Bespoke Incident Command Units

Garic Ltd are a British manufacturer and fabricator, renowned nationwide for their extensive product ranges and involvement in bespoke projects and specialist builds.

In May 2011 the company announced that they supplied CMPG (Central Motorway Police Group) with their first Incident Command Unit. This is part of the testimonial given to them by Constable Steve Rounds of CMPG: "We looked into procuring a bespoke Incident Command Unit from a number of companies usually associated with building this type of vehicle for the emergency services, but found that costs spiralled well into six figures.

In the current economic climate we couldn't justify spending that amount of money on a vehicle that had a very narrow focus, so needed to find a cheaper and more flexible alternative and Garic Ltd were able to provide an off the shelf solution at around a tenth of the cost."

"Developed from the robust Garic messing van, the new CMPG ICU is a vehicle that has multiple uses meaning that it isn't parked up waiting for the next major incident. Firstly, unlike many other vehicles of this type, Garic have managed to keep the weight down so that the entire vehicle comes in under 3,500kgs so it can be driven on a car (Class B) licence, removing the need to further train drivers to a full B plus E entitlement. It has eight travelling seats (including the driver) and therefore has the capability of being used as a minibus, particularly useful on the motorway network to remove stranded passengers from breakdowns, collisions and vehicle seizures where multiple patrol cars would have been required in the past. The rear five seats are arranged around a table providing onsite conference, interview and command facilities as well as providing a warm/cool place for colleagues to rest and eat."

"This vehicle really has changed the way we deal with all of our major incidents. We will continue to work closely with Garic Ltd to further develop the vehicle with a roof-mounted transportable satellite solution that enables realtime voice, data and video information to be shared with Gold Command to provide a common operating picture, independent of the mobile phone networks. Even with these new developments the Garic derived ICU will come in at around a fifth of the cost of its competitors and has multiple uses meaning that it is a very cost effective option."

• Garic Ltd will be exhibiting this unit along with others at the NAPFM and they look forward to discussing any projects with visitors. In the meantime you can contact them on Tel: 0161 766 8808 or email sales@garic.co.uk web.
www.garic.co.uk