Good News on Brigade Owned Vehicles
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV) has welcomed the news that registration and responsibility problems with CFA Brigade Owned Vehicles (BOVs) have been resolved.
After contact with affected Brigades, initial research work and ongoing encouragement provided by the VFBV/CFA Joint Equipment and Infrastructure Committee, CFA has negotiated with the State Revenue Office and VicRoads to resolve the technical aspects of taking over responsibility for registration of BOVs. Ownership of the vehicles will stay with the Brigades and they are able to retain their existing number plates.
When investigating moving BOVs to red plates, as was the original plan, VicRoads advised that CFA would have to transfer ownership of the vehicles to Corporate CFA, which would incur transfer fees, duty and all vehicles would require a roadworthy inspection before the new plates could be issued. It would also have resulted in the full Registration cost being applied, and not the discounted rate available to Brigades registering emergency vehicles, who currently only have to pay the TAC portion of the registration.
Following this advice, CFA & VFBV have been working through an alternative solution that would allow Brigades to add CFA as the Registered Operator of the vehicle, while retaining the ownership with the Brigade, an option typically employed by large transport fleets. However CFA would still be required to negotiate with the State Revenue Office to keep the exemption that Brigades have on the registration cost and get permission from VicRoads to treat individual CFA Brigade ownership of the vehicles as permissible under the common registration process.
Over the past nine months, CFA has successfully negotiated with the State Revenue office and with VicRoads that results in a real win for Brigades. Not only will Brigades be able to add CFA as the Registered Operator which removes the liability from the Brigade nominee to manage traffic infringements and registration issues, they retain ownership of the vehicle, are exempt from the transfer fees, and the first year’s registration during the transition to a common registration date will be picked up by CFA through the Volunteer Emergency Service Equipment Program.
Paperwork and transfer forms will shortly be on the way to Brigades, and VFBV Executive Officer Adam Barnett urges BMTs to get the transfer form back to CFA as soon as possible.
“This solution is a good thing for Brigades and shows the strength of the VFBV/CFA Joint Committee system, with the issue raised by volunteers, moved along by the Committee, and resolved by action at Government Departmental level by CFA,” Mr Barnett said.
“It offers improved support to volunteers and Brigades at the front line, resolves a long standing source of problems for BMT members and lets them concentrate on providing frontline emergency service to their communities,” he said.
He also paid tribute to CFA Fleet Services who have worked extremely hard negotiating with the State Revenue Office and VicRoads to reach this solution.
While CFA and VFBV have only been able to agree on CFA funding of BOV registrations for the first year, CFA has committed to working with VFBV over the next 12 months to investigate options to make this arrangement more permanent. Brigades are increasingly reporting the inadequacy of their Brigade allowances, from which registration costs are normally paid, and VFBV will continue to pursue either an increase to Brigade allowances, or the reduction of costs incurred by Brigades.
2 Minute Briefing - Joint Equipment & Infrastructure Committee
Issue 5, 19 May 2013
Quick snapshot of the priority issues and actions worked through at the most recent Joint Committee meeting between CFA and VFBV.
SPECIALIST VEHICLE INSPECTION
The committee held its May meeting, at CFA’s commissioning factory in Dandenong South. New appliances are housed at this factory whilst they await operational approval, equipment fit out, ergonomic assessments and the development of training materials.
The committee inspected the new Technical Rescue pods, Heavy Hazmat, new Forward Operations Vehicle, Aerial Pumpers and the 2 new Mobile Communication Buses.
The delegates provided CFA with feedback on each vehicle, but were equally impressed with the stowage and ergonomic work that has taken place that will rank these vehicles very highly in safety and manual handling.
The committee is seeking to ensure there are no barriers to volunteer use or training on any of these vehicles, and to ensure their placement is both strategic and risk based.
CREW PROTECTION
All 844 tankers that were originally identified for the crew protection retrofit sprays have now been completed. Work is now continuing on a further 74 tankers that were not originally identified, that will see the entire Tanker fleet now fitted with crew protection sprays bringing to a close a highly successful and ambitious project to roll this protection out across the fleet.
RED PLATING
State Council has endorsed the committee’s recommendations that were submitted to CFA that will see all brigades provided the opportunity to red plate their brigade owned vehicles, and have their registrations managed and renewed through a centralized system. CFA is now in talks with the Department of Treasury and Finance and VicRoads with regards to the offsetting of stamp duty and vehicle transfer fees. The committee continues to work with CFA to assist with the design of a changeover strategy that will see DMO’s used to manage the changeover, alleviating the needs for brigades to have to visit a VicRoads office. Work continues to progress.
2013/14 PRODUCTION PLANNING
CFA reported to the last meeting that no additional government funding had been provided for the planned 2013/14 production run. Historically, only one third of the yearly vehicle production budget comes from CFA base funding, with the remainder normally being sourced by intergovernmental (BERC) bid funding. CFA has advised its BERC bids for the 2013/14 production run was unsuccessful.
If no further funding will be provided, this will have major implications on the fleet age and profile. At present CFA would have to build 110 new vehicles per year, just to maintain a maximum age of 20 years. At present, CFA are already still running 21 Tankers built in 1986 tankers – making them the oldest in the fleet. They will be 27 years old this year.
VFBV has written to CFA seeking confirmation of their bid to government, and the VFBV Board will consider further action upon receipt of confirmation.
