For fire truck and fire apparatus builders

AI quoting for fire truck manufacturers.

Give it the fire department's request for proposal. It lists every requirement that changes the price, each with its page number, shows where the document disagrees with itself, and drafts the first quote in your own pricing logic. Your estimator checks it and decides the number.

Book a DemoHow we test it →
From a public 99-page request for a custom pumper
  • p.16The truck is due 120 days after contract signing. The normal wait at the time was 12 to 18 months.
  • p.98The stainless body is warranted for 15 years on page 16, and for 20 years or 100,000 miles on pages 97 and 98.
  • p.79The truck is plumbed for a foam system, and no foam system is specified.

The 120 days decides whether this job is worth answering at all. It should reach your estimator before anyone has spent a day on the other 98 pages.

What one request holds

On a custom fire truck, most of the bid is reading.

We read one public request line by line: RFP No. 2022-01 from the Cumberland Fire District in Rhode Island, for a stainless steel custom pumper. This reading was done by a person, for our guide.

99
Pages in the request
300
Items to answer YES or NO, roughly
60
Components named by brand, roughly
120
Days to deliver, on page 16

Eighty-four of the 99 pages are a specification with a YES and a NO beside every paragraph. Every NO has to be listed on a separate sheet, and the request says a proposal with a deviation that is not listed may be rejected. On a bid like this, the exceptions sheet is the bid.

The costs that are easiest to miss are not on the truck. Page 84 asks for a five year cellular data plan. Page 99 asks for an allowance for mounting tools. Pages 8 and 16 ask for a bid bond of ten percent of the bid price. Page 13 asks for at least fifteen certified technicians before the bid is read at all.

Video: How to Respond to an RFP: 84 Pages of Yes or No in a Fire Truck Bid (4:34)
Read the whole request with us, page by page →When a named brand shuts the door →
The whole request, not only the truck

Every part of the request settles a different part of the price.

Mavlon reads all of it together, because the answers are not in one place and not in one form. Each example below is from the public Cumberland request, with its page.

The bid form and the award rules

The shape of your answer, and what is scored besides the price.

Page 4 has one blank for the total price. Page 7 says the award also weighs qualifications, deviations, warranty and the delivery date.

Cumberland Fire District, Rhode Island, 99 pages
Bidder qualification

Whether your bid is read at all.

Pages 12 to 15 are pass or fail. Page 13 asks for a minimum of fifteen technicians holding EVT certification.

Cumberland Fire District, Rhode Island, 99 pages
The YES or NO specification

About 300 answers, and every NO becomes an exception you must list.

Roughly 60 components are named by brand, and exceptions are not allowed on any of them. Twenty more clauses are marked no exception.

Cumberland Fire District, Rhode Island, 99 pages
Delivery and bonds

Risk that has no line on the truck.

Page 16 asks for delivery 120 days after contract signing. Pages 8 and 16 ask for a bid bond of ten percent of the bid price.

Cumberland Fire District, Rhode Island, 99 pages
Warranty

Years of exposure that you price today.

Page 16 asks for 15 years on the stainless body. Pages 97 and 98 ask for 20 years or 100,000 miles on the same body.

Cumberland Fire District, Rhode Island, 99 pages
The standards

Which edition the truck is built and tested to.

Page 20 cites NFPA 1901. From January 2024 that standard was consolidated with three related ones into NFPA 1900.

Cumberland Fire District, Rhode Island, 99 pages
What your estimator gets

AI quoting for fire trucks, as a reading you can check line by line.

Four kinds of line come back. The examples are from our own reading of the public Cumberland request, which is published in full with page numbers.

01

Every requirement that changes the price

Each one carries the page it came from, so checking it takes seconds instead of a search.

p.84A five year cellular data plan for the truck's telematics system.
02

Where no exception is allowed

The clauses and the brand names where a NO is not a negotiation, listed together.

p.15, p.17Twenty clauses marked no exception, and about sixty components named by brand.
03

Questions for the buyer

Where the document disagrees with itself, both readings are stated. Nothing is averaged and nothing is quietly chosen.

p.16, p.98Is the body warranty 15 years, or 20 years or 100,000 miles?
04

Costs that are not on the truck

Bonds, allowances, services and plans, pulled out of the paragraphs so they reach the quote.

p.99An allowance for tool mounting and equipment, as specified by the fire district.
Then the quote

A first draft, priced from your own rules: your rates, your formulas and your past quotes, exported in your own quote format. The clarifications list carries every judgement into the quotation, and the margin stays with you.

What it does not do

It does not fill in the YES or NO column or the exceptions sheet. That is still your team's job today. It does not decide that an exception is worth taking, and it does not decide whether a job with a 120 day delivery is worth a bid bond. It does not create drawings, and it does not decide your margin.

