# Protransport or Royal?



## Billybob (Nov 28, 2011)

Which would you work for?

PT-1 EMT part time on call with availability 4 days out of the week with no guarantee of a shift. You would have the possibility to advance and have some medic positions. Much larger company.

Royal is EMT full time 30 hours per week, so assume 3 10 hour shifts. But no advancement past EMT except probably FTO, etc... Heard they run a lot of dialysis calls.

Anyone know much about these companies?

Appreciate you thoughts.


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## Joe (Nov 28, 2011)

honestly... where ever will hire you so you can get experiance. lets be honest, are you gonna make a career out of either of those places? just use it for the experiance


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## usafmedic45 (Nov 28, 2011)

Joe said:


> honestly... where ever will hire you so you can get experiance. lets be honest, are you gonna make a career out of either of those places? just use it for the experiance



What he said.  Especially in oversaturated markets (California, Florida, Chicago, etc), you can't afford to be picky.


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## cstiltzcook2 (Dec 3, 2011)

royal. PT-1 is a decent place to work, good people, new equipment, but that on call policy will make you want to swallow glass. With that said, take either and keep looking. I survived, and got out after 600 hours and 8 months.


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## Aprz (Dec 4, 2011)

I've been working for ProTransport-1 since August 2011.

The on call/part time schedule is not as bad as it sounds. Most new hires start off on call/part time without a regular schedule because the schedule is set in stone every three months; you have to wait until they write a new schedule. For new hires, you can still work full time hours by calling the scheduling department to ask them what is available, and pick up shifts.

ProTransport-1 also uses EMS Staff Pro which can be found through their website at www.protransport-1.com, click EMPLOYEES, and then it's Traumasoft. It was Traumasoft before they changed it to EMS Staff Pro. If you click Traumasoft, it will take you to EMS Staff Pro. EMS Staff Pro contains information like phone numbers, policies, links to various county protocols, and your schedule. You can pick up shifts or substitute for others. There are a lot of available shifts to pick up.







Since my FTO time, I've been working full time hours without any problem getting shifts (I'm considered on call/part time right, I'll have a full time regular schedule by the end of this month). Last week was my first time working less than 35 hours (I worked 31 hours) because I started taking EMT Refresher so it made it more difficult for me to pick up shifts.

Since you mentioned Royal Ambulance and ProTransport-1, I assume you want to work in either Santa Clara County or Alameda County (ProTransport-1 is all of northern California, Royal is only in Santa Clara and Alameda). I was hired for the Santa Clara County station (station 61 - Palo Alto), but I did my training and picked up the majority of my shifts in Alameda County (station 51 - Richmond (located in Contra Costa County, but primarily does transports in Alameda County) , station 54 - Oakland, and station 55 - Hayward).

In Santa Clara, the majority of our calls are discharges, long distances, and CCT (NICU/PICU). We'll also transport the LifeFlight team. We rarely get any other type of calls (including dialysis). We have two dedicated rig for NICU/PICU transports, but only one dedicated crew at a time. If the dedicated crew is busy on a call, a BLS crew will pickup the second dedicated rig to run the call. It seems to happen regularly, but not regularly enough to have a second dedicated crew. It's usually pretty slow (<4 calls a day for a 10 hour shift). What kills us is if we get a lot of long distance calls at the same time, which has happened a couple of times.

In Alameda County, we get a variety of calls: discharges, dialysis, MRI, radiation, 5150s, and CCT.  All the stations that work in Alameda County are moderately busy (I'd say 5-6 calls per 10 hour shift, if you work on a rig dedicated to a hospital, you could see about 7-10 calls a day). A lot of the transports are very short (e.g. Eden Medical Center to LifeHouse is only 0.2 miles, Eden Medical Center to John George Pavilion is 3.1 miles, Sutter Alta Bates - Ashby Campus to Sutter Herrick Hospital is 0.7 miles I think).

Starting is $9.50/hour and we also get paid per call and by distances (with a patient in the rig). If you work a day shift, you get $10/call. I think after 5 calls, you get $20/call. If you work graveyard, you get $15/call. I forget what it is for graveyard after a certain number of calls or if it stays like that (doubt it). We also get paid $10 for the first 50 miles, an additional $10 every 25 miles. My paychecks working 35-40 hours/week come out to be about $1,000-$1,200 every 2 weeks. So the folks that work in Alameda County get decent paychecks because of the call volume/short transport times. In Santa Clara, we get a decent paycheck because of the long distance calls we get, but still less than Alameda County unfortunately. The station in Santa Clara county (station 61 - Palo Alto) is a good station to work in if you're in school and want to study, but they do expect the call volumes to go up significantly since we have ALS now so that might change.

