# ambulance vehicles



## Aldosar (Jun 25, 2019)

Hi there, 

I hope you are in good health and wellness. 

I would like to ask you about the age limit of ambulance vehicle, Is any policy and procedure for that. 

I need an official criteria or forums. 

Also, if there is a forums for ambulance vehicle maintenance will be appreciated. 


Thank you.


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## DesertMedic66 (Jun 25, 2019)

You are not going to find a single answer in the US. Some companies require new ambulances every 5 years and other companies are still rolling around in a 1999 Ford E-series van. 

Some companies don’t have an age requirement but rather a milage requirement.


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## Aldosar (Jun 26, 2019)

First of all, thank you for replying to me.

I noticed that, there is no guide lines such as, policy or procedure for that. i have called many friends and asked them about that, all of them said we have no procedural guide. so I posted this thread to find out if there is any or at least collect your ideas.


Thanks again,


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## hometownmedic5 (Jun 26, 2019)

There’s no one answer. In the municipalities I have worked in for a contract private, the age limit for a front line truck was between 3 and 5 years. Sometimes, there was a mileage limit in there also. I don’t recall what it was, but I do recall thinking it was probably a neck and neck race with the age. 

For ambulance owned by a private not on city contracts, they tend to get run into the ground. If they can physically do one more call, chances are they’re still on the road somewhere. Frequently, at least in my state, the government inspectors usually are the ones to pull the plug on a truck.

For municipalities, aside from the aforementioned possibility of the state revoking the ambulance certificate, the answer could be anything. Some small town probably volunteer EMS agency in cornfield Iowa, scoring a solid 200 calls a year, is probably still answering calls in a Cadillac ambulance. Others might replace trucks every other year. If you can think it, there’s probably a service out there somewhere doing it.


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## Akulahawk (Jun 27, 2019)

As others have said, there really isn't any single answer for your question. Depending upon the type of service (public vs private), type of contract (if 911/emergency), insurance requirements, and even DOT requirements for what's considered safe/unsafe can all play into the length of time a given ambulance might remain in service with a particular entity and in a particular role. 

A few years ago, a private company that contracted to do 911 EMS was required by the terms of the contract to provide ambulances in a sufficient number to do the service, that those ambulances couldn't be more than 5 years old or have more than 100,000 miles. Once an ambulance in the 911 service reached either of those points, it was to be pulled from 911 service. It usually then was repainted and sent to work in the company's BLS and ALS interfacility service. It would remain in that service until it became uneconomical to keep on the road. Often those things would end up with more than 400,000 miles and more than 10 years old before they were sent on... to a third-world country where they'd then sometimes return to emergency service and run until (quite literally) something fell off or broke (that couldn't be fixed) that was necessary to keep the thing moving. Municipal services tend to turn over their equipment more frequently so those might end up being sold at auction with (relatively) few miles on them and then be pressed into service for another 10 years or more. 

I once drove an ambulance that was (at the time) about 20 years old. Pretty much everything still worked well, so it was still in service. The engine was tired and cranky but once you got it started, it'd run all day long. The next oldest ambulances were about 10 years old... and they still worked just fine. Most of what I drove back then were between 3 and 5 years old, purchased at muni auctions so... they were all still pretty "young" and reasonably cheap. 

So, if you look around for answers, you'll find plenty of them and they're all going to be valid for the service those ambulances do. Private 911 ambulances tend to be newer but will be pretty beat up by the time they're ready to be retired. Private non-911 ambulances tend to be a little older and really beat up at the end of their lives. Municipal ambulances tend to be relatively new, are usually still under warranty, and usually aren't driven that hard. These are generalities so this stuff isn't going to be true all the time with all services. 

Just look at your current fleet's age, maintenance status (down time for maintenance/repairs) and so on... that'll give you some idea what your service needs to look at for criteria to retire old ambulances.


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## GMCmedic (Jun 27, 2019)

Again, no single answer. Ive workes for places that rotated rigs out within 5 years and other places thay had a soft limit of 300,000 miles. I say soft, because if profits were down that would get pushed to 400,000.


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## Aldosar (Jun 27, 2019)

thank you so much for your responses.

I find out through your comments there is no way to build guide lines for age limits of ambulance vehicles. The mean reason is because the situation deferent from one to others, that's mean i may have ambulance that has over 100,000 miles while it's not in good condition because of improper use, on the other hand there may be other ambulance has more than 200,000 miles and still in very good condition due to periodically maintenances .


Finally, I am not native english speaker so i hope all my words make sense.

Thank you again to all of you for participation.


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## Akulahawk (Jun 27, 2019)

You're welcome and your English is certainly good enough for us to understand what you're asking and why you're asking it. Not quite mastery but definitely good enough!


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