Lakeville Fire Department Saves Money One Giant Roll of Tape at a Time

In an economic atmosphere where , it’s important for any organization, business, or even fire department, to find ways to save money where they can.

The isn’t any different, and they’ve found they can save big money on little things, like truck reflector tape.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has deemed the inverted-chevron, striped safety tape a requirement on all fire engines. Usually, the fire trucks would be sent to a local vehicle customizing shop to get the tape put on, but the Lakeville Fire Department has enlisted one of their own to install the tape, saving the fire department money and time.

Firefighter Brian Kluck has been volunteering his time to place the safety tape on the trucks. He got his experience customizing vehicles at Waldoch Custom Centers in Burnsville, where he spent time putting on decals and modifying car and truck exteriors. Kluck’s past familiarity with decals has helped when operating on the trucks.

“It’s relatively easy to put on and doesn’t take a lot of advancement equipment,” Kluck said. “It’s basically a big sticker.”

So far it has taken Kluck five to eight hours per truck, and he has more than 40 total volunteer hours putting on the safety tape.

The tape, which will be used in some form on all 14 of the department's trucks, costs around $1,200, which isn’t much considering one truck would cost between $800 and $1,000 to have a shop do the job. That's a potential savings of more than $10,000.

But money isn’t the only benefit from putting on the safety tape. The new tape makes the emergency vehicles more visible during the night and in bad weather conditions. When people see the reflector tape, they will be able to better avoid an emergency scene.   

Overall, the department is happy to be saving money and increasing safety at the same time.

“It upgraded the safety features on our vehicles at minimal cost,” Lakeville Fire Chief Mike Meyer said. “Hopefully the pattern with the tape tells people to move out of the way at an emergency scene.”