Doesn't shock me. For profit companies will do what they can to cut costs. What would surprise me is if this service retains or recruits any sort of high quality personnel that can walk and chew gum at the same time. I guess if you go from volunteering to this service then $8/hr to post on a street corner in a 400k mile ambulance from the mid 90s sounds pretty good :/
Speaking about mid 90s ambulances, I think that it looks utterly unprofessional. An old, run-down ambulance is one of the worst things that I think a private ambulance company can do to harm themselves. After all, EMS is a customer service business. And for the record, Type IIIs look older than Type Is.
This highlights a problem I'm struggling to fix; that is, finding county and/or city funded services. I realize that pay at those types of services are not great, and I realize that they come with their own problems, but I'd still feel a bit safer taking a county/city job than a for-profit business.
That said, has anyone come across a list of such services? Or compiled one on your own? A Google search turns up plenty of hits ... most of them irrelevant.
There's literally dozens upon dozens. And the pay and benefits at county services are usually FAR better than the privates. If there's no service that meets your "gotta have" list, think about moving.
Look for an area where you want to live and then research the surrounding services.
For example, If you say, "I'd like to live in Florida and work for a third service, where should I apply?" You'll get some answers from the FLA peeps. It's also MUCH easier to get hired as medic.
Delaware met all the points on my list, so I packed up and moved from the PNW. Even though I'm no longer working there, Sussex is still the best ALS only county service I found.