My experience at ProTransport-1 has been a good one so far.

When I went to San Jose City College for my EMT, I remembered all the students and some of the skill instructors saying "Don't work for WestMed, the EMTs there are dumb", other people saying "If you work for AMR, you're a good EMT", and stuff like that. At Chabot College, a lot of the EMT students only planned on becoming a firefighter, and AMR was practically the only ambulance company you could work for in the Hayward area (there was Royal Ambulance and WestMed, but they are pretty small). Unfortunately, I heard "ProTransport-1, the EMTs there are horrible!" Meeting people from different company, it's funny how you'd hear from a somebody who works at Royal Ambulance "NorCal EMTs are rude!", somebody who works at AMR "ProTransport-1 EMTs are a joke", etc. Without thinking about it, I believed them for a long time, and it's the reason I didn't apply to ProTransport-1 until after more than a year looking for an EMT job and even seriously considering moving out of the state, and I probably would have moved to if the person I was gonna move with didn't end up getting ill and dying. The reality of it is that regardless if you work for Royal Ambulance, WestMed, NorCal, Silicon Valley Ambulance, AMR, Rural/Metro, Golden State, ProTransport-1, Priority One, Merrit Ambulance, and anybody else that I forgot to mention, the EMTs are all the same pretty much. You got some EMTs that are horrible, and some that are pretty good. It doesn't matter which company you work for. The difference in company is probably gonna change the color of your uniform and the color your ambulance is. This is also true for EMTs in 9-1-1 or in interfacility transport (IFT, BLS transport, hospital to hospital, whatever you want to call it). I massively regret not applying to ProTransport-1 sooner (in parallel to applying just about everywhere else).

Apply to both; apply everywhere.


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## Aprz (Dec 4, 2011)

I'd like to add that dialysis calls aren't as much of a drag as people make it seem. In fact, they are sometimes the sickest patients you can get. It's funny how I see how EMTs can do a full head to toe, which isn't indicated on these patients, but somehow seem to never touch the AV fistula and know what a "thrill" is or what it feels like - it's freaky. They commonly have other issues like respiratory problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, CAD, CHF, etc. so you can see things like clubbing of the fingers, Terry's nail, they'll have high blood pressure when you take a blood pressure, take lots of medications that you can look up in a physician desk reference (PDR), a colorful chart and history, and it's not much different running a dialysis call versus running an MRI call, taking them radiation treatment, discharge, or whatever... you still take vital signs, focus example, write down their history, medications, and allergies (usually found in their chart, and you just confirm the information with the patient or ask the patient on details like).

From what was told by HR when we did our orientation, ProTransport-1 doesn't pay for their EMTs to be medics. They used to, but it was a big flop. They have medic positions, but only at certain stations. For example, if you work in Alameda County, they don't have Paramedic positions. I know Santa Clara County (station 61), San Francisco County (station 81), and Hughson (ProTransport-1's only 9-1-1 contract) has Paramedics. I wouldn't be surprised if other stations have available paramedic positions, but I am really not sure where.

Like other ambulance companies, there are management and supervisor positions. I don't think being a ProTransport-1 supervisor would be much different than a Royal supervisor. I guess medic would be the biggest advancement (non administrative wise) you could do. I think our Paramedics are paid around $40k a year, but I am not sure. I'll ask one of the Paramedics later today when I go back to work.


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## Billybob (Dec 5, 2011)

Wow, lots of info. Thank you for taking the time to write this.


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## Underoath87 (Dec 5, 2011)

Does Royal issue capes, crowns, or scepters?

If not, I'd go with PT


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## NomadicMedic (Dec 5, 2011)

I worked for PT-1 when they were in the Seattle area. Decent pay, good equipment, always overtime if I wanted it ... It was a better than average IFT company. 

But, like everyone says, apply everywhere!


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## Aprz (Dec 6, 2011)

Heh, n7lxi, any idea why they closed that station down? It was the only one out of CA. Too slow?

Unfortunately, they don't give OT freely in this area,. Their scheduling department supposedly is only allowed to schedule you 40 hours. I've gotten scheduled over 40 hours a couple of times, but not much more (e.g. 44 hours). The way I get OT is if I work a 10 hour shift (2 hour OT), 12 hour shift (4 hour OT), or if the shift last longer than scheduled. Even if you work a schedule that's 8 hours, and you work it for like 10 hours, that doesn't affect how they can schedule you (e.g. you were scheduled 40 hours of the week, you have one more 10 hour shift, but you already worked 40 hours cause you got off your other shifts late, they don't take you off your last 10 hour shift, you end up getting the 10 hour OT).

