Airport Business - June-July 2020 - 22

COVER STORY
should be announced later this year.
"Once the spec is done, the airports
add their legal wording, hopefully
without crossing the line and adding
requirements like warranty, delivery
or training requirements that are all
outlined in the advisory circular and
that's what they can release out to bid,
and the low bidder is awarded based off
of that base vehicle specification only,"
Kann said. "Optional items, extended

ATW ARFF TRAINING CENTER

warranties and other extras can be added
to the bid package, but they must be
separate from the base vehicle bid price
and cannot be used as part of the bid
award determination."
The next step up then is PFC funding,
which follows the same advisory circular
as AIP funding, but offers greater
flexibility.
"They don't just have to go with the
low bid project award. They can use

other means. They can use cooperative
purchasing agreements, or they can add
different criteria that they use as a part
of their normal purchasing practices
to purchase the vehicle, as long as the
vehicle specs follow the advisory circular,
because again, that's federal funding and
FAA only funds the items that are in the
advisory circular," Kann explains.
Escaping the stringency of federal
funding are airports who fund their
ARFF equipment themselves and, as
such, dictate their own needs.
"If they're using their own funding,
it's wide open. They can make the
requirements whatever they want to
make them," Kann said.
It's a funding source typically
utilized by bigger airports, Kann said,
but notes that it's not always the case, as
when he was the fire chief at Orlando
International Airport, they used AIP
funding. Kann added that once airports
get into the lower indexes, they'll most
likely be using AIP funding.
"The vast majority use the AIP

funding because it's free money, it's
grant money and it's eligible for ARFF
vehicles," he said.
And while the money's free, there
are two pitfalls airport can fall into with
it. The first is an airport not properly
following the bidding model, causing
them to have to restart the process over
- a far too common issue, Kann said.
"The airport can't add things to award
determination criteria like extended
warranties, vehicle inspections and
additional optional equipment, but they
get themselves in trouble doing that all
the time. The rules are pretty easy and
the template makes it very clear, but they
still try to add extra stuff and get it for
free," Kann said.
The second difficulty arises when
airports end up with ARFF trucks
from different manufacturers, causing
f iref ighters to have to memorize
several different controls and adding an
additional layer to their thought process
when responding to a crisis.
"Fleet consistency has also alleviated

TUCSON AIRPORT AUTHORITY FIRE
DEPARTMENT RECOGNIZED AS
PREMIER EMS AGENCY

Fire Chief Thomas Tucker shares the steps his department took to be recognized and
how other airports can incorporate the same techniques on a recent episode of the
AviationPros Podcast.
AviationPros.com/21140112

AviationPros.com/12074727

22 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / JUNE|JULY 2020
http://www.AviationPros.com/21140112 http://trinityhighwayrentals.com http://www.AviationPros.com/12074727
Airport Business - June-July 2020

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