By Bill Adams

Many fire apparatus specification (spec) writers pay scant attention to a spec’s boilerplate-those pages of mundane nonfirematic-looking verbiage most macho firefighters consider unnecessary babble.

That’s a mistake. A spec’s boilerplate is just as important as the technical specifications. Usually located at the beginning of purchasing specs, they’re also known as the front sheets. Whether by deceit, design, or ignorance, front sheet verbiage can discreetly influence the competitive bidding process. Use caution-especially in highly regulated political subdivisions where the written word means what it says, attorneys reign, the rule of law prevails, and the fire department may be relegated to bystander status.

Influence

Usually a vendor helps the apparatus purchasing committee (APC) with most of a spec’s boilerplate. Although a questionable procedure, it occurs often. After the APC finalizes the specs, the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) has its legal staff review the document to ensure governmental mandated requirements for public bidding are met. Often, legal beagles don’t know one end of a fire truck from the other. Most are only concerned with the literal law. Literal means being precise, exact, and word-for-word. When apparatus manufacturers’ (OEMs) bid estimators calculate the cost of a purchasing specification they do it the same way-literally. They only price what is written. To them, each line and each word has a value in both the technical nuts-and-bolts portion as well as the boilerplate portions of a specification. They do not read between the lines; they do not second guess; they don’t anticipate. It is not their job.

Other definitions of literal include being factual, truthful, and honest. And, not all purchasing specifications are literal in that respect. This is not an accusation; it is an insensitive but sometimes factually correct statement. In scenarios where a potential bidder helps write a purchaser’s specification, there’s a possibility that hidden meanings may have been slipped into the boilerplate. It is a common practice nobody wants to admit. The spec writer helper will claim ignorance because it has always accepted that the fire department “writes the specs.” Of their own volition, purchasers may also include or omit items in their boilerplates to discretely influence bidding. It’s another common practice that no one will admit-probably because it is illegal in many jurisdictions to knowingly give preference to or to disenfranchise potential bidders. Some purchasers feel immune from being held accountable. Most get away with it.

Before a rig is “factory priced,” the local dealer and perhaps an OEM’s regional or in-house sales manager will interpret the obvious and hidden meanings in the boilerplate and decide whether or not to bid. This is when bidding is influenced. Disenfranchised bidders will either vociferously complain or just let it go. The shoes may be reversed at the next bid.

Real-World Examples

Occasionally fire department spec writers make honest mistakes. What they really want may not be what they actually wrote. Bid estimators don’t know that. Some bureaucrats who enforce formal bidding rules and regulations may not care. Or, legally, they may not be able to address a mistake after the fact. In true competitive bidding, saying I think, I thought, I wished, and I meant to may not hold water. The following sentences were taken from the boilerplate in one municipality’s published purchasing specification. The comments after each are mine. The intent, reasoning, and justification of the spec writer are not being debated. The reality and ramification of his written words are.

It is required that each bidd