How to Buy an Ambulance

Purchasing an ambulance is quite an involved process that takes about 9 months from start to finish. Right after the holidays we began working on a list of specifications that we thought were important and began taking a broad look at what was available. After a month we settled on a few companies and had them come out with their vehicles.

We figured out pretty fast that most new, well built ambulances aren't that different. Each has a few features that stand out but in the end it would be hard to go wrong with any of them. A more challenging question for us was which chassis do we put it on. We were unhappy with our current Ford E450 and were  looking for something different. We had our choice of Chevrolet and Dodge.

After much deliberation we decided to mount our new truck on a Chevy C4500 chassis. That information was sent off to two ambulance manufacturers and they came back with quotes a couple weeks later. After more deliberation we decided on a Braun Super Chief XL on a Chevy C4500 chassis.

Then the waiting began. Six months of production and some fine tuning of the design led us to the recent delivery our new truck. Once the truck arrived at our station we still needed to figure out where all the equipment will be located, radios needed to be installed, graphics needed to be applied and drivers needed to be trained. All this took another month and countless hours of work.

We are thrilled with the truck so far. It has been out on four calls in the last two days and has gotten great reviews from crews and patients. Thankfully we only have to go through this nine month long process every 4 years.