How are fuel prices affecting your service?

dadotwins

dadotwins

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I'm interested in how this issue is affecting everyone and what kind of things you are doing about it.
 
it soesn't minus the fact that when were not on a call we go back to the station ans shut the bus off.
 
It has put the number of response vehicles to one medical call under more scrutiny. Parts of Florida are notorious for no less than 3 vehicles with 4 being the norm much of the time. This may finally be the catalyst that finally revamps the system in some areas.

It is also getting scrutiny from the public as they see their public service trucks trolling the restaurants, coffee shops and grocery stores. Some of this could be avoided it they wouldn't make it so obvious that some want PEETS coffee and some want Starbucks. It doesn't take much observation to see big fire rescue trucks moving from one shop to the next. The same when grocery shopping....driving across the street because the other store has a better bread?

If you do just a quick google search you will see the fuel costs is a big topic nationwide for EMS and FD as well as PD.
 
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It has hit the rural areas hard. We are spending approximately $1500 -2,000 dollars on fuel a day on 5 units. Fortunately, we have not had to down size response and as well was able to receive an $10.00 mile for transports per Medicare. We cover about more than 1200 square miles with the four units, one in a small rural town.

R/r 911
 
well im not currently on the road, but i do have opinion on this.

i've worked for private, non emergent services that would(what i consider) torture their employees. what i mean by this is you come in to work, check your truck, sign on and hit the road. now, regardless of call volume, time between now and your next call, how many call are pending v. number or in service trucks; the service i have in mind would post their trucks in the field. nothing mattered, you didnt see that station during the day. heres a practical example: your working a 5a-5a bls transfer trck. you have a 0530 dialysis patient, so you come in in the morning, do all your preshift stuff and roll out for that call. your clear and available by 0615. then next call on the board is 0900 at a residence that is actually closer to the base than the field post. nevertheless, we were posted our field post. FOR THREE BLOODY HOURS. in the six months that was going on, i think we took one call in that gap. and this company did stuff like that all day long.

how does this relate to the topic at hand, well i found a way to show my displeasure and exact my revenge. we were almost never stationary. we drove up and down the streets within our posting area. we called it all sorts of things, getting coffee, fueling, area drills. anything we could think of. burned diesel as fast as the pump jockey cold dispense it. never shut the truck off. it idled all day. took a while, but the company realised that this protocol was helping their bottom line by making sure they always had a truck near their contracts, but was hurting them by costing them at least an extra half a tank of fuel per truck per day. and this was back when diesel was like 3.50.

we did all sorts of stuff like that.
 
It hasn't, our service purchases bulk fuel for our three storage tanks. It is significantly cheaper than the $4+ diesel that is offered commercially...................
 
No matter what fuel will be bought. I think standards of living (compensation)should increase to reflect the increasing fuel prices. Our next alternative is to make more hybrid vehicles.
 
seshan said:
No matter what fuel will be bought. I think standards of living (compensation)should increase to reflect the increasing fuel prices. Our next alternative is to make more hybrid vehicles.
Click to expand...
oh god not a hybrid ambo...imagine pulling up to the 7-11 and pluggin that bad boy in!
 
Sad to say,but it doesn't affect the orginisation's operation, only the patient, as the rates/fees increase.
 
They have already cancelled the fire parades that are scheduled durning the summer. They are cutting back on us taking the fire trucks and ambulances out for public service event. Everything we do we have to have it approved before we can do it. Before we could just take the trucks to the schools and sporting events with no problem.
 
we've just recently been told to shut our trucks off when possible, instead of letting them idle since they provided the statistic that they burn about 3/4 of a gallon of fuel each hour while idling. (not sure where exactly they got it from).
 
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