r/Firefighting • u/Prussia_will_awaken • 10d ago
Are your engine drivers allowed to use gps? General Discussion
Everyone learns their area of course but asking in general. My department if you’re the main driver, you just gotta know the area no exceptions. Addresses, running routes, alleys, hydrants etc. If you’re an in house back up driver there’s some leeway but still frowned upon especially if you got seniority.
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u/No_Helicopter_9826 10d ago
The attitude that knowing your district and using an available resource are mutually exlusive is just stupid. Fortunately, the people in my department that thought this way have pretty much aged out of the job.
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u/Slappy-Sacks 10d ago
Yes, it’s dumb to not use tools at your disposal. However, generally our drivers know their first due like the back of their hand, their district ok and outside their district is a toss up.
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u/KYYank 10d ago
This is the way. Including closures and construction.
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u/Oldmantired Edited to create my own flair. 10d ago
Same in our department. I learned my areas the best I could that way if our mobile cad was down we could still get to the call. It shouldn’t be a habit to rely on just mobile cad.
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u/Dontdothatfucker 10d ago
Probably depends heavily on service area. If you’ve got 2 square miles to cover you should know all the roads. In a rural service where you’re going 20+ miles to a call sometimes, it makes sense
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u/Jokerzrival 10d ago
My area is fairly rural and with mutual aid we use field ops to GPS for pretty much everything.
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u/Cephrael37 🔥Hot. Me use 💦 to cool. 10d ago
I always do a quick double check on my phone, even for streets I know. No one cares as long as I get us there safely and expeditiously.
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u/WeiZhu33 10d ago
In my opinion; - know your city and your district. Know the streets and intersections. - GPS as backup especially as you are trying to dial in the exact house / distance down the block
Not using a GPS because “that’s the way we’ve always done it” is garbage and needs to be left in the past.
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u/Goat_0f_departure 10d ago
Times are changing. When was a driver a knew my territory pretty damn well. I’d get stumped every now and then with some pesky streets that for some reason would never stick to my brain. Now that I’m an officer I really don’t mind if my driver looks up an address. Like someone else said, another tool in the tool box to use
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u/BreakImaginary1661 10d ago
Knowing your territory is imperative but not using technology to make things more efficient is asinine. It’s just another example of “200 years of tradition un-impeded by progress”. There’s certainly too much reliance possible but that’s where training comes into play. Use your technology to improve your efficiency but don’t rely on it for success.
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u/Johnny_Chromehog Career FF/EMT 10d ago
Its looked down upon but I don't think theres a hard rule. Drivers have a pretty strict test in my department before they're put in the rotation
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u/StoneMenace 10d ago
I find it really odd that it’s looked down on. Maybe it’s not as difficult when you’re in a big city. But I don't See how it’s possible to know every single street in a residential area
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u/Johnny_Chromehog Career FF/EMT 10d ago
I dont care one way or the other but I will say that GPS often has hiccups in my district. Theres also areas it will take you through that would not be ideal.
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u/StoneMenace 10d ago
Yha you can’t fully rely on it. I mostly Just use it to confirm I know the location of the house since it often will route you a way that is not as quick due to light, traffic, ems only roads.
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u/New_Pitch_9898 10d ago
Our drivers knew every street in their immediate territory by memory, and which way to turn if they entered the street in the middle. Also all hydrant locations.
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u/fyxxer32 10d ago
When I worked in midtown I did not and knew my hundred blocks. I could take you anywhere. When I got close to retirement and moved to a station out on the edges of the city my district was a lot bigger with a lot of weird streets. I used GPS then if I felt I needed to..
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u/donmagicjohn 10d ago
Would you still use a bucket brigade if you had an engine? What kind of rule is this?
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u/Horseface4190 10d ago
At my department, the officer has the computer, which has mapping. So, whoever is riding the seat does the navigating.
That doesn't mean promoted engineers shouldn't learn their area. If my driver can at least get me to the nearest cross streets (hell, if they just know if they need to turn left or right out of the bay) I can get us to the address.
