How many departments have requirements to ride the front seat and act as an officer?

At work we always have an officer on shift or at least a senior
firefighter as the acting for the day so its not an issue, but at the
vollie house, its anyone's guess as to who may be riding the seat to any
particular call.

We are a combination department and have a Captain on each shift who
rides the seat of the engine and is in command for the day but as far as
volunteer response, we respond from home most times (unless we are
riding extra and staffing a truck or two) and its hard to guess who will
be the acting officer.  Writing this off as a downfall of the volunteer
fire service would be ignorant.  There are plenty of great volunteer
fire departments that do have requirements in place to act as an
officer, but there are also plenty of great volunteer departments that
don't.

Among other things, one of the most important skills a firefighter who
will be acting as an officer can have is good radio communications.  At
our department, sometimes the highest qualified individual will end up
being the driver.  On MVAs this is no big deal really as the driver can
still get out and function as a member of the team or take command but
when you're driving the wagon, you can't effectively supervise your crew
inside the structure.  Therefore, the responsibility falls to the
member riding the seat.  Hopefully you will get someone with a few years
under their belt who has a good idea of what it takes, but on occasion
you may not. 

I know at our department, everyone wants to ride the front seat. 
Winding up the Q, stomping on the airhorns, and talking on the radio
seems like every probies dream. 

How do you train new members on radio procedures?  How do you correct
bad habits with older members?  Do you just expect the rookies to listen
to how the other guys do it and emulate that?

Most of our older members have a tendency to say nothing but " truck XXX
is on scene."  Quite a few times I have gotten back from a run and say,
"Why the hell were you talking so damn much on the radio when you got
on scene?"  When all I said was, "XXX is on the scene, two car MVA, one
overturned in the ditch, we will be investigating."

Make sure that your guys who are acting as officers know that the
apparatus responding behind them need to know what they are facing and
should have a quick mental picture from the initial on scene report.

This is especially important on fires.  Even if you live under a rock,
I'm sure you would give a report as you're pulling up to a rocking fire
something like this, " Engine XXX is on scene, fire showing."  What
about where the closest hydrant is? How about other hazards or
obstructions?  Or, if you don't have pre arranged assignments for
responding apparatus, a quick order to the second due to grab the plug
at the intersection, etc?

Another point to be made as far as communications goes, is tell your
members to leave their bedroom voices at home.  Some of our guys speak
so softly into the radio you wonder if they think it will explode in
their hand if they speak in a normal tone of voice.  It's common sense
that you don't want to be yelling into a radio but there is a difference
between freaking out on the radio and speaking in a clear,
authoritative voice over the radio.

This blog is pretty much just a
collection of random thoughts so I'm sorry if they haven't made too much
sense.  I'm 40 hours into a 60 hour shift (trades suck at first, but
when you don't have to come to work for two weeks they are great!) and
my brain is pretty scrambled.  Hopefully soon I will try to elaborate
further on what it takes to RIDE THE SEAT.