I am betting that the OT was easier to get back when they had the station managers write the schedule, or when you had to call them in for your schedule (from what I was told, that's how it used to be). It's a little bit more organized, and done at their HQ in Cotati.

Royal has nice jackets, t-shirts, and caps I see their employees wear. I am not sure if they are issued or if they have to pay, didn't ask, I assume free, but who knows. No crown or scepters that I know of unfortunately. They have black nitriles gloves! I'm not a fan of ProTransport-1's current jacket (bright blue, thin). They had an older navy blue/black looking one that they dc'ed awhile ago. They are working on getting a firefighter-like jacket, those ones you see on 511, and they look nice, but the employees have to pay for it. :\


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## cstiltzcook2 (Dec 6, 2011)

*warning....bash*

Aprz i can't help but disagree. Glad you love PT and all, but have to point out 2 things off the bat. With that schedule screen shot you posted.....at first glance it looks like tons and tons of open shifts! I loved it when they made that the new policy for pickups....until i looked again, and realized a ton were, strike shifts(4 hour shifts) and some were even wheelchair van shifts. WORSE than that, when you push the "accept shift" it doesn't mean you actually own that shift! It means you have the responsibility to work any portion of that time if they change it, and won't know if they "upped" the shift until 12 hours before. Yes. They write the entire schedule as it suits them. Just think about that. They add literally one month full of extra shifts to the net, allow people to sign up to work them, and only go live with those shifts 12 hours before. 
  Lastly, I worked in SF, and the union contract was an abortion. I don't want to get too deep into it, but NEMSA was a dirty word in our bay. The best example I can give that the maroons (EMT chimpanzees that voted the union in just to get a small raise) allowed the union to negotiate for us was forfeiting overtime until after 40 hours. Yes, you would not make OT for a 20 hour shift, or any combination of shifts until you worked 40 for the week. 
  I have personally picked up an OT shift only to get cut from my last shift of the week to prevent me from picking up said OT. Dig?
  Lastly I want to say if it werent for Pro hiring 4000 emt basics this year, myself included, I wouldnt have the sweet gig I do now. They are the junior college of the bay, easy admissions,(you need a county card and a shirt size), decent teachers, and arent going to look at you funny when you transfer to a company/diploma you might actually stay at for three years more.

  Super last if it werent for our mgr and supervisors that bled with us, that place would be unbearable. 

rant vent bash over....


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## Aprz (Dec 6, 2011)

If the OP wants to work in Richmond, Oakland, or Hayward, which I think is likely since he mentioned Royal Ambulance, a lot of those shifts in the screenshot are out of those station, and there a lot of strike shifts (4 and 6 hour shifts), but there are also a lot of regular 8 and 10 hour shifts too. It hasn't been an issue for me. If he wants to work in Santa Clara county, it definitely will be more difficult working full time there trying to pick up shifts.

Out of station 51, 54, 55, and 61, I don't think I've seen a wheelchair van shift. I've seen it out of I believe station 41 (I think that's in Pleasant Hill). I've seen it on EMS Staff Pro probably three or four times in the past four months.

I consider the strike shifts somewhat of a risk to take. You are right that they will change it, but they haven't forced me to work it if they changed it. They've always called before changing it, and asked if that was okay with my schedule. What really blows with strike shifts is there is a high probability of getting a long distant transport, but if you get it, they haven't changed the time you worked e.g. your schedule 4 hours that day and 40 hours the whole week, you get a long distance and end up woring 8 hours, you are still scheduled the 40 hours. Unfortunately, they have dropped a shift or two before so my schedule stays close to 40 hours if they've called me before the strike shift to change how long it's gonna be, but I've been schedule 42 and 44 hours a couple of times. In Santa Clara County, our dedicated NICU/PICU team works 12 hour shifts, 4 days on (48 hours a week), 3 days off, 3 days on (36 hours a week), 4 days off. Unless you are considered a full time employee, we get OT after 8 hours on a shift and DT after 12 hours on a shift. After 40 hours a week regardless of being full time or not, we'll get OT.

Like all companies, they do have there pros and cons. Even the new 9-1-1 ambulances in my areas, Paramedic Plus and Rural/Metro, people have had their complaints. Before Paramedic Plus and Rural/Metro, I heard people whining about AMR here and there (they still liked it though). Compared to working fast food for the past three years, ProTransport-1 has been way better, lol.


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## NomadicMedic (Dec 7, 2011)

Aprz said:


> Heh, n7lxi, any idea why they closed that station down? It was the only one out of CA. Too slow?



