Being permanant to the person would prohibit any kind of sensible numbering system
IMO. Formerly, everyone kept their number. Say FF Joe made Lt., he would be Lt. 263. But another Lt. might be Lt. 242 or Lt. 299. So we "organized" things a little better. Our station is station 200, so all trucks and personnel unit numbers fall within 200-299. Truck are 205,210, 211, 220, 230, 235 and the boat is 248 after a Lt. who was a
LODD. Now officers are Cheif 200, 201(which is the Ass Chief) Captain 201, 202, 203, 204 Lt. 201, 202, 203, 204 and ff and/or emts are from 240 up to 299. It seems to be the simplist way to desginate the rank and which person it is. All departments in the county have gone to this except my full time department and the "other" full time department, because we are "light years ahead"

They have tried to move each person up a number with promotions or whatever, but most of us have refused to take a different number to avoid unneeded confusion. I'm staying Captain 204 no matter what happens to the other 3 Captains. Everyone in the county knows who Capt. 204 is and there is no need to change it. Hope this helps you out or gives you some ideas.