Quote:Our fire department's ambulance service is currently third party contract, so we have no say in the rig nor do we do much more than help on scene, sometimes drive if needed and help with patient care on the bad ones. I have very little control over who staffs the rigs, how they position the rigs to respond, etc.
You can do alot on a 3500 chassis, but that also means some of the heavier bodys need to be eliminated. I'm doing a final inspection tonight & tomorrow but hopefully I will be able to upload some pics to a new topic in the other emergency vehicles category this weekend. Good luck to you in the future, trying to convince a group on a change of size especially when going smaller is CHALLENGING to say the least!
The problem I continually see is that customers are looking to carry everything and the kitchen sink. I've had to put JAWS, pike poles, cribbing just to name a few things, OH I forgot my favorite three M size O2 tanks. I would like the beffed up Silverado for those customers, I think for alot the 3500 will do as long as they are willing to give up some space and pay close attention to weight ratings.
I think the EMS industries biggest problem is overloaded trucks. I try to have my customers weigh each truck after delivery and loading while carrying a simulated patient, driver and two attendants. It's best to understand if your overweight and what puts you over before its cold & icy while coming down a hill one night!
Kris
At some point, depending on our luck with the voters, we'd like to create our own ambulance service/taxing district that would be fire department ran. Lots of advantages with this, both for us and our customers, which I won't elaborate on here too much. I do know that our long term financial heath will be much better if we can pull this off.
Some of the rigs used by our local private ambulances are very nice Type I units on a 3500 chassis. Sure, the box doesn't have as much headroom, and is a little smaller in a few dimensions, but I also think their rigs don't suffer from the same wear and tear because they aren't behemoths...
Maybe now that I count the beans I just see things from a different perspective. But all of the fire department based ambulances around here are just becoming enormous.
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