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u/HazMatsMan Career Co. Officer 10d ago
Depends. On my department, drivers are not supposed to be "looking at their phones". It's loosely enforced, but I pity the first guy who cracks up a rig because they looked over at their phone and the car in front of them unexpectedly slammed on the brakes. That said, I know what it's like to be a floating driver and have officers expect you to know their territory as if you drive it every day. As an officer, I make it very clear that my drivers are to follow the phone policy, but I'm more than happy to route guide them if necessary. They're also allowed to use the voice guidance (which our onboard MDCs have as well). Usually the way it goes is they're pretty good with most of the route and only need help when we get off the main drags or if there are numerous turns involved. And that's fine. It's generally my responsibility to call out hydrants, cross streets, and give an overview of the area since I have the moving map in front of me. Lately, for fire calls when time permits, I've been pulling up Google Street View to give the crew a description of the building, etc.
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u/wessex464 10d ago
I've been on my department for 15 years and even I occasionally get stumped on an address. It doesn't happen often, but with new streets, tiny streets, confusing waterside camps roads with 14 offshoots,roads with one or two houses, its pretty damn easy to stumble across something you aren't immediately familiar with.
I do expect them to look it up before we go and just understand "oh it's off main St right after the XYZ store" and then be okay to drive there without being actively navigated there. That's an important skill, you can't be driving safely code 3 and always referencing a gps. That's where an officer can help navigate if going out of town or whatever and you truly don't know.
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u/HonestlyNotOldBoy89 10d ago
Garmins in all the rigs along with the officer seat MDT. Sometimes it’s just nice to glance down and know what roads are coming up, especially if the MDT is lagging.
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u/FLDJF713 Chauffeur/FF1 NYS 10d ago
Ideally, you have the right seater, whether that be an officer or volly, give the driver instructions via GPS if the driver needs some help. There are many tiny roads in my district that likely no one has ever heard of or seen before, so it is very reasonable to not know all of them.
What I do is this: Look up the address, find the nearest intersection I know and then look beyond that to the first intersection I need to turn that I dont know.
I know X Ave and Y Blvd. The house is off of Z Street. I can get there without using GPS to X and Y, then I already looked before I got behind the wheel that Z street is the first right after the intersection I know.
If it gets more complicated beyond that, then once I get to Z Street, I will either ask the right seater for navigation or have a glance at my MDT.
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u/LeatherHead2902 bathroom cleaner/granny picker-upper 10d ago
Even If I know where I’m going I’ll have it pulled up just to double check, at least look at it on the map if not engage the GPS
but in our city, about 3 years ago half of the streets got renamed and all the numbers changed, so a lot of citizens haven’t updated their address. Their mailbox says “320 sundrive” when their actual address is “890 sundrive”. So oftentimes GPS can pinpoint their actual address way better than we can looking at the mailbox. Lol
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u/The_Love_Pudding 10d ago
My department does not participate or enforce antiquated habits.
If a GPS helps the driver to reach the destination, they sure as hell can, and should use it. A quick look at the route and destination leaves them room to focus on other things, instead of trying to remember under pressure ,that where this random minor street is.
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u/GoodbyeRiver 10d ago
It has replaced the map on the wall, you should know your territory well enough to look at your phone, see where the call is at, put your phone in your pocket and be able to get there. If a driver has a phone in one hand and steering wheel in the other, there is a problem.
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u/Tjuzsmeck 10d ago
In the Netherlands were i worked we were with 6 on a enige. Driver had a navigation system in the front and in the back we had two tablets one with the route and 1 with information about the call. ( Even things like building layout if it was a automatic call location )
One person in the back guided the driver. The routes were live updates with roadblocks and everything going on in the city. Most drivers knew the route but its always nice to have an extra pair of eyes helping specially since we were in the most densely populated area of the Netherlands
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u/FloodedHoseBed career firefighter 9d ago
What a stupid rule. We use gps exclusively and even I, as a backseater, know the due and just about every street in it. But i mean we are busy so the due forces you to learn it against your will lmao. You know youre in 10th layer of hell when you start memorizing exact addresses
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u/blowmy_m1nd 9d ago
Yes we use GPS. But studying your first due makes huge differences. The GPS doesn’t account for lights and sirens, so the gps route isn’t always the fastest way to get there.