Yeah, it was pretty slow. We never had a solid hospital contract and no 911 contract, so we mostly picked up scraps of dialysis and occasional discharges when AMR or TriMed was too busy. Also, the "station manager" was a total choad. There was a TON of unprofessional stuff going on, lots of employee theft and other bad stuff. The company was decent, the local management was awful. 

It was, as most people stated, a step before the next job.


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## TopGun77 (Dec 8, 2011)

Aprz, I can't help but disagree with most all of your points. I'm glad you like working for Pro but there are soooo many problems with that place. The employee turnover is incredible there, people come and go every day. First off, the work schedule screen that was posted, that must be towards the end of the 3 month shift bid after people have quite working there and those shifts are now available, normally its pretty difficult to pick up any shifts longer than 4 hours. It makes no sense to work 5 days a week doing 4 hour shifts every day, which is typical for a new hire to work. The scheduling policy is ridiculous there. They DO NOT care about advancing your education with school, other obligations, etc. They want you to be available 24/7, able to drop everything at a moments notice and get called in to work for them. The scheduling department will schedule you and send you a email at 7pm the night prior and inform you that you are now working at 6/7/8am etc the next morning. The company hates giving out any hours beyond 40 hours per week. So if your looking to pick up a bunch of hours, that isn't going to happen.

The management in Alameda county could care less about their employees. If you don't bend over backwards and brown nose them they will find ways to fire you. Example, hiding in parking lots in personal vehicles to see if someone isn't using a backer. Didn't happen to me but this is the type of stuff that goes on there. 

Basically to sum it up look elsewhere... cstiltzcook2 couldn't have said it any better, "that on call policy will make you want to swallow glass". If you have to work there I would hope you would use it as a building block for something much better.


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## Coretana (Dec 11, 2011)

Just my 2 cents:
I used to work for Royal, its a great company, really friendly and you run BLS calls out of some of the homes where actually get to do real assessments and treat patients.  Of course there are the dialysis calls and pre-scheduled calls, but that's ALL PT-1 runs. Royal is more family-like atmosphere, and my bosses were incredibly sweet and helpful.


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## Thriceknight (Dec 11, 2011)

TopGun77 said:


> Aprz, I can't help but disagree with most all of your points. I'm glad you like working for Pro but there are soooo many problems with that place. The employee turnover is incredible there, people come and go every day. First off, the work schedule screen that was posted, that must be towards the end of the 3 month shift bid after people have quite working there and those shifts are now available, normally its pretty difficult to pick up any shifts longer than 4 hours. It makes no sense to work 5 days a week doing 4 hour shifts every day, which is typical for a new hire to work. The scheduling policy is ridiculous there. They DO NOT care about advancing your education with school, other obligations, etc. They want you to be available 24/7, able to drop everything at a moments notice and get called in to work for them. The scheduling department will schedule you and send you a email at 7pm the night prior and inform you that you are now working at 6/7/8am etc the next morning. The company hates giving out any hours beyond 40 hours per week. So if your looking to pick up a bunch of hours, that isn't going to happen.
> 
> The management in Alameda county could care less about their employees. If you don't bend over backwards and brown nose them they will find ways to fire you. Example, hiding in parking lots in personal vehicles to see if someone isn't using a backer. Didn't happen to me but this is the type of stuff that goes on there.
> 
> Basically to sum it up look elsewhere... cstiltzcook2 couldn't have said it any better, "that on call policy will make you want to swallow glass". If you have to work there I would hope you would use it as a building block for something much better.



AMEN to both those two!!! I only lasted 2.5 months out in 81! I loved all the guys I worked with,the supervisors were awesome,and it was cool to be in Sf...but scheduling is a sham! Great field employees..bad business practices


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## Aprz (Dec 12, 2011)

I think you guys are being a bit whiny, probably didn't do anything to improve your experience at ProTransport-1, and just looking for things to complain about. A lot of these complaints are very similar to other companies, throughout the industry, and even for non EMS jobs.

The attrition rate is very high throughout the EMS industry.

I dislike strike shifts (4 and 6 hours) too. I wish we had more 12 hour shifts (none in Alameda County, and only the dedicated NICU/PICU crew gets 12 hour shifts in Santa Clara). I usually work 8 and 10 hour shifts. It hasn't been difficult for me to pick-up, but I don't go to school, and I made myself available for all nearby stations (I work at 51, 54, 55, and 61). I also wish I could be schedule more than 40 hours per week, and occasionally I do, but they try to dodge that e.g. drop another shift if you volunteer to pick-up another shift. This is something I would like to see change in the company.

