The Hearse - Telling them apart

    Those outside the funeral industry (as in those who have never worked for a funeral company) cannot tell hearse's apart.  Even a few within the funeral industry can have trouble identifying different hearses.

    So here is a post on how to identify a hearse.  In this post I look closely at each of the main tell-tale features of various hearses.  From the style of the roof to the wing doors.  After reading this post anyone could easily identify a hearse!

Funeral Terminology

    There is a bit of specific terminology in the funeral industry.  But actually not that much, especially when compared with other areas such as psychology, medicine, etc.


General Terminology:

• DC - Death Certificate, the original is essential with all burials and cremations.  Also used as authority to transfer a body.
• CC - Cremation Certificate, the original is essential with all cremations.
• Intrim - A temporary DC used to transfer a body.  It is not suitable for burial or cremation.
• NDY or Not Dead Yet - Someone who is soon to die and is arranging their funeral.

Transfer Terminology:

• Transfer - The process of moving a dead body prior to any service, such as collecting a body from the hospital to bring to the funeral home.  Or taking the body to the airport to be sent overseas.
• Transfer Vehicle, Ambulance Hearse - Although 'ambulance hearse' is a much older term often considered inappropriate by many, it can still be used.  Either way this is the vehicle used to transfer the body.  It is usually a white Toyota Hiace van.
• Ambulance Stretcher, Collapsible Stretcher - A stretcher used to transfer bodies.  It has collapsable legs, like an ambulance stretcher, which fold down and in with the use of a handel.
• One-Man Stretcher, Carry Stretcher - A stretcher used to transfer bodies.  It has no legs, instead only two wheels on the foot end of the stretcher.  It is much lighter and cheaper than the ambulance stretcher but the lack of legs makes it difficult to carry heavy bodies.
• Slide Sheets - Large slippery sheets made from parachute material.  They are used to slide or carry bodies about, often in small or awkward spaces.  Although these sheets are not cheap they are durable and reusable.
• Pat Slides - A flat, thin board, smaller than the average person.  It is used in hospitals and nursing homes as well to slide a body from the bed to stretcher.  Or to slide a body up or down small heights.
• Evacuation Pod - This is basically like a hammock that is sealed with buckles.  Used to move a body up or down stairs.  One person will hold the long handles at both the foot and head end which makes the weight even and controllable, even down steep stairs or slopes.
• Seat Slide - A cloth basket like carrier with four handles.  It is used to move a body from a seated position (such as on the toilet or in a chair) and onto the stretcher.
• Body Bag - A blue large plastic bag made out of tarpaulin like material used for containing and moving a body.  It has a long zipper from head to toe and can be unzipped so it is completely open.  Although most body bags are simple and have no handels lately there have been more with handels, and more cloth style body bags.
• Valuables - Anything on the body other than clothes.  Such as jewellery, pictures, watches, money, etc.  It does not have to be worth anything.  All valuables should be noted on the transfer sheet and in the mortuary book.
• ID Tag, Wrist Tag - An armband placed around at least one, but sometimes both wrists of the deceased.  There should always be at least one on the body at all times.  The wirst tag is similar to a hospital or club wrist band, plastic and secured with one press button that cannot be undone once fastened.  Some places use different colours to represent different things, such as yellow for valuables to be returned to the family and blue for valuables to stay with the body or red for no valuables.

Funeral & Hearse Terminology:

• Goose Neck - The stopper used in a hearse to keep the coffin in place.  It is slotted into special holes along the middle of the hearse and tightened with a horizontal screw with a rubber stopped on the end.
• Pegs - The small metal 'sticks' used to keep the coffin straight as it is loaded or unloaded from the hearse.  They have rubber on the top to prevent damage to the coffin.
• Ropes - The long flat ropes used to manually lower the coffin at the grave.
• Automatic Lower - A device used at the graveside to lower coffins automatically.  It can only be used on certain lawn graves.  Basically it uses clockwork style gears inside to keep the speed steady and slow.
• Wing Droos, Side Doors - When referring to the hearse this is describing the small doors on either side that open to the space under where the coffin sits.  The space underneath the coffin is completely hollow and designed to store things, these doors give access to that area.
• Coffin Bars - Long bars used to carry a coffin.  At least two are placed under the coffin, one at each end, and one person will carry the bar on either side.  This means at least four people will carry the coffin with both hands, which makes it much easier.
• Catafalgue - A special and specific object at crematoriums.  This is what the coffin is placed on at the crematorium, be it fixed to the front or movable and on wheels.
• Crypt, Vault - A special above ground 'burial' for the deceased.  Usually refers to a small stone building where four to ten coffins can sit on each level.  It sometimes has two levels, one on the surface and one underground.
• Cortege - The process of cars following the hearse.  They should (by law) have their lights on, but not hazard lights or high beams.  The cortege should also have right of way (by law) at roundabouts and other intersections without lights.  It is also highly illegal to cut-off a cortege, but this is difficult to prove or police.
• Police Cortege, Police Honour Guard - A special cortege which has police guiding it or blocking traffic at least part of the way.  Very rare now with few funerals having police escorts unless the deceased had direct ties to the police or was extremely important.  This type of cortege will often speed slightly and run read lights.  They will also follow each other a lot closer in this type of cortege.
• Family Car, Mourning Car - The car provided by the funeral company to transport the family, friends of the deceased or the priest or celebrant.  For example Greek Orthodox funerals must provide a free car for the priest, although they will often charge the family secretly.
• Zink Liner - A special inside lining made of zink.  It is used for international transfers or for coffins going into a vault.  The zink liner prevents fluids and gases getting in or out of the coffin.
• Grave Marker - A simple marker used to indicate where someone was recently buried.  It can be used temporarily or in lieu of a gravestone.  Most often it is a simple white wooden cross.

Mortuary Terminology:

• TP - A temporary, simple embalming of the body.  It is much quicker and easier than a complete embalm.
• Aneurysm Hook - Perhaps one of the most useful and versatile tools in the mortuary.  And it looks and feels great! With a flat hook on one end and a rounded scraper on the other it can be used in endless ways.  Plus the gap in the middle makes it great for tying suture corde to, this means the needle wont go falling off the table.
• Forceps - Scissor like tool that seals, grabs and clamps rather than cuts.
• Trocar - An ancient device used to inject and/or remove fluids from a body.

This is a picture of just about every tool used in embalming or the mortuary in general.  Starting from left to right at the top you can see the trocar, other similar fluid removing/adding tools, forceps and clamps and finally the different gauges of needles used for suturing and other such tasks.  On the second, bottom row we see scalpels, scissors, a few different aneurysm hooks, tweezers and finally different attachments for the trocar.

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Working Funerals - The Hearse Revealed

    If the transfer van is the silent workhorse of the funeral industry then the hearse is the racehorse everyone watches.  Yet most people do not really look at it, let alone know how a hearse works.  I have found people will watch the hearse, it is a fancy different car carrying a coffin.  But people will not look at it properly.  The watching is mostly superficial and not intense.  It is as though to look too closely would be wrong.  So here is the hearse revealed for what it is, just another car.

    Unlike America no car companies make hearses in Australia.  Instead the hearse is a regular car that has been modified.  Funeral homes will buy a car form the dealer, then take it to a third party car modification place, such as Hadleys, to be turned into a hearse.  Each funeral home can make the hearse the way they want to which ensures it is individual to that company.  They usually use a bottom end or mid-range car, such as a commodore, rebadged to pretend it is a top end car.  They have to pay for the brand new car which can be about $40,000, then roughly another $60,000 to get it modified.  All in all a brand new hearse can easily cost over $100,000 and take a month or more to make.  And they do not need a fancy car for a hearse, it looks no different and costs so much more.  So getting a basic car and converting it makes sense when you think about it.

    There are a few types of hearses in a large variety of colours from new to old.  From black Holdens to white Chryslers.  If a funeral home wants a specific hearse it can be made.  And if the family want a specific hearse it can be found.  But at their heart all of the hearses are the same.  My experience has mostly been with the W.N.Bull fleet, so I will focus on those hearses.