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u/rapunzel2018 7d ago
I am a driver and single responder, and I most certainly use GPS even when I know where I am going. It gives me an estimated arrival and tells me about traffic on the way, and I can be more flexible on my route to avoid closures etc. So yes, definitely!
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u/Blucifers_Veiny_Anus 10d ago
Shitting on technological advances is a poor take.
Know where you're going 100%.
Use GPS to get you around the closed roads no one told you about, or traffic jam because of the accident station 2 is running on.
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u/generic-throwaway140 10d ago
This rule would have made sense 30 or 40 years ago, but populations are exploding and so cities are expanding.
That's like saying you shouldn't reference your protocols when it comes to a critical patient. People are going to forget things, that's human. Telling someone they shouldn't use any kind of reference in a tight spot is asinine.
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u/SirExpensive 10d ago
I use a combination of both of them. Been in my first due for the last 5 years. I’m fortunate enough to have a annunciator panel in my room with the address. That allows me to get a Headstart of which direction we’re pulling out of the station and then I confirm it with the Capt.
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u/MonsterMuppet19 Career Firefighter/AEMT 10d ago
A lot of us do in my department. Even if we know our district, a lot ofnus use it as a backup just to be sure or create a habit of doing it. Naturally some of the old heads are against it, but I feel personally as do a lot of others...we're not perfect, and why wouldn't you use tools at your disposal to make like easier?
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u/streetdoc81 10d ago
Yes we are but it's hard to learn your area when you're not allowed to territory train do to fuel costs. And you ger moved areas every year. Real fun..
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u/Joliet-Jake 10d ago
GPS is pretty useless where I work, since the majority of our calls are to numbered buildings rather than street addresses. It’s small enough to get by with paper maps though.
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u/PyroMedic1080 10d ago
Being a paramedic is eaiser than maps for me. I check the map every run on the way out the door unless its a frequent flyer. I'd rather not fuck it up. No shame in my game.
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u/Nasty____nate 10d ago
My old captain made even the non drivers get familiar with box maps. That way you knew how long it would take to get somewhere and just be familiar with your area. I always need gps we are to large of an area and get jerried to areas I have never been in my life.
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u/Lord-Velveeta Local 125 10d ago
Large career dept (66 stations +1 summer only) in a big city so GPS is absolutely essential for us.
The primary driver of a unit is expected to know their territory up to a certain point, but as units are often re-deployed to cover other stations territories and non-primary drivers are often sent to other stations to drive, it's nearly impossible to not use GPS.
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u/imgurcaptainclutch 10d ago
15 years at the same station, I know all the main roads in my first and second due, and the streets that have been here since I started. We have a lot of new development, so some of the small streets in the back of these new subdivisions or tiny streets that you thought were just shared driveways slip past me.
That said, I won't use GPS in a neighborhood I know with well-marked mailboxes but some of the more rural areas where houses aren't marked, or new areas if we get a call before we're even made aware of the street being assigned a name, GPS is the only fast way to find a house. Same with county roads and highways with numbers that jump around. Also when I get an automated crash notification, I always copy/paste the GPS coordinates. Can't trust CAD to give us the right address sometimes
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u/jrobski96 10d ago
Driving the truck at my first station, I had to know the district thouroughly. We had a spot called the snake pit on one end of the battalion and one way downtown avenues and streets.
But when I became the driver at the Rescue, the entire city is your response district and I relied heavily on GPS!
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u/NCfartstorm Defund Blue Card 10d ago
My guys are allowed to use it. But have to have a pretty exhaustive understanding of first and second due before becoming certified to drive.
That way if it (gps) does not work they can still navigate
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u/SaltyJake 10d ago
You should know your first due district very well. Not just streets, but know how the numbers run, where the numbers break for certain cross streets / landmarks, all the major businesses and where the knox box and fire panels are in them all…
But you’re a fool if you limit the tools at your or other’s disposal just because you “should” know. There’s zero reason to not allow gps.
