Report blasts Boston firetruck maintenance

The Boston Globe reports:

The Boston Fire Department for years has taken a "loosey-goosey approach" to "virtually all areas of fleet management," failing to perform adequate preventive maintenance on firetrucks, keeping shoddy records of repairs, and relying on poorly trained maintenance crews that lacked even basic knowledge such as the recommended frequency of oil changes, according to a consultant's review.

The review, commissioned by the city after a fatal firetruck crash in January, also concluded that firefighters are inadequately trained to drive and inspect the trucks. Overall, the review by Mercury Associates, a fleet-management consultant based in Maryland, found the Fire Department suffers from a lack of defined policies and procedures for procurement, maintenance, and repair of firetrucks.

Great moments in the monopoly provision of fire services.