What do you call an ambulance?

[Pittsburgh Proud]

Thought it might be fun or different to hear all the names you might call an ambulance, not "truck" or "bus" but slang type of terms like "band aid box" or something along those lines.

 

[ErinCooley]

Got nuttin... its a truck or if its one of those mini van-type things its usually the "clown car"

 

[JPINFV]

We generally call it either a unit or an ambulance in normal discourse. I never had anyone call it a truck or, god forbid, bus.

 

[firecoins]

everyone here refers to it as a the bus. Cops often refer to it as a bus saying "Rush the bus" in emergencies. TV's Law and Order often reflects this.

I call it a taxi. It is.

 

[seanm028]

Here, we call them rescues or ambos.

 

[colafdp]

we usually call it a unit, or ambulance here too

 

[ffemt8978]

Rig or bus is the usual terms around here.

 

[EMTBandit]

Rig or Bus. Or when we see the van ambulance, it's a "vanbulance".

 

[Grady_emt]

Buggy, Wagon, Unit, Truck, basically anything but rescue and ambulance.

When Fire or PD is asking for us, they just refer to the ambulance as Grady. ie: "2104 radio rush Grady person shot in the chest"..."Engine 7 radio: is Grady enroute and can I get an ETA?"

 

[Pittsburgh Proud]

We generally call it either a unit or an ambulance in normal discourse. I never had anyone call it a truck or, god forbid, bus.

I've Been around EMS in this area for 24 years and for some reason we have always call it a "truck". All I can figure is it started when the ambulances still had pick up truck front ends on them.

 

[Jon]

When I was down in Louisiana with my company after Katrina, the manager running the deployment came up with the acronym STRAUB (Squad, Truck, Rig, Ambulance, Unit Bus) to refer to the vehicles as... because the various regional phrases were confusing.

Here's the list of various regional names:
Ambulance
Medic
Squad
Truck
Rig
Car
Bus
Unit

 

[Ridryder911]

You call it a bus here, they presume you work for a school. Never heard of that until I seen it on the EMS forums. We call then units, or rigs, truck in slang.


R/R 911

 

[Jon]

You call it a bus here, they presume you work for a school...

"Bus" seems to be a FDNY thing... after Third Watch became popular, the term started to be used in this area. The county's radio room supervisor sent a memo to every Fire/EMS department that said that you needed to call a BLS ambulance an ambulance, an ALS ambulance a MICU, a chase car medic a medic, and if you asked for a bus, you'd be asked "how many passengers" and if you had a preference for transportation vendor.

My list was a rather comprehensive list of national phrases.

 

[MedicPrincess]

Truck. Sometimes Unit. The county I used to work for has BLS Vanbulances.

 

[KEVD18]

mainly sh!tbox, pos, granny getter, whambulance

 

[eggshen]

In Denver "Bus" is the accepted term.

Egg

 

[Pittsburgh Proud]

mainly sh!tbox, pos, granny getter, whambulance

LMAO.....

 

[Pittsburgh Proud]

"Bus" seems to be a FDNY thing... after Third Watch became popular, the term started to be used in this area. The county's radio room supervisor sent a memo to every Fire/EMS department that said that you needed to call a BLS ambulance an ambulance, an ALS ambulance a MICU, a chase car medic a medic, and if you asked for a bus, you'd be asked "how many passengers" and if you had a preference for transportation vendor.

My list was a rather comprehensive list of national phrases.

A lot us "Bus" around here, my term has always been "truck" I agree Ny started that one or rather TV did.B)

 

[Onceamedic]

we say rig ... I say amblance... at work we refer to 10 or 20, etc. (the number of the rig) as in Get 40 and let's go.

 

[Outbac1]

Here its an ambulance, truck or rig. It is not a bus.

I worked in the bus business for 16 years,(parts, service, sales). I have driven all types of them, north, south, east, and west and both sides of the border. I can catagorically say an ambulance is NOT a bus.