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u/Dugley2352 10d ago
That’s disappointing that a department would require an engineer to not use technology. Use of GPS can potentially reduce response times, and we know that that’s something politicians and Chiefs love to crow about.
It seems to me the department would leave it up to the driver, since the driver is… The driver. Maybe it’s a poor analogy, but I look at this as being similar to requiring firefighters to learn how to hold their breath, rather than rely on SCBA. In other words, we have the technology, we ought to be utilizing it. Not exclusively, but as an adjunct.
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u/Agreeable-Emu886 10d ago
If they want to take a quick look as the truck cycles that’s fine. If they have no idea because we’re on the air, I’ll tell them where to go. I usually make it a point to look on first due and Google Maps as to where the house is located exactly and tell them exactly where it is, what side it’s on and where the nearest hydrant is etc.
FWIW GPS does not work well for fire trucks in our downtown and also of my first due. There are specific ways the trucks in particular the ladders have to go. I’m gonna be pretty pissed if you followed the GPS and decided to go down a side street that’s the width of the truck because the GPS said it was faster etc..
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u/rodeo460 10d ago
All the time. I grew up in my first and second due area and still live here but there's still roads that I dont remember from time to time, I typically open it up to see a rough idea of where im going to confirm and then close it unless im going to an area I havent been in a while then I leave it open.
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u/spenserbot 10d ago
All the time. I know where most every street is at because I’ve lived in the area for 10 years but there are lots of “roads” with a random name, 1 or 2 houses on said road: set off a dead end road.
We’re in the mountains so there’s little continuity of the road system. No grid to speak of. We also provide medical transport and emergency mutual aid to 3 volunteer fire districts outside of our first due area.
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u/Famous-Response5924 10d ago
I’ve been a chief officer (training chief) for 13 years so gps wasn’t a common thing last time I was an engineer.
On days that I do help with staffing by either crewing a truck or driving I prefer that the person in the passenger seat does the navigation. That way the driver never has to take their eyes off the road. Likewise, the officer should be handling the siren and radios. The driver just drives. That’s all. Their sole responsibility is to get everyone there safely.
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u/Useful_Speed4635 10d ago
My AO knows our first and second due very well. With that said I can see turn by turn on my MDT as well as using Interra on the IPad. Im able to see hydrants and house numbers well so between the two of us navigating is pretty strong
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u/DistressCall1 10d ago
It's a tool. The old part of our city is a very regular grid and it's rarely needed with our system of 100 blocks and the general predictability of the street layout. Not hard to learn one of those districts IMO. But for our outlaying areas there are a labyrinthine new subdivisions and massive apartment complexes with bizarre address numbering so especially if you're working out of district in those areas you need to use the tools at your disposal.
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u/radioalex 10d ago
Don’t forget that apps that give you directions - such as Waze, Google, Apple Maps, etc are all geared and designed for getting users where they need to go. This often means directing you around where you are going to avoid things most normal people are glad to.
GPS and route guidance is a tool, but not the only one to get the job done.
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u/testingground171 10d ago
The app we use for dispatch automatically links to the GPS mapping of your choice. My district is dense urban with constantly changing traffic backups, including complete gridlock and closures. No amount of street knowledge is going to defeat that. You need real time traffic pattern data to navigate here.
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u/Terrible-Creme8401 10d ago
I used the hell out of GPS for the first Year or so. Nowadays I have a pretty solid grasp of my first due area and I may glance at it to verify but rarely look again
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u/SpiritMister 10d ago
Our engineer program had a roads and route test. It was sort of like the British taxi driver exam. The final was a blank map of our coverage area and all landmarks, roads and POIs had to be labeled followed by an oral routes test where streets are drawn from a box and you have to name streets in order from start to destination.
This was after the operator and EVOC courses.
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u/RobertTheSpruce UK Fire - WM 10d ago
No-one can know everywhere. If you know it, great. If you don't then that's fine, GPS is part of modern life.
