When natural disasters strike, service trucks are often on the front lines of recovery efforts.
Whether it’s a flood, hurricane, or some other major weather situation, it’s an all-hands-on deck situation — and not the moment you want to be caught flat-footed, without an emergency operations plan and uncertain of how to make it all work.
Sara Burnam, director of fleet management for Florida’s Palm Beach County, said it’s critical
“During an emergency, we have our staff take their service trucks homes before an event, so that we have trucks staged around the county.”— Sara Burnam, director of fleet management, Palm Beach County
that fleets err on the side of over-preparing, rather than assuming things will work out. It’s a lesson she’s learned well after weathering multiple Florida hurricane seasons — but one that makes sense for fleet managers in any location.
“Events are unpredictable, so prepare yourself for the unexpected,” she said. “Envision, plan, and be prepared for all worst-case scenarios.”
Ask plenty of questions
Burnam offered her advice on disaster recovery planning in a panel discussion — titled “Restoration and Disaster Recovery Planning: Be Your Team’s Hero” — at this year’s Work Truck Show in Indianapolis this March. Among her key pieces of wisdom: good preparation isn’t something anyone can — or should — do alone.
“It is essential to get buy-in from upper-level management for creating a plan,” she said. “The coordination of efforts may rely on other departments, vendors and government agencies, so it is important to get upper-level management involved from the beginning to ensure you have the proper support.”
The first stages of planning require asking plenty of questions. Though disasters can be hard to predict, Burnam said fleets should assess their greatest risks, which could include both weather events and other problems, like technology or communication failures. Then, it’s important to figure out your baseline needs: how much fuel do you need to get by for a week? Which vehicles and equipment would need fuel? How would you keep running if you lose power, Internet or cell service? What happens if buildings are damaged?
“Create a detailed plan so that all members of the organization know what to do before, during and after your event, and establish training,” Burnam said.
For the fleets Burnam manages in Palm Beach County — encompassing about 3,100 assets — that plan involves specific directions for service trucks. In times of disaster, they are used for service calls and on-site maintenance and repairs, and are sometimes dispatched straight from employees’ homes. All are equipped with a radio, ready to respond – even if cell service is lost.
Have service trucks ready
“During an emergency, we have our staff take their service trucks homes before an event, so that we have trucks staged around the county,” Burnam said.
That level of planning, especially involving service trucks, is key when things go haywire, said
“If you didn’t travel with fuel, you’re basically sitting on the side of the road with an empty fuel tank and can’t do anything.”— Claude Masters, president, Claude Masters Fleet Consulting
Claude Masters, a fleet consultant with four decades of fleet management experience for utilities in Texas and Florida. Masters, who moderated the Work Truck Show panel on disaster recovery planning, said fleets with the best plans in plans are those with service trucks at the ready.
In his work with Florida Power & Light, Masters said the utility would ensure it had mechanics on site at each of the staging sites during a disaster. The mechanics and their trucks were ready to help with Florida Power & Light vehicles, but also to ensure that any visiting crews — who are key in any recovery effort — could make needed repairs.
“Those mobile service technician trucks played a pretty critical role,” he said.
Masters saw the same scenario play out again and again — and sometimes multiple times in the same year. In 2004, he was working in Florida when hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne struck the state in the span of four months.
He said it quickly becomes evident which fleets have been planning — and which have just assumed they’ll be ready to go in a disaster.
“The more sophisticated companies that have experience with (disaster planning) have learned that the more self-sufficient they are, the better off they are,” he said.
Be well-equipped
In addition to having help on hand for maintenance on any equipment, Masters said many fleets include service trucks equipped with the kind of features that are essential for disaster cleanup and support.
“They typically have very specialized trucks, with an air compressor on them, and they’ll have some type of jib crane, so that a technician can pretty much do any job that’s thrown at him,” he said.
For utility crews or other fleets that have to travel – or even those deployed close to home – Masters said it’s important to be as self sufficient as possible. That means traveling with tire trucks, fuel trucks, mechanics and people to supervise logistics.
“Obviously they can’t bring enough for weeks and weeks of work, but they bring enough to get started,” he said. “That’s the kind of mentality that the people who have been in those situations for many years have.”
It may seem like overkill, but Masters said disasters like Hurricane Sandy, one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit the U.S. in recent decades, have proven otherwise. Fleets that headed to storm-ravaged areas found themselves unable to find fuel, ice or water — unless they’d traveled with those things on hand.
“If you didn’t travel with fuel, you’re basically sitting on the side of the road with an empty fuel tank and can’t do anything,” he said.
Masters advises anyone getting started with disaster planning — or looking to make their plans more airtight — to seek out people who have been through some serious situations. But he warns against relying too heavily on any previous experiences, since each disaster can come with plenty of unexpected challenges.
Plan and plan again
“You go into a hurricane thinking you’re just going to have to deal with wind and tree damage, but in some of the areas like what happened with (hurricane) Harvey in Houston, you have immense flooding,” he said.
In situations involving flooding, major obstacles could include being unable to move fuel trucks through flooded streets, or having to rely on a backup generator if power isn’t restored for a long period of time.
“All people typically have a plan, good people have a contingency plan, and really, really good ones have contingency plans that run three and four levels deep,” Masters said.
Burnam suggests revisiting any disaster plans regularly – at least once a year. In that review, she said fleets should make sure information is accurate and up to date, and assess whether or not there are any new operational needs or gaps in the plan.
She also suggests considering what will come after the disaster – and not just for your company or fleet.
“Consider what you or your organization can do for the community after an event,” she said. “Everyone is going to need all the help they can get.”
—Erin Golden
Erin Golden is a writer based in Minnesota.