The on call thing isn't them calling you at 7 PM the night before to tell you work. At 7 PM, that's when the schedule is final, and you get a text message/e-mail saying you work tomorrow, but it's usually on the calender around a week before, and if you call scheduling or pickup shifts through EMS Staff Pro, you can work out the schedule you want for the week or two in advance, and check your schedule (like at other jobs) to make sure nothing was changed. When it is changed, it sends you an e-mail/text message telling you that it is changed which should be a hint to check and call scheduling if there is any problem. For me, they usually call and ask before they change it. They've changed it a couple of times without calling to ask, but I've been able to call and tell them "I'm sorry, I can't work that", and do your best to help them out e.g. trade shifts. After the regular scheduling period ends and everyone puts in what they want for shift you get that schedule for next 3 months, same time every week, same partner, same rig, same location, and you can work your schedule around that. Hey, like you said... shifts start to open up near the end of the shift bid (3 months) because so much people quit, surely you can pick up a regular schedule that's 40 hours per week by then. Pretty much to sum this up, if you were lazy, you found out your schedule at the last minute because you wouldn't look it up, and you didn't work with scheduling to get the hours you wanted.

Very little businesses care about you advancing in school. They want you to do the job you were hired for. This is true at most places even at non EMS jobs. What would you consider more education? EMT/Firefighter? A lot of EMTs won't get their Paramedic unless they believe it will help them get a firefighter job. A lot of them are happy to be just an EMT, get mad when you say "just an EMT", and after they got their EMT and FF-1 cert, they are done with school. Some of them go above and beyond and get a Fire Tech Associate. Personally, I laugh about EMTs talking about education. Now occasionally, I do bump into people that want to be more than an EMT or Paramedic, and they are going to school. They struggle with getting their schedule changed to work with their new school schedule. They try to get classes that aren't around the time they work. Happens at non EMS jobs too. I think with ProTransport-1 personally, I think strike shifts are perfect for people who want to go to school and work on the same day.

It's funny how people complain about management and supervisors regardless of which job they work at too. I don't consider the management to be any different at ProTransport-1 than at most other places. I think managers think things like "Either WE'LL make it, or I'LL make it." So far at ProTransport-1, I haven't had any trouble with management or supervisors. Being in an ambulance all day, you don't usually see the station manager. In your example of them sitting in their POV watching to see if people use backers, do you honestly think they are out to get their employees, or just doing their job of making sure that their employees are doing their job (e.g. using backers, a easy and reasonable request to make sure that the driver doesn't back up into anything). Do you think they started doing it because nothing was happening and they just decided to do it, an employee pissed them off, or maybe because there were incidents of people backing up into things? I regularly see the station manager at Santa Clara, and he's a pretty cool guy. Sometimes people get lucky and get good managers. I haven't met personally the station managers at other stations.

Asking an ex FTO from Royal who worked there for 2 years before quiting because she was tired being in an ambulance and "getting too old to lift gurneys", hurt her back, got time off, and then quit, Royal didn't get any special calls that were different from ProTransport-1. I also recently met several Royal EMTs through an EMT Refresher class... same deal. Nothing special. Different color ambulance, and they said "I wish we got call bonuses" when we exchanged info about jobs. I recall seeing that Royal pays their EMTs $10/hour. If they don't get call bonuses, we make more than they do. Most of them seem to work around 40 hours or less. I asked that ex FTO if they could work more than 40 hours, and she said yes, but I didn't ask more about it like if it's unusual or not, if they try to keep you at 40 hours or below like ProTransport-1, or what the deal is.

OP, apply everywhere.


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## usalsfyre (Dec 12, 2011)

Saved for later


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## Thriceknight (Dec 12, 2011)

Aprz said:


> I think you guys are being a bit whiny, probably didn't do anything to improve your experience at ProTransport-1, and just looking for things to complain about. A lot of these complaints are very similar to other companies, throughout the industry, and even for non EMS jobs.
> 
> WOW. You don't even know me and you're passing a judgement on me. How do you know I didn't try?! Actually I tried several things to make it work.
> I even gave up shifts at my PAYING job to get the training and hiring process completed in a timely manner to help them with they're vacancies.
> ...



^^This is the best advice. 

Again I'm not trying to bash Protransport-1 at all. I'm merely giving an insider's perspective. Truth be told as I stated earlier I would work for them again under different circumstances


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## Thriceknight (Dec 12, 2011)

I did that wrong. Still learning how to use the quote thingy. Note to all, if you can't tell I'm responding to different points in the quote.