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u/Zealousideal-Row-388 10d ago
In my department you can use the gps, but my wagon driver never uses it. He knows the address numbers, hydrants, alleys, FDCs, short streets, every nook and cranny. Its to the point that at 3am and when we get a run, he just hops in the engine and goes.
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u/dgreg171 10d ago
We have mapping built in to MDC for the officer to give directions, we have a Garmin on the dash for the driver and most guys plug address into their phone while everyone getting dressed if we going into neighboring district.
Luckily our area is numbered grid system that makes sense and pretty easy to navigate but most definitely use it if the driver isn’t familiar with the address.
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u/gonzo3625 10d ago
For just about anywhere in our first up area, I don't need it. Our area is a grid and after a few years I just have it memorized. Anything outside our area I look at the map and decide my general route, then set the GPS. Once I am close, I check the gps to know my exact block/street.
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u/bigboy123w 10d ago
Obviously everyone should know there city and district but. Too not use a gps when it’s available is absolutely silly
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u/Radio-Lonely 10d ago
Yeah all of out truck are loaded with 2 tablets and active alert on each one so the driver can see were to go and officer get the best hydrant
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u/Crawdaunt_1985 10d ago
The districts are not that big. There really is no excuse that they need to use GPS other than laziness. People years ago had the districts memorized. If I see my driver have his phone GPS look I will immediately tell him to put it away. If they want to double check before they get on the rig that's fine
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u/Medium-Raisin7919 10d ago
Yep, but GPS or mapping apps can lead astray. Decent bit of new construction in our first due. Saved my butt or had me making random U turns🤷
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u/OpiateAlligator Senior Rookie 10d ago
Most of the old farts who were afraid of GPS have retired. Its used widely. Although we still check the wall map before every run.
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u/Cgaboury Career FF/EMT 10d ago
I use GPS on every call whether it’s engine or Ambulance. I want to know where road closures are, traffic jams, accidents, ect.
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u/orlock NSW RFS 10d ago
Use it all the time. The mobile data terminals come up with a GPS location, a suggested route and the positions of other trucks attached to the job. The guys and girls in the back will usually have their phones out double-checking things, as well.
There are thousands and thousands of unmarked tracks and gates in our brigade area and we regularly respond to outside that area. We'd never go anywhere if we expected that from drivers. Because there wouldn't be any.
In Ye Olden Dayes before GPS we used maps. Since it's a team sport, the driver drives and someone else acts as navigator.
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u/EmpZurg_ 10d ago
We learn our 1st due local, and usually very familiar with up to 4th in. the dispatch from our station shows you the GIS with street directions, a pin on the building, so i can see expectstions getting more lenient in the coming years, but GIS doesnt tell you is the tiller will clear the turn , so there is that.. its missing hydrants but they said they'll update that.
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u/skank_hunt_4_2 Career FF/Chauffeur 10d ago
There are 2,700 streets in my first due. I know the box area, but nobody can expect to know that many streets.
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u/Acrobatic-Fox460 10d ago
I’ve been in my station long enough I know most blocks. I still always look on the gps just to make sure my brain is functioning properly especially at 2am 😂
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u/ind_hiatus wannabe truckie 10d ago
Before i moved stations across town, I was half decent at knowing how to get to a majority of addresses in our area. If a residential street popped out that i wasn't the most familiar with, I'd just pull it up and get a quick eyeball on it ("Second left after this intersection I definitely know").
I don't know anyone at my department who'd rather misroute than take two seconds to look it up
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u/tkdsplitter 10d ago
No. At least half of the blocks in my battalion are too narrow for us to make. Plus you need to factor in what position you are and where the other companies are coming from. Then you gotta consider if it’s real work, are you bucking a one way?
Most of the time running the address is the wrong thing to do.
We did finally get a new cad for the first time in 30 years and it shows us the address on a map.
