Speaker: Matthew Corso, Senior Captain - Logistics Manager, Harris County ESD # 7 - Spring Fire Department
Please introduce yourself. Describe your agency and the community you serve.
Matthew Corso: My name is Matthew Corso. I'm a Senior Captain with Harris County, ESD. #7 in Texas. We're just north of Houston. We serve about 62 square miles and 160,000 residents. We're a combination department with full-time, part-time and volunteer staff. We have nine fire stations.
What solution(s) did you use before PSTrax? What challenges were you having?
Matthew Corso: Before PSTrax, we used paper checklists as our system. We would use them for truck checkoffs, medical bag checkoffs, air pack checkoffs. We also used email to report problems. The problem with those systems that PSTrax has been able to overcome for us was storing of those records, producing them when we needed them for different situations, and the ability to determine whether something has been repaired or not repaired. It's given us an accurate account of what we have on hand and an up to date immediate assessment of our fleet.
Why was PSTrax the right fit? How are you using it at your agency?
Matthew Corso: PSTrax was the right fit for us because it provides us a way to produce information quicker. We're able to sort information quicker. We've had to produce records for internal investigations. We've had to produce records for governmental agencies here in Texas. We have the Texas Fire Commission and they've come to audit us with different things. We're able to provide the information a lot quicker because we have it at our fingertips immediately for access, and we can sort it the way we need to. Currently, we use the station and fleet checklist. We also use the SCBA module and we are using the Inventory module for our disposable items.
What's the best thing about PSTrax? What specific results have you achieved?
Matthew Corso: the best thing about PSTrax is the ease of use. It is a complete completely digital system. We use it on a daily basis. It's very user friendly. We're able to produce the information we need quickly and with little effort. Every time we've needed customer service the customer service has been great. Actually feel like I have a pretty good working relationship with several of the team members from PSTrax and they know me by name and a lot of them, I don't know them by face, but I know them by name and they're always willing to help. We've had a lot of success especially from my end we started our own air pack shop a few years ago and having the SCBA module available when we started that shop, it's kept us organized, it's kept us compliant with NFPA and the Texas Fire Commission. And we're able to maintain our records very well which is a big part of having your own SCBA shop. And it's just made it a lot easier for us internally.
Would you recommend PSTrax? And why?
Matthew Corso: I would absolutely recommend PSTrax. I would recommend it because it has just made so many things easier from the administration side of a fire department by getting rid of different forms and binders full of old checklists and different spreadsheet formats and things like that. Everything is in one place, it's easy to access, it's easy to use and it's user-friendly. It's, from my perspective, it's so simple and it's so convenient when the records are needed and the information is needed quick and in a hurry, I'm able to pull it up very easily and if I do end up having a question or a snag, I've got a good customer support team that helps me and they usually do it within a few hours of requesting it. So it's been a great system for us. I enjoy it. I hope we continue to use it for years to come. I was around when we didn't have something as convenient as this and this just makes things so much simpler from the administration side.