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## Melmd (Mar 27, 2012)

*Pro-T*

is there any probation period for rookies? do they have union protection etc?


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## Aprz (Mar 27, 2012)

Probation is very long in my opinion. It's 1,040 hours or one year, whichever comes first. I was hired in August 2011, but I didn't start working until almost two months later. Once I started working, I've been full time ever since and I am still on probation. Personally I'd like to see this change with ProTransport-1 because I feel your time with an FTO is very short (usually three days, or four days if you or your FTO feels like you need the fourth day; if you're FTO doesn't think you'll make the cut, they'll cut you early i.e. your first or second day) and lack of training (one day for orientation, one day for classroom training). After your orientation, classroom, and three (or four) days with an FTO, you are on your with little supervision and additional training, but still on probation for the next 1,040 hours or year. They have a QI thing though where after a certain amount of hours, you have to set-up a review and make a phone call so that you, somebody from their main offices in charge of reviews, and your station manager talk about your progress. My experience with this is that it's flawed. For example, I work graveyards. I rarely see my station manager because of this. If we have a lot of calls, the station manager is usually at the station or running calls with somebody so they don't get to see a lot of what you do so I feel like a lot of what they say in the review is "I didn't get to see you too much, but while you were around me, you were nice. Keep up the good work." It's about a two minute phone call and then you get another two reviews, and then you're off probation.

Although the training is short, we still manage to survive. I just think we'd do better if we had more training.

Yes, we do have union protection. There is a contract with TEMSA. They can still terminate you if you do not follow certain policies (e.g. policy 206 which has to do with vehicle safety: using a backer, stopping at red lights when red lights and sirens are activated, etc), not using restraints of 5150 holds (at minimum, one point restraint, preferably right ankle). I'd say most of it is common sense though, but if you want specific details, a hard copy of the contract should be somewhere around the station. Ask for it once you're hired.


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## Melmd (Mar 27, 2012)

APRZ,

Thanks for the info sir, appreciate it! Looking forward getting hired at Pro-t! Is it possible to have a ride along at one of their shifts?


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## Aprz (Mar 27, 2012)

Per our policies, yes, but I haven't seen it. The only ride-alongs I've seen are EMT students from a school that ProTransport-1 has an agreement with.

I'd say your best bet is to contact ProTransport-1 Human Resource department or walk into a station and ask a supervisor about ride-alongs.

http://www.protransport-1.com/contact.html contains our HR phone number and also stations location.


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## itserik1234 (Apr 3, 2012)

Anyone have any idea how, Priority One, works? I just received my NREMT Cert. and am looking for a job in the Modesto Area. I looked at AMR but they're not hiring and i think it's better if i get into a transport unit prior to getting into AMR as to get my feet wet  Priority One, seems to be hiring and Pro-Transport won't hire me because I'm only 19 -_- I went on a ride-along when with Priority One when i was an EMT student and thought it was Okay. The two girls i was with were fun to be around with! Thing is, we had to drive all the way to stockton, galt and lodi for patients and didn't like that. The other day i went to memorial hospital, and seen Priority One ambulances there so another question I have is, Did priority one get a contract with Memorial hospital as well? Anyway, thanks for your time. I also hope this question made sense :wacko:


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## Aprz (Apr 3, 2012)

I do not know much about Priority One. I've seen their ambulances several times at Eden Medical Center (Castro Valley) and Kaiser Permanente Hayward (Hayward), and I've met some of their employees and ex-employees, but that's about it. One of the employees works at ProTransport-1 now, and he said that one thing he missed about Priority One compared to ProTransport-1 was all the CODE 2 calls they had (out of the Palo Alto station for ProTransport-1, CODE 2 calls are very rare). He disliked their 24 hour shifts, and said they'd only get partial pay for it because they some of it was considered "on call" time - although he said that they were required to still be there and in uniform (I cannot confirm this). He told me that he was making more at ProTransport-1 than Priority One (ProTransport-1 at the time was paying $9.50/hour without union). That's about all I can tell you, and again, I cannot confirm if it's true.

Some updates with ProTransport-1, they are union now (TEMSA). Starting pay I believe is $11.75/hour, whatever you make 1.45% goes to union (so if you don't work, you don't have to pay union). After probation (1,040 hours) or 1+ years, which ever comes first, your pay increases to $12.75/hour. I worked there and enjoyed it; I left on good terms.