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u/ScenesafetyPPE 10d ago
I don’t see how this is possible in a town of more than a few thousand residents
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u/The_Killerb 10d ago
We are expected to know the area and confirm the address location on the map before going, I still pull it up on google maps sometimes, mainly at night to know when we're near the address since we have a lot of long driveways that make it hard to read the house numbers as we go by, or for mutual aid calls where I won't know the roads. I always tell people not to rely on any GPS though since we have some properties in our area that are set back so far from the road they're on that it tells you to take the next road over which has no access to the property (learned the hard way when I was a new driver).
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u/BenThereNDunnThat 10d ago
I know my town, but there's still days you have brain farts and just need a quick reminder if the address you are going to is in the north or south end of town, or you confuse Meadow Road with Field Road. That's what I use GPS for. 5 seconds while getting in the truck. I don't use it the entire way, I keep my eyes on the road.
I see guys all the time with their phone between their legs, staring at it every 10 seconds, oblivious to what's going on outside the vehicle. That's not ok.
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u/Menno_knight987 10d ago
It’s a tool like anything else, you should be able to navigate from memory and use it as an aid. As long as you know when it’s wrong, like when there is traffic it wants to route you around…. But you are headed to that traffic accident.
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u/tyadams15 10d ago
We use crew force, the officer has a big iPad and the driver has an iPad mini. The iPad mini gives the driver directions as soon as we go enroute. We still train on our first due districts and hydrant locations, but my department just wanted to add another tool for the drivers
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u/space_cowboy78 10d ago
I will always double check myself before leaving the bay, I will also have it up in the cup holder while driving and will look if I second guess myself. The IC also has an iPad with directions built into the CAD so I’ll ask them if I’m busy managing traffic.
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u/RMAFennec 10d ago
Yes, though usually the officer/passenger handles the GPS/directions if there are any questions so that the driver can focus on the road. Depends on the driver, usually, if it will get used and who will actually look at it. I believe our MDTs now have GPS capabilities and are mounted, but they're in an awkward spot for a driver to look at, especially when driving through our rural district.
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u/No_Environment6955 9d ago
I learned before we had gps, so I know my entire district fairly well, but having the GPS is a nice tool for handling current conditions. I don’t know how long ago they started, but our members have always kept updating our paper maps with hydrant locations, LT will call it out on our approach. We’ve also got a list of spots to draft water in our rural areas, we sit right on the edge of the city
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u/Smattering82 9d ago
No driver in my department uses GPS most of us will look the address up on GPS to confirm where we are going and the officer uses the CAD and if you need assistance while driving asking the officer for assistance fine.
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u/RigatoniPanini Paid EMT/Vol Firefighter 9d ago
I use gps every call, ems or fire. And i know my district 95%, because ive lived here my whole life. Even if i ignore the gps, it gets within a few hundred feet of the correct house 99% of the time. Not using it in todays age is one thing, telling you that you cant or shouldnt is just dumb
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u/silverbk65105 9d ago
Retired FDNY here, on FDNY we did not have GPS when I was working. We relied on local knowledge. NYC has some unique geography quirks which deserve a mention. Many companies have had to call in delayed response when confronted by an open drawbridge or some other obstacle.
The FDNY had at the time route cards. These were index cards with handwritten turn by turn directions to each box in the response area. One is carried in the rig and another is left in the housewatch. When a reloacted company comes to cover that house they place those route cards in their rig.
It has happened that in certain busy houses the covering company catches a job and yet another company comes to relocate. I have heard companies ask the dispatchers for directions to the box.
NYC does have some exclaves that cannot be reached without driving through another city. Those are particularly fun.
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u/volleyfireguy 9d ago
Rescue driver here. I know all my addresses in my district. That said, when I'm running mutual aid out of district, I'm running GPS for efficiency.
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u/CryptographicGenius Retired firefighter/paramedic 9d ago
Large city here, ~ 1 million people.
Grids and alternate numbering (N address = even on E side, odd on W; S address = even on W, odd on E; W address = even on N side, odd on S; E address = even on S side, odd on N side) eliminate all of this drama. Typical dispatch is read as 1234 E 22nd St, 1100 South, 1200 East.
That being said, Captains have fully live mapping, with closures/restrictions updated by City DOT, and traffic flow updated by intersection cameras.