    W.N.Bull has a fleet of three early 2000s Holden Statesman hearses and one 2011 Holden Commodore hearse rebadged as a caprice.  This is the only company to use actual Statesman cars as a hearse and not just re-badged commodores.  Although now InvoCare owns the company this policy has changed and they are now getting Commodores.

Statesman hearse drivers side wing door.

    The hearse has a lot of space, and a lot of doors.  And every hearse will have different ways to open these doors.  The wing doors are the small doors on either side of the hearse that open up the space underneath where the coffin sits.  Here is where we keep tables, chairs, umbrellas, a CD player, the church trolly and much more.  In some hearses they have a button behind the back passenger seats, in others they have the buttons on the middle console by the drivers seat.  And a few have handles on the wing doors themselves.  The handle option is becoming more popular as it is easier to open.  If the wing door gets stuck, which happens a fair bit, or is on a slope and liable to hit something if it swings open then it is a two person job.  One will press the button while the other stands by the door and makes sure it opens correctly. Whereas a hearse that has handles on the wing doors can be opened by just one person in these situations.  The down side is many find the handles to be unappealing and I have heard it costs more.

    The rear (or boot) door that opens to the coffin can be opened in many different ways.  Some will have a button by the drivers seat, like many boot doors.  Others have a button under a wheel arch or by the back number plate.

    Some terminology:
- The gooseneck; is the device used to keep the coffin in place.  It is a simple chrome piece that slots into two holes and is then tightened.
- The bar; is an extendable bar at the back of the hearse.  The foot of the coffin is placed on this as it is slid in or out of the hearse.
- Wing doors; are the small doors on either side of the hearse that open up the space underneath where the coffin sits.
- Duel cab; refers to the number of seats.  A duel cab hearse has four passenger doors and is much longer than a two door hearse.

All photos were taken with an iPhone, so excuse the low quality of some.

Statesman hearse front.

Caprice hearse rear. You can clearly see ordinary commodore mud flaps and tail lights.

Caprice hearse front.

Statesman hearse drivers side wing door.

Statesman hearse drivers side wing door.

Caprice hearse passenger side wing door, with protective carpet down.

Inside the statesman hearse wing door.

Inside the passenger side wing door, with protective carpet up.

Caprice hearse wing door.

Inside the caprice hearse wing doors.

Button to open the wing doors in the caprice hearse.

From inside the hearse, looking into where the coffin sits.

Inside the statesman hearse cabin.

Back seats inside the statesman hearse cabin.

Inside the statesman hearse cabin.

The 'bar' on the statesman hearse.
The foot of the coffin is placed on this as it is taken in or out
to protect the bumper and make it easier to load or unload.
You can see the silver holy water container to the right at the back.
The great cover with a handel in the middle opens a small compartment where the
crucifixes and other small stuff is kept.

The 'pegs' to the side are what help aline the coffin as we slide it in or out.
They can be moved in or out depending on what is needed and have rubber on the tops to prevent damage.
The rollers along the bottom make sliding the coffin about easy. 

Straightening the foot of a coffin just after loading up.
The windows separating the coffin from the cabin can be slid open to gain access to the foot of the coffin.

The cabin of the statesman hearse with doors open.

Back of the statesman hearse after loading.
The door is always left open once a coffin is inside while the hearse is in the garage.

Rear bar in.

Rear bar extended.

The "goose neck" is what keeps the coffin in place. It sits at the head end (by the door) and is slotted into two holes to hold it. Then it is tightened to keep the coffin still. It is a fancy version of the same thing used in the transfer cars to keep stretchers in place.

The Caprice hearse outside a church in Waverley.

The Caprice hearse outside a church in Waverley.

The caprice hearse open, ready for the coffin to come out of the church.

The great cover with a handel in the middle opens a small compartment where the
crucifixes and other small stuff is kept.

You can see the silver holy water container to the right at the back.

Inside the caprice.

Returning home after a rainy day. The family had scattered frangipani flowers on top and inside the hearse.

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