In this area, AMR did both 9-1-1 and interfacility transport (IFT) until Paramedic Plus took over the 9-1-1 contract for Alameda County and Rural/Metro took over the 9-1-1 contract for Santa Clara County. Recently, Rural/Metro took over the contract for Kaisers in Alameda County, Santa Clara County, and Contra Costa County. When I first applied for AMR a year or two ago, they did their hiring by waitlisting. It didn't matter if they were hiring or not, they'd accept your application, and you'd be put into a line. I had a friend who got called back and hired around four months after applying (he applied half a decade ago when jobs weren't so bad and they still had the 9-1-1 contract). I had another friend who put in an application and didn't get called back until around a year later.

Like I keep saying, *APPLY EVERYWHERE REGARDLESS OF IF THEY ARE HIRING OR NOT*. You could get hired at Priority One and not hear back from AMR until a year later. If you get hired at AMR, they'd likely have you do IFT instead of 9-1-1 if they have IFT contracts (I think that's likely). It also gives you multiple options and backup plans. I have a friend who keeps applying to ambulance and standby companies and waiting for them to call back one at a time. He worked at ProTransport-1 for 2 days before he failed his FTO time, and then he got an interview at Royal Ambulance and didn't get hired, and got hired at Great America and didn't make the cut for their training I guess because he choked during a scenario. His EMT should expire in a couple of months from now unfortunate.  Don't end up the same way. Apply everywhere, not just one-by-one, and not just at ones you hear are hiring.

Don't forget, NREMT isn't good enough to work. You need your state EMT card, green medical exam card, and ambulance driver certificate. Don't start applying until you get those or else your application will likely be ignored/not looked at.


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## Always BSI (Apr 3, 2012)

Good tips Aprz


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## itserik1234 (Apr 4, 2012)

Aprz said:


> I do not know much about Priority One. I've seen their ambulances several times at Eden Medical Center (Castro Valley) and Kaiser Permanente Hayward (Hayward), and I've met some of their employees and ex-employees, but that's about it. One of the employees works at ProTransport-1 now, and he said that one thing he missed about Priority One compared to ProTransport-1 was all the CODE 2 calls they had (out of the Palo Alto station for ProTransport-1, CODE 2 calls are very rare). He disliked their 24 hour shifts, and said they'd only get partial pay for it because they some of it was considered "on call" time - although he said that they were required to still be there and in uniform (I cannot confirm this). He told me that he was making more at ProTransport-1 than Priority One (ProTransport-1 at the time was paying $9.50/hour without union). That's about all I can tell you, and again, I cannot confirm if it's true.
> 
> Some updates with ProTransport-1, they are union now (TEMSA). Starting pay I believe is $11.75/hour, whatever you make 1.45% goes to union (so if you don't work, you don't have to pay union). After probation (1,040 hours) or 1+ years, which ever comes first, your pay increases to $12.75/hour. I worked there and enjoyed it; I left on good terms.
> 
> ...



Yes, i know I have to get my state EMT card and all that other stuff  I'm just looking while I'm in the process of that lol Thanks for the great advice ^_^


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## Aprz (Apr 4, 2012)

Hehe, if you didn't know, you wouldn't have been the first unfortunately.  I know when I finished EMT school - they told me nothing. I had friends applying with just their NREMT.


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## Angel (Apr 5, 2012)

Aprz where do you work now if you don't mind me asking. 
You can pm me too if you like. FYI we just finished bidding and I made it out with 32 hrs, not too shabby


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## Aprz (Apr 5, 2012)

Congrats Angel!


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## itserik1234 (Apr 5, 2012)

Aprz said:


> Hehe, if you didn't know, you wouldn't have been the first unfortunately.  I know when I finished EMT school - they told me nothing. I had friends applying with just their NREMT.



I guess i got a good school! lol They told me everything and anything i needed to know. Thank god for EMT-only schools


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## Sliding (Apr 21, 2012)

*APRZ, FTO and Scenarios*

Ok so since i have finished class in December i feel like i am not as sharp as i would like to be. In class i was on top of my stuff, and one of the better students, but with getting all my post class stuff done( ie: NREMT, state cert, ambulance cert, green card) i feel like i may have neglected my studies. i was wondering if you can give me some tips of what the FTO is like and what type of scenarios Great america would give, i have interviews with both this coming week and i feel ill prepared. 
Also i have an interview at PT-1 in richmond and i live in SJ. you where saying that they start you on on-call shifts. is it worth the commute for on-call shifts or would i likely be getting close to 40 anyways?


