.

Answer from observation or interview only; record the evidence.

1. Watch three responses leave a station, or ride along on one: was everyone belted before the wheels turned, did the mode match the matrix, and did the driver stop at the first red light against the apparatus?
2. At a roadway incident or a closed-road drill: where was the block, was anyone outside it, and what were they wearing?
3. Ask three members, one of them a volunteer who responds from home: “When did you or your crew last say stop, decline to drive or report a backing contact? What happened next, and did you hear back?” Record whether each names a person and a response.

1. (Driver) What mode did you respond in on your last call, and why?
2. (Driver) Walk me through your last red light in emergency mode.
3. (Officer) Show me the authorization list. Who drove last week?
4. (Officer) What do you say to a driver after a hard-braking event in the data?
5. (Volunteer) How do you get to the station, and what does the law let you do on the way?
6. (Fleet) Show me this year’s pump, aerial, ladder and hose certificates and the tire date-code log.
7. (Health and safety officer) Show me the last collision review and the change notice it produced.
8. (Dispatch) How do you assign the response mode?
9. (Observe) A daily check at shift change against the sheet.
10. (Observe) A backing manoeuvre into the bay.
11. (Everyone) Who would you tell if a driver did something unsafe, and what would happen?
12. (Everyone) What one thing about driving or roadway work would you fix first?

Report by section, never as one number. Findings go to the Corrective Action Register with the owner and due date from the table; the program manager owns them until verified closed.

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.