Could you afford to volunteer when fuel is $2 plus per litre ?

[bajdas]

Several months ago I joined a discussion regards the cost of volunteering.

The conversation between a few people was stating that volunteering to emergency services involves a cost to the volunteer, but the volunteer has a choice of how much they pay. For example, not everyone can afford the latest helmet light or prussic cordage. But everyone pays for their own car or petrol.

The conversation went specifically to the potential of recruiting day-time responders from the Centrelink recipients & partners of single income households. The issue was that the volunteer would need to have car transport to attend callouts & training. Not all people can afford to own a reliable car.

My wife volunteers to do home visiting for a government agency. She receives $0.64 per kilometre when using her own car to visit clients (from home to client & return). As an emergency service volunteer, we receive reimbursement for travel to some training courses in the same manner.

A person then stated that they had responded to 3 seperate incidents during a weekend. Each incident involved travel of approximately 6 kilometres one way. So that person paid for 36 kms of travel in their car.

Sorry for the long text, but when petrol reaches $2.00 plus per litre, can you personally afford to respond to incidents or the same amount of training courses ? Will this affect country regions more because of the longer distances to travel ?

[rescue5271]

At the moment petrol is coming down but in some parts of the state its still very high Sure you may get$0.64 cents per KM but its the other factors that you have to take into account.wear and tare on your car,damage that may be done to your car while on the way to the station or while your car is parked at the station.and then what happens if you get to the station and the appliances has left but only has a crew of 3 and they want more help?? You would take your car out with more members...I can hear people saying take command car but not all groups have command cars close to each brigade or the group duty officer has that car...There are also brigade's that are not part of a group due to their isolation...


I guess I am very lucky that I can use my work car for call outs but sooner or later I will be asked to stop taking it with the cost of petrol,So what can we do???

[chook]

Not sure about taking your own car Bill

[pumprescue]

SAFECOM will need to look at something in the future. It doesn't affect me as I live maybe 100 metres from the station, but in the country its going to have to hurt. Then again for the 300 calls we do I would probably use the same fuel as 10 calls in a rural station, even if there was some form of tax write off, eg like business kilometres, I would be happy with that.

[49194]

Out here, unleaded is the best part of $1.90/L. Premium unleaded hovers between $1.98 and $2.02/L and diesel has been around $2.10+/L for some time now.

Responding to stations is one thing, but for those who respond over great distances, the cost is starting to soar!.. The weekly $$$ often spent on fuel (especially out here) is phenomenal!

[Bagyassfirey]

Not sure about taking your own car Bill

My old man and i respond in our private vehicle all the time as he is a D.G.O. and have GRN, VHF and so in in private vehicle. All made a bit easier now with new logistics which we respond in now if we can.

[bittenyakka]

Well i sort of use my parents fuel and sometimes (much to frequently ) i contribute.

I had never really considered this to be a problem as since i see CFS as something I commit to ie I keep Monday nights free for training, I might have to one day budget for this in my fuel but in my situation i cant see this happening.

I think the bigger cost is going to be campaign fires eg in my 6 days on KI I think I gave up about $350 pay. Yes it was my choice and i can afford do as I am still at home but there are defiantly other casual workers out there who can't.

[Zippy]

My old man and i respond in our private vehicle all the time as he is a D.G.O. and have GRN, VHF and so in in private vehicle. All made a bit easier now with new logistics which we respond in now if we can.

he could use the logistics Navara as 'Car 2',  it would look better as him as DGO to respond in that 100% of the time rather than a private car...

[SA Firey]

Some time ago there was a study conducted and research showed that it costs $634 for each volunteer per annum to respond to calls.

In answer to the question:Yes I only live 30 seconds from the station

[Cameron Yelland]

I live about 4kms from my station so 8km round trip.  Training is fortnightly and we attended 60 call outs for the year.

That is 688km (doesnt count the few times i went out to the station to do some training organisation etc), this is probaly tank and a half of petrol.  Fuel at $2 a litre would cost me $140 to fill my tank so for the entire year it would cost me $210 in fuel in round figures.

We could all say that we want to be reimbursed but 1) we are not the only ones in the boat. 2) where is the money coming from? 3) If the teachers cant get the money (and they teach our kids) how are we the unpaid meant to hold the government to ransom over a realistically small amount of money?

[CFS_Firey]

At the moment petrol is coming down but in some parts of the state its still very high Sure you may get$0.64 cents per KM but its the other factors that you have to take into account.wear and tare on your car,damage that may be done to your car while on the way to the station or while your car is parked at the station.and then what happens if you get to the station and the appliances has left but only has a crew of 3 and they want more help?? You would take your car out with more members...I can hear people saying take command car but not all groups have command cars close to each brigade or the group duty officer has that car...There are also brigade's that are not part of a group due to their isolation...

or you could take a second truck...  (if you have one).

Some time ago there was a study conducted and research showed that it costs $634 for each volunteer per annum to respond to calls.

How on earth can they work that out?  There is no way it would cost the same for volunteers in a 30 call-a-year brigade as it does a 300 call-a-year one.  Let alone the differences in distance, type of car, responsibilities and commitment...
I would agree with that figure though. I'd be paying at least that.