Not a configurator

A configurator starts from your options list. Mavlon starts from the department's document.

Custom work

Mavlon is the right tool when

  • The request is the department's own specification, with a YES or NO beside every item.
  • Dozens of components are named by brand, and you have to find the ones you do not use.
  • The delivery date, the bond and the warranty are scored, and they sit far from the truck.
  • Two pages give different answers to the same question.
  • The text reads like another builder's option catalogue, and it asks for things in that builder's words.
Stock and program trucks

A configurator or an order form is the right tool when

  • The department buys from your published options, through a dealer or a purchasing contract.
  • The truck is a stock or program unit with a short list of choices.
  • There is no YES or NO specification to answer.
  • What you are short of is speed on repeat orders.

We make Mavlon, so weigh this sort with that in mind. If most of your trucks are ordered from your own options list, a configurator will serve you better than we will, and we would rather say so now. Corrections are welcome at atishay@mavlon.co.

Do not take our word for it

Test it on a request that is public.

The Cumberland request is a public document. Hand it to any vendor, including us, and see whether the software finds these without being told where to look.

  1. The delivery of 120 days after contract signing on page 16, before anything else.
  2. The two warranties for the stainless body: 15 years on page 16, and 20 years or 100,000 miles on pages 97 and 98.
  3. The foam plumbing on page 79, with no foam system specified.
  4. The costs that are not on the truck: the data plan on page 84 and the tool mounting allowance on page 99.
  5. The bidder gate on page 13: a minimum of fifteen technicians holding EVT certification.

Score it the way you would score a new hire. Did it find the item? Did it cite the page? Did it show you the conflict, or quietly pick a side?

The full reading of this request →Our pilot protocol and pass bar →
What we have published so far
  • A 179-page public waterfront package: 214 statements, each cited to its page, and 7 places where the drawings and the specification disagree.
  • A 668-page treatment plant specification book: the 14 sections relevant to the equipment, found without being told where to look.
  • No published run on a fire truck request yet. The reading on this page was done by a person, for our guide.
  • The fair test is a bid of your own that you have already priced.
The pass bar: seven of ten totals within 15 percent, agreed in writing first.
We did the reading first

Guides and a tool for people who answer fire truck requests.

GuideFire truck request for proposal84 pages of YES or NO, read line by line.GuideOr approved equalWhen to bid and when to walk away.GuidePre bid risk assessmentA risk register read from the customer's document, page by page.GuideQuoting custom equipment before the design existsWhat three public bid packages had in common.GuideHow long should a quote be valid for?One public case where 180 days became 260.ToolSpecification compliance matrixAn Excel template for answering a specification line by line.
What does AI quoting for fire trucks look like in practice?

The software reads the request your customer sent: the bid form, the award rules, the bidder qualification and the YES or NO specification. It lists every requirement that changes the price with the page it came from, shows the clauses where no exception is allowed, shows where the document disagrees with itself, and drafts a first quote from your own pricing rules. Your estimator reviews it and decides the price.

Does it fill in the YES or NO column for us?

No. Filling in the customer's forms is still your team's job today. What it gives your engineer is the reading: every item with its page, the brand names, the clauses marked no exception, and the places where two pages disagree. That turns the first day from finding things into deciding things.

Is Mavlon a truck configurator?

No. It works from the opposite end. A configurator starts from your options list and prices what somebody selects. Mavlon starts from the department's document and works out what is being asked for. If you already build orders in a configurator, that stays where it is.

Does it know NFPA 1900?

It reads which standard the document cites, and in which edition, and shows the page. It does not replace your engineer's knowledge of the standard. The public Cumberland request cites NFPA 1901 on page 20, and from January 2024 that standard was consolidated with three related ones into NFPA 1900.

How do we find out whether it works on our bids?

Bring a bid you have already priced. The pilot is a blind test on your own past quotes, scored against a pass bar that is agreed in writing before anything runs. The whole protocol is published on our pilot page. Read the pilot protocol.

Who sees our customers' documents?

An NDA is signed before any document of yours moves. Deployment options, encryption and the controls that keep your documents out of model training are set out on our security page. Read the security page.

Questions fire truck builders ask

Asked plainly, answered in writing.

Bring one fire truck request you have already answered.

We read it together on a call. Compare what it finds against what your team found. If you would rather not share a document on day one, we can read the public Cumberland request together instead. An NDA is signed before anything of yours moves.

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The newsletter

Field Notes

The numbers that change your next quote. Once a month.

  • 01A material price that shifted this month, with the number.
  • 02What contracts in one segment actually closed for.
  • 03A real bid package taken apart page by page.

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