Any decent inspecting officer should be able to carry out a competent FRA, so, when he retires, what harm is there if he goes out offering his services for whatever fees he chooses. Are we sure that the first message is not just yet another wind up. I cannot believe anyone would seriously believe what is said. I have long and openly stated that the old retired duffers can do a prefectly good job and that professional consultants cannot compete with that end of the market. Having said that, they often have no PI insurance (or not of the appropriate limit). Also, I have been disappointed to see some examples of such people's work and a problem that never occurred to me before relates to CPD, and there is where Mr Carrot's point about greed may possibly have some relevance. What I never fully appreciated before is that what they do is this. They think cor blimey guv'nor , stone the crows, imagine if I charge £200 a day. Well that's let me see now ummm where's my calculator, thats £1000 a week, so wot about this. I will spend a couple of days doing the ole DIY for the ole Dutch, take the old bat out for runs in the country, etc 2 days. That leaves , let me see now ummmmm 5-2, wheres my calculator, yes I think thats 3 days to earn all this dosh, so thats £600 per week. A holiday in spain or two for the Old dutch, thats --wait my calculator is running red hot there are so many noughts, say 48 times 600 thats £28,800 on top of the old pension. Cor blimey, Ill be rich!!!! Then reality dawns. They think that all they have to do is hang up their sign and people will come running, after all they were a member of the British Fire Service. But the phone isnt ringing. Oh heck no one knows they are there. But marketing costs money, and that would have to come off the old fortune. Tell you what, drop the rates a bit, after all there is loadsa dosh. And then there is my mate old Fred. he has been in the consultancy game for a bit since he retired, and he says he can let me have a bit. Only thing is he wants some of the dosh, but hey there is loadsa dosh remember. fred says just to get the old Dutch to type the reports, no matter that she was a dressmaker and cant spell very well, but hey with spellcheck who cares. Dont want to employ a proper secretary , they would want some of the dosh. Fred says dont worry about layout and stuff like that, just get the gubbins down. Fred says he wont bother checking the reports for technical content, after all as he says no one bothered when I was in the brigade. He says he will look for spellling errors, though his spelling is not too hot himself. I still have some of the old brigade guidance notes with standard wordings. I can use them. they will do the bizz. Some wallah was trying to sell me subscriptions to some magazines. To heck with that, it would mean some money off the loadsa dosh. And the old dutch is moaning about her arthritis with all this typing, so I might need to get some dolly bird to do a bit of typing in the evenings. wonder if some of the brigade secretaries would like a bit of pcoket money. Some geezer was trying to sell me training and conferences. I gave him short shift. I was in the British fire service, you dont get better training than that. And with the old brigade guidance notes whats new to learn. he was rabbitting on about changes to standards and stuff, load of old codswallop. You should see the price of the seminars too. They must think I am made of dosh. And I am sooooooooo busy with my £100 a day thats left after I paid fred and the dolly, that I cant afford the loss of earnings to go hither and thither and read this that and the other to keep up to date. Gor blimey, now some geezer was offering to sell me access to standards online for about 4 grand. Have they any idea how long it takes me to earn 4 grand. No neither have I cos the batteries in the calculator have gone, working out all those damn noughts. And so off he goes still quoting BS 5423 for the fire extinguishers (as I saw recently in one case) and telling people what the 1985 building regs said (as I saw in another case) or (and here is the real beaut) quoting brigade guidance notes on the DRAFT pre 1997 regs (so even the name was wrong) and telling people if you have an OSRA certificate you will still have to do an FRA, implying if you have a FPA cert you dont. I wonder if these people would consult a doctor who used to work for the NHS in the 1990s but hasnt as much as read the Lancet since that time. I am not sure whether it is greed, lack of professionalism, sheer ignorance or a form of arrogance, or a combination fo the lot. But I would stress that this is SOME of the retirees, and I would further stress that, if they are prepared to do a proper job and treat it as a profession, in the same way as people like Brian, and not just drinking money, they will probably do a good job and good luck to them. Let them charge what they want its a free market and let them enjoy their pesnion, which, after all, they paid for. As for me, I have done 30 years continuous in fire safety come this November, so I might retire and become a CFO. I wont need to keep up to date then, cos I will leave it all the Dep and just spend my time being nice to the Members of the Fire Authority. How hard can that be?