[Bagyassfirey]

My old man and i respond in our private vehicle all the time as he is a D.G.O. and have GRN, VHF and so in in private vehicle. All made a bit easier now with new logistics which we respond in now if we can.

he could use the logistics Navara as 'Car 2',  it would look better as him as DGO to respond in that 100% of the time rather than a private car...

As We are farmers 80% of incidents it is closer to go to incident than to go to station and get vehicles..it doesnt worry us to much i was just shedding another angle on the situation

[6739264]

Christ, we don't get wages, the least that the Government could do is pay our costs for CFS related travel. To and from the station should certainly be compensated for, for me, attending about the average number of calls, plus training brings the drive out to about 1776km a year. This doesnt take into account ferrying trucks to mechanics, BA Cylinders runs or any other admin running around. Even getting paid $1/km we are still very cheap labour!

Most volunteers are happy to pay for equipment costs and the like out of their own pockets, so its not like we are a huge burden to begin with, who knows, it may even help with retention and recruitment.

[mengcfs]

Look at it this way. These examples do NOT imply that petrol is cheap; it just illustrates how outrageous some prices are.
 
Can of Red Bull, 250ml, $2.95 ... $11.80 per litre.                           
                             
Robitussin Cough Mixture, 200ml, $9.95 ..... $199.00 per litre.

L'Oreal Revitalift Day Cream, 50ml, $29.95 ... $599.00 per litre.                     
                                                                                 Bundy Rum, 1250ml, $51.00 .... $40.80 per litre!                             
                                                                                 Visene Eye Drops, 15ml, $5.69 ... $379.00 per litre!                           
                                                                                 Britney Spears Fantasy Perfume, 50ml, $29 ... $580.00 per litre.                     
                                                                                 Evian water, 375ml, $2.95 ...$7.86 per litre!                               
 

[Zippy]

Evian water, 375ml, $2.95 ...$7.86 per litre!       too right mengcfs thats outrageous.....drinking water at a price!!!

Water collected directly from the sky...Priceless

[bajdas]

OK, that is the type of reply I thought I would get.

Personally I do not think cash reimbursement is going to work in the future.

The rest of the conversation went on trying to work out if the Unit or Brigade or shed could change procedures to allow 'not very financial' but available people to respond to incidents during the day/work time.

One of the ideas touted is that they collect the extra crew on the way to incidents, rather than everyone reponding to the shed. The vehicle travels that route anyway to get to the major road, so the extra responders walk to the end of their street from home.

For myself, I have joined a SES Unit that it is OK to attend within 20 mins & is close to my workplace (a kilometre walk). This is because I catch public transport to work. At this time I cannot respond to the closest Unit to home because that is 55 km from my workplace & 8 km from home. We have two cars in a family of 6 people with 3 drivers. I cannot guarantee I will have a car to respond with in the driveway.

Yes I have looked at the local CFS station 1.5km from home. But I would never make the truck when I walk (I would collapse from running the distance  ).

Could we begin car pooling to training events or should a vehicle (difficult with one vehicle in the shed) provide a 'taxi' service to some people ?

Any other ideas ?

[6739264]

Car pools and picking people up with the appliance would no doubt work with the SES and Rural CFS brigades, but I can't see it working very well in the metroplitan areas.

[bittenyakka]

once i didn't have a car at home so i legged it to the end of the drive and hailed a passing member of the brigade.

[Pipster]

CFS members can claim the cost of ALL of their travel, and ALL of their CFS phone calls, through their Regional office on the appropriate form....as we were advised by our Regional Business Officer at the start of last fire season....I'm not sure how many have bothered to claim.....

Pip

[Alan (Big Al)]

travel to and from station??

[Pipster]

That question was asked, and the answer was YES.

As was things like the Captain ringing the training officer to ask "What do you want to do for training this week"

Pip

[Bagyassfirey]

all sounds good...but unless ur super efficient and super organised it be a head ache to sort out what is cfs and what is personel...i know id be stuffed 

[chook]

Simpler solution - you can claim business travel at tax time & phone calls.
All it needs is a tax office ruling covering volunteer emergency services.
And all our respective headquarters need to do is issue a statement to the members saying they are active members, that information can come from the incident reports we submit!
Its not rocket science - all it needs is all our pollies to give a toss
cheers

[jaff]

Chook there in lies the problem, most of the pollies dont give a toss,...... well not for the vollies anyway, but if CFSVA or your equivalent, got a petition up and running for a tax office ruling as you described in your last post, how many would sign it and actively promote it?

If the answer is in the affirmative and there is a general groundswell of support, a letter needs to be sent to Wendy Shirley from your group CFSVA rep asking for action.

[Darius]

CFS members can claim the cost of ALL of their travel, and ALL of their CFS phone calls, through their Regional office on the appropriate form....as we were advised by our Regional Business Officer at the start of last fire season....I'm not sure how many have bothered to claim.....

did you get that in writing? I think you'll find the "rules" have changed at a regional level since then.

A course I did about 2 weeks ago, an email I was shown from the regional training person said only one travel claim per 4 people (presumably from the one brigade) would be accepted.