First aiders in demand
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This year's Ambex ambulance and ancillary equipment show held at Harrogate's exhibition centre, ended with exhibitors in buoyant mood. Ambulance operators are buying again. If they're not buying, they're going for contract hire, according to Ryder.
Ryder points out that when an Area Health Authority secures National Health Service Trust status, it is required to deliver a 6% return on capital employed. "It therefore makes increasing sense for a trust to divest itself of depreciating assets such as vehicles," argues the company. Ryder now supplies vehicles to over 20 ambulance services and NHS Trusts countrywide.
Fiat, with its new Ducato, and MercedesBenz with its Sprinter are determined to gain market share. The latter's 2.9-litre five-cylinder turbodiesel engine will help its case. Front-line emergency ambulance operators are favouring punchy turbo compression-ignition engines to cut fuel bills.
The ambulance market is a small one. Renault UK estimates that annual sales total no more than 900, with just 300 of those front-line vehicles. So why battle for business? Because of the prestige—and because what selection by a demanding ambulance operator says about your (usually light commercial-based) product.
• If the reaction of visitors to Ambex to the new Sprinter is anything to go by, Mercedes-Benz should make further inroads into the ambulance market. The manufacturer showed a 3,550mm wheelbase 312D with a Customline Lazer body built by Universal Vehicle Group's Brighouse, West Yorkshire based ambulance division. Designed for accident and emergency use, it uses a stainless steel framework clad with colour-impregnated grp side and roof panels. Standard equipment includes a stainless steel folding rear step and a floor overlaid with plywood covered in non-slip vinyl. Also on display was a 4,025mm wheelbase high-roof 308D converted for patient transport by Whitacres of Stoke-on-Trent. A 12-seater, it has floor and sidewall-mounted tracking to secure wheelchairs plus a 300kg capacity tail lift from PL.S.
Lincolnshire Ambulance announced an order for eight 312Ds at the show. The punch of the 2.9-litre turbo-diesel engine, with ABS as standard, were influencing factors. "But we also wanted a vehicle that looks set to be reliable and cost-effective, and is pleasing in appearance," says chief executive, Mike Ruffle. Lincolnshire currently runs a mixture of vehicles, including Mercedes 310Ds, Ford Transits, and Peugeot Expresses.
• Taurus Bodies of Reddish, Stockport, working with Ford, has developed a prototype ambulance based on the Galaxy people-carrier. Designed for use by paramedics, it carries a single stretcher plus emergency equipment. The equipment clips into the snap-in seat mountings in the floor, and can be quickly removed. There are seats for a paramedic/doctor and an attendant as well as a driver.
The Galaxy model used is the 2.8 litre V6 GLX petrol, which comes with ABS and traction control as standard and is available with a manual or an automatic gearbox.
• Given the increasing volumes of equipment that accident and emergency crews have to carry, the bigger the ambulance body the better. Some services are now specifying the high-roof version of Renault's Master to obtain extra space to fit overhead lockers. • Orlando, Florida-based Wheeled Coach's stand featured a US-built Ford E-350 chassis equipped with a 7,3-litre turbo-diesel engine. It's fitted with bodywork constructed at Wheeled Coach's factory in Kansas.
Right-hand-drive, and grossing at 9.6 tonnes, it was originally designed for the Japanese market but is going into action with the Royal Berkshire service.
Made from alloy frames clad with alloy panels, and usually mounted on US-built GMC chassis when sold in the UK, Wheeled Coach bodywork has proved popular with the Northumbria and Avon services as well as Royal Berkshire, The company has supplied 65 ambulances to UK operators to date. Twenty-five are going into service with East Anglia, which has suffered operational problems with a number of its Canadian-built TriStar ambulances.
• Better known for its heavy truck activities, Drinkwater Chassis Engineering nevertheless produces air-suspension packages for ambulances. Over 300 are in service. As mounted on lveco Ford's Turbo Daily chassis, it uses twin air bags located to the rear of the back axle which are inflated by an NCAR silent compressor. The raise/lower facility allows the rear frame height to be dropped to 495mm. Koni double-acting shock absorbers are also fitted. The airsuspension was combined with a MacNeillie cassette-type ramp on one of New Ford's show vehicles
*All operators of patient transport service ambulances want to make access for wheelchair-borne passengers easier. One option is to fit Granning Lynx's Maxidrop system, now available for Peugeot's Boxer, Citroen's Relay, and Fiat's Ducato, as well as for VW's Transporter and Renault's Master.
As f tted to a Fiat Ducato, it involves installing Firestone air spring to the rear of the back axle and a compressor
supplyng a 10-litre air tank. Operational air spring pressure is 2.5 o 4.0bor. Maxidrop is operated by a one-touch switch which deflates the springs in 15/20 seconds. Reflation takes about the same time.
Lowered rear loading height is 320mm on short-wheelbase, 340mm on medium-wheelbase, and 360mm on long-wheelbase models. Wheelbox modification can cut these figures to 250mm, 270mm, and 290mm respectively.
• As well as displaying a 400 Series fitted with a re-engineered version of Universal Vehicle Group's Premia body, LDV showed two patient transport services conversions to the same model.
UVG Customline's conversion is based on the Hi-Loader van, and has been developed in conjunction with Staffordshire County Council. With space for 10 seated, and two wheelchair passengers, it's fitted with an electrically-operated plug side door with electric step, a rear-mounted lift from PLS, tracking to secure wheelchairs, and air suspension.
Pathfinder's conversion will carry seven passengers plus two more in wheelchairs. It's aimed at social services, and is designed to transport people on day or shopping trips.