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## TopGun77 (Apr 24, 2012)

Sliding said:


> Ok so since i have finished class in December i feel like i am not as sharp as i would like to be. In class i was on top of my stuff, and one of the better students, but with getting all my post class stuff done( ie: NREMT, state cert, ambulance cert, green card) i feel like i may have neglected my studies. i was wondering if you can give me some tips of what the FTO is like and what type of scenarios Great america would give, i have interviews with both this coming week and i feel ill prepared.
> Also i have an interview at PT-1 in richmond and i live in SJ. you where saying that they start you on on-call shifts. is it worth the commute for on-call shifts or would i likely be getting close to 40 anyways?




Don't commute to Richmond from San Jose for PT-1. They will likely give you 15-20 hours a week, no where near 40. They will put you on the schedule last minute, the night before, and expect you to come in the next morning at 6,7,8am whatever the case may be. If you live in SJ just go to work at Great America for a little bit, gain some experience, then apply to Rural Metro, Paramedics Plus, or AMR. You will save a bunch of money on gas commuting to Great America instead of Richmond. As for brushing up on your skills... ask a friend to go over the NR skill sheets with you. If your friend has any EMS background ask them to set up a scenario. You'll do fine on any skill assessments they send your way.


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## Aprz (Apr 24, 2012)

If he just works out of Richmond, that will be the case, but if he picks up shifts from Oakland and Hayward, he'll easily get >30/hours a week whilr he waits for the next shift bid to get a full time schedule. Even before they went union, they still asked/you could turn down shifts.

Is Great America still hiring? Put in an app everywhere, but I think Great America already did their interviews and academy for this season unless they do multiple per season.

Rural/Metro does IFT, but it's completely separate from their 911. It's at 550 Sycamore ave., Milpitas, CA. You'd likely work in Alameda or Contra Costa - I hear their Santa Clara shifts are all taken up. You can try puting an app in for 911 too, 1345 Vander Way, San Jose, CA, but every time I've gone there, they say they aren't hiring/don't have an app, right before the IFT started operations, they even let go of several of EMTs and Paramedics (except union made them hire them back). They are very over saturated with employees.

If you read Paramedic Plus newsletter, they will be do IFT too under a different name and separate from Paramedic Plus too in probably a couple of months. Keep an eye out on that. Since they started in November, they've hired 70 new employees. I've been applying every 3 months since they started taking applications for Alameda County. I am unsure how much experience they want for EMTs, at one point in their website, they only wanted Paramedics with 10+ years experience to apply.

Unless you plan on working for AMR San Mateo (911), who I heard was also over saturated with employees, and I don't want to discourage you from applying everywhere, really, apply everywhere, AMR is pretty much done for IFT wise in this area. Rural/Metro has the Kaiser contracts for Contra Costa, Alameda, and Santa Clara. I don't know how AMR in San Francisco and Contra Costa are doing (in Contra Costa, they have the 911 contract). Good luck. o/

I think people that keep saying wait until you get picked up at these 911 companies are dreamers. I didn't want to apply to anything IFT at first and kept applying to AMR when they had the 911 contract still, and it took me 13 months to get a job (I got hired by ProTransport-1 first which I worked there for about 8-9 months, and now I work for another IFT company, not 911) because I kept holding out. Even now, I still apply for 911 Rural/Metro and Paramedic Plus - no bites. It's a bad way to look at things, but I consider it almost impossible to get on considering they are getting 5,000 people applying for a position at a time. I have friends who refused to work IFT, they still don't have a job and one of them let their EMT cert expire. Don't be one of them! I know before, it was easier to get on, I had a friend who got hired by AMR after 4 months of holding out, but that was about 4 years ago way before they lost the contract for both Alameda County and Santa Clara County, and he had to still do IFT there until he eventually got a 911 position. That was at AMR Alameda County, I think AMR Santa Clara County was harder to get into cause I had a friend who applied around the same time, he was like #8 (they gave numbers to who was next in the academy) after around a year of waiting before Rural/Metro finally took over.


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## Futureblue (Apr 26, 2012)

If there are so many NorCal EMT's why is the turn-over so high at Pro-Transport? I'd think that with a tight job market they would be more inclined to hold their job, even if it's not the ideal one.  It seems like Pro-Transport does a mass hiring every few months.


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## Madball (Apr 29, 2012)

Futureblue said:


> If there are so many NorCal EMT's why is the turn-over so high at Pro-Transport? I'd think that with a tight job market they would be more inclined to hold their job, even if it's not the ideal one.  It seems like Pro-Transport does a mass hiring every few months.



Don't know about PT-1, but at my company the reason for a high turnover rate is because of a few different reasons; schedule changes for school, advancement to other positions (ER tech, Firefighter, 911) and low pay are just a few reasons. Recently i've seen more and more people just giving up on EMS all together.


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