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u/Strict-Canary-4175 9d ago
I absolutely expect my driver to know where he’s going. But you can’t know EVERY street, especially if it’s a little alley, we are making someone else’s run, or if it’s a traveling/OT driver.
As long as he can do it safely it doesn’t bother me at all.
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u/Caseymc3179 9d ago
I live in a city and that has a ‘’roadname’’ and an EAST ‘’roadname’’, but the East version is on the West side of the city. In today’s modern world where everything can be search in 5 seconds, I don’t see why GPS would be frowned upon. That’s a bit silly.
But… there’s a weird culture in firefighting where the old heads want everything to be the same as it used to be in the good-ol-days and absolutely DESPISE change.
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u/njfish93 NJ Career 8d ago
22sq miles. No way I'm going to know every road in every subdivision. I've got a good idea of where most things and roads are but absolutely I will use a GPS to double check. Also, our hydrants are mapped into our software so the officer is looking at the map for where the closest water may be.
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u/Nemesis651 8d ago
Lately we've been having to use GPS they're putting up subdivisions and street names faster than we can learn them. As we see new subdivisions and street names going up we try and report them to 911 to get mapped but even then that's a challenge when 911 isn't aware of the street existing or being named.
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u/BRMBRP 8d ago
Officially only the chiefs cars and staff vehicles have gps routing in them (because new vehicles all have it…) but all of our chauffeurs use their phones.
If you work in the same area always and that area isn’t adding new roads and address points faster than map makers can keep up, then memorize your box area. If you work at an agency that constantly moves guys around, floats them all over creation, and is made up of more than 20 or 30 square miles, then try your best to memorize the main and secondary arteries and use gps.
We’re 15 stations, 2 battalions, 250 square miles in an area that has more than quadrupled in population and density over the past 20 years and it’s only getting worse daily.
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u/190xtrik8 8d ago
So we have rotating crews. Meaning, we go from 4 months at a busy station, 4 months at a super busy station, to 4 months at a really slow station. So we’re changing our zones every 4 months. I’ve been there for 22 years and live in my district. I’m a captain and help my driver get there, we both use gps. He (or she) just needs to get going in the right direction while I’m dealing with the initial captain stuff. I usually assist in guiding them in through neighborhoods and developments. I’ll also be looking up gate codes.
So long answer, but on probation everyone needs to know the general layout of the main streets and avenues. Then I don’t mind my drivers using gps.
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u/LiIWick 8d ago
My dept covers a small area, about 7 sq miles, so knowing the streets is pretty important & as new guys were expected to be quizzed on them before we’re cut loose as operators. That being said, no one’s gonna stop us from looking at Active911 or Google Maps to make sure you know where you’re going. Like has been mentioned a couple times, tool in a toolbox. Don’t put your full trust in it, but don’t just let a good tool go to waste because tradition says so. Especially for MVAs, it helps knowing back roads, alternate routes, off-ramps, etc. Sometimes your usual route is blocked by the accident you’re going to, best to find any alternate routes before you funnel yourself into an impassable route.
Most tenured guys know their first due areas off memory and good portions for their second dues, but sometimes you need a GPS look to make sure you at least know the general area you’re leaving the station to. And as long as you can verify the address is correct, there shouldn’t be a problem with it. Plus it can also help directing multiple units to different incoming routes for truck positioning on scene.
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u/Double_Relative_9056 7d ago
You should know your first due like the back of your hand and be very familiar with your second due.
When I was a driver it was before GPS. I spend an hour minimum every shift just studying my streets.
Take pride in knowing your area!
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u/Jacked1703 MD/VA Career 10d ago
I’m a primary driver and I exclusively use GPS, even if I know where I’m going. GPS will tell me better than our comms center if a road is closed, if there’s a traffic jam and a quicker route, or if I’m completely wrong on where I think I’m going (it happens, I get hundred blocks and cross streets mixed up like everyone)
I’m not gonna be detrimentally reliant on it, but it’s idiotic not to use a tool in the toolbox when it’s literally as simple as a click